This is a collection of the most creative restaurant designs in the world, from risky and modern to traditional and laid back. This compilation of vivid photographs and detailed layouts gives examples ...
The return to simplicity isn’t just a design mantra -- it’s a tool for recession-proofing your business.
| Tweet |
By Mary Scoviak
If the pundits predicting a 6- to 10-percent decline in overall design income this year are right, a lot of principals will be looking for the fiscal paring knife. But cutting back on staff, offices or electric bills is really just a Band-Aid measure. None of this is going to make a firm better able to capitalize when the economy turns around -- or when it eventually tanks again. Being reactive always leaves you a step behind.
It's time for designers to apply the same clean-slate thinking to operations that they use to create fantasy experiences and homes away from away. Hospitality architects Young Kim and Yeekai Lim did and, at least from their point of view, 2009 doesn't look so bad. They'reaping the rewards of the innovative approach they took to designing an out-of-the-box business platform when they went out on their own just three years ago.
Instead of getting caught up in staffing models and five-year plans, they took the big costs (and risks) out of their start-up plan. They opted for a studio concept that essentially expanded Bauhaus to a global stage. Instead of bringing designers, architects, engineers, landscape architects/designers and lighting designers into a physical space, they crafted an international network of local experts and like-minded thinkers who would be on call -- but not on staff.
What is essentially a two-person creative team has the bidding power and reach to pursue both small- and medium-sized projects. It can leverage the local expertise of collaborators in the U.S., Europe and Asia to vie for hospitality work around the world. "Not only can we ramp up a team very quickly, we can match that team to the scale and scope of the project. That enables us to align skill sets and budgets as well," says Kim. "We now have lots of areas in which we can grow and expand."
Both Kim and Lim like byproducts of their small office/big picture approach. "Communication is easier when the office is small," says Kim. "We can be lean; we can change course quickly." Equally important, he adds, MiL Studio can be flexible, both for its partners and its clients. The firm launched in Los Angeles in 2006 with an unconventional approach. Kim covered the West Coast under his own Ki:ma Studi banner while Lim operated under the MiL Studio flag in New York (a decision driven by the amount of the work flowing from Fortune 500 companies on the East Coast). After rethinking, the two recently decided to keep a New York branch but to consolidate under the MiL Studio banner. They're currently seeking office space in Los Angeles.
Sure, that's a risk at this point in the economy, says Lim. "Every project is a risk," he says. "But the studio approach provides a cushion for us; it spreads the risk. You have to take chances to evolve."
Did you enjoy this article? Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
