Brand Identity in Omni-channel Retail Lighting with Inge Watrobski

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We caught up with Inge Watrobski, Head of Design at the Heartwood Collection. Mara and Inge discuss crucial sustainable practices, thoughtful design with brand identity and maximising the Instagram-ability of your enduring spaces. Whether you're looking for hot tips, searching for inspiration, or simply passionate about interiors, further your understanding of contemporary design and gain unique insight into innovative industry practices. You can also catch the video interview here.

Introduction

Mara: Hi, I'm Mara and I’m the founder of Industville. I am here with Inge from Heartwood Collection to talk about how brands can be supported through lighting design, interior design and product design.

Inge: Fantastic. Hi, I'm Inge. I'm the head of design for Heartwood Collection. We're a company that has two brands, Brasserie Blancs, which is premium casual dining, and we're now moving into pubs with rooms as well… so that's a whole other area of design where we're looking to incorporate new lighting.

Branding in Design

Mara: So how do you approach the design to make sure that it supports the brand?

Inge: I think the interior design is the most important factor. It's the base, really, of your brand. It tells the story of your brand. It tells people what to expect. People find you digitally first before they even step into your space. So, it needs to look gorgeous, but then it needs to deliver on that promise that people see on Instagram or digital media. And to do that you need to be very careful about how you set out and layer zones and areas and lighting is a very important part of that to make people feel comfortable without knowing quite why they're comfortable. But it certainly sets the tone for everything.

Mara: You mentioned to me that we have worked together for eight years, and you said, and it was really flattering for me, that you never replaced the lighting, and it never needed a repair. What do you think of the quality and the design of the products? Is it important for your designs and for your customers?

Sustainable Trends

Inge: I think it's really important on so many levels. For us as a company, we want a quality product that lasts, that we don't have to keep replacing it. We want it to look like a quality product because people can tell if it has quality fixtures and finishes, it elevates the whole design and in a way it’s aspirational. But of course, it also needs to be functional. And of course, lighting is such a layered discipline and there's so many various levels of lighting that you need in hospitality particularly. So, it must be beautiful, but also functionally beautiful. It should provide value for money for us so that it lasts and we're not constantly replacing it. Also, it will have some sort of classical tone, so it doesn't date very quickly because we don't want to be replacing stuff all the time.

Mara: Yeah, we've got quite a few clients and sustainability is one of the core factors that they look at. In your designs, is it important to have products made from recycled materials in a way that, like you said, doesn’t date the look?

Inge: It's very important to us. In the last year, we’ve been awarded three stars with the Sustainable Restaurants Association, which is the highest level you can get. There aren’t many hospitality companies in the UK which have that rating. and that covers every step of the production process; from design, sourcing food and procurement, our staff and the sustainability considerations for our water and electricity supplies.

There are so many ways you can be more sustainable and that's by designing something that is not so trend driven that it's going to look very dated in a few years' time and have to be replaced. That's by working with suppliers such as yourselves, who are committed to sustainability, using recycled materials, as well as having their own sort of ethical sustainability practices within their manufacturing process.

We do that with lighting, we do that with furniture, and we do that with fabric suppliers; we reuse and recycle as much as possible. So, on every level, wherever we can, we try and consider what the sustainable option is without trying to compromise the design or the overall look and feel. But all those little bits add up. to quite a big impact. So, you know, to quote a very big brand, every little counts.

Photogenic Interiors

Mara: Yeah exactly. And working for your clients, there's loads of brands that make their presence on social media. The first interaction with the restaurant is usually an influencer talking about the restaurant or the venue and talking about how Instagram-able the space is, how beautiful the space is. How important is it for your clients?

Inge: I think it's important because at the moment, everybody's feeling the cost-of-living crunch and it's hard to say, well, why must you invest in expensive interior design? Well, one of those is because you're getting better quality, therefore it's more long-term and more sustainable. And the second one is that everybody's feeling that crunch, so there are less people out there, there's more competition out there for restaurants and pubs. Including people out there with less disposable income. So, they want so much out of a visit out. it's no longer they just want good food and wine. They want a beautiful atmosphere. They want to feel comfortable. They want to feel energized. They want to feel a little bit inspired.

And maybe you're looking for some aspirational touch points that people can go, where did you get that? Or what that color and then of course, they need to document that to show everybody else that they do have a life and they do exciting things, whatever it is for you, so again everything we do is so layered and everything all slots into each other, but you can't discount any of these things. You can't design based solely on Instagram-ability, but it's naive to think it's not important. There always needs to be a balance, you need to integrate it all. You also need to focus on those exciting feature pieces as well as having the background of your lighting being really balanced, good quality, sustainable and have some longevity to your designs as well.

Key Considerations

Mara: So, when you work with the clients and you could give them an advice few points what they should look at when they are designing the venue, whether it's a restaurant or a coffee shop, space for weddings, what would you tell them what is important?

Inge: When we're doing lighting, it doesn't matter how big or how small the space, and actually we zone a lot of our sites, so often we treat each space individually, but we build the lighting up on several layers. So, we start by making sure that there is enough lighting covering the whole area, particularly the customer area so that people can actually see and read their menus and that the lighting can be adjusted according to the time of day, the time of year, that kind of thing.

Then we add on wall lights and those are much more design driven because it has to fit in with the style of whatever scheme you're busy trying to design. It has to speak to the building as well. Sometimes it's something that's really in keeping. Sometimes it's a juxtaposition; really old buildings with a very contemporary light or the other way, a very contemporary building with quite old-fashioned or quite classic light.

So, then there's the feature layer so that for us could be a row of pendants over a bar or a fantastic wall light or you know, a really amazing chandelier, some kind of statement piece. You don't want to fill your space with those, you want one or two focus areas, you can't have six focus areas in a room. So that then sort of stands out a bit on itself and, of course, we need the pools of light to create lovely, cosy corners.

And that's where your table lamps come in or your smaller decorative lamps. And then we need task lighting as well. So, we need to make sure that wherever our staff are working, they have a light that they can actually see what they're doing, but that doesn't disrupt the guests experience when they're sitting down, it's totally multi-layered.

And I think even at home, it doesn't matter what you're doing, you need to consider all of those areas. How are you going to be using the room where you need light? What kind of light do you need? If you sit in that chair and you want to read, you need a different kind of light to working in the kitchen or if you're having a sort of a drinks or a dinner party. So, you need to consider how you're going to use the room, where everything is and where you want your focus to be. And that helps drive your choice of what the lights are.

And then, of course, get the best quality you can possibly afford because it saves you money in the long run and they won't date and having that assurance of the compliance of the standard, and the quality and knowing that the lights you are putting in are actually safe to use, they're going to last, they're well manufactured with sustainable accreditations, can't go wrong.

To the Future

Mara: Looking at the projects you've worked on using our lights, I'm amazed how beautiful it is and I look forward to doing more.

Inge: Well, you've got a great range so we always manage to find something where we can fit it in and love your next day of delivery.

Mara: Thank you.

Inge: It saved my life many, many times.

Mara: We’ve always got a lot in our warehouse and yeah it can be all even on the same day!

Inge: And that's fantastic because we quite often think “we need something to fill that space”, and we know that we get that order into you. It's on site the next day being fitted. It's fantastic.

Mara: Brilliant. Thank you so much. And thank you for the projects.

Inge: My pleasure. Thanks for all your beautiful lights.

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