Graven Images features in US Hospitality Style Magazine
17.08.11
Glasgow’s Graven Images knew when it accepted the commission for Rezidor Hotel Group’s new Hotel Missoni brand that the Italian fashion house would be the one with its name over the door and in the headlines. It was equally clear that the creative work would start in Missoni’s headquarters north of Milan. Rosita Missoni, who cofounded the knitwear/luxury goods legend with her husband, Ottavio Missoni, and her team would be developing “the whole environmental experience,” from the macro elements and set pieces, colors and fabrics, to the micro pieces, such as cutlery and table linen, with some initial introductions from Italian architect/design star Matteo Thun. So, after winning hotel design awards and becoming an overnight sensation (after a quarter-century of work), why would Graven Images take a supporting role—especially in support of a firm that had never designed a hotel?
The main reason, says William Nolan, design director of Graven Images, is that brands like Hotel Missoni are changing the process of collaboration among couturiers, hospitality designers and hotel operators. “The opportunity to be involved in strategic design work, to be part of the establishment and delivery of a new hotel brand, is as good as it gets,” he says. “For me, it’s an overriding sense of anticipation about collaborating with intelligent, creative, energetic people, utterly committed to the quality of their product. In this context, it’s not about where you draw the line; it’s about not being afraid to blur it.
“Normally, we wouldn’t be looking to deliver someone else’s concepts, but we figured we could learn something,” adds Nolan. “It helps that we like what Missoni does. There’s a sense of humor that we always recognized in its clothing and its products for the home. It’s no secret that the fashion industry contains some precious divas and some prickly egos. Rosita is entirely removed from such buffoonery.”
High style without high drama was one of the mandates issued by Kurt Ritter, Rezidor’s president and ceo, before the three companies sat down for the first time. “Past attempts at fashion hotels often failed because they were all style and no substance,” he charges. Other mistakes included a poor vetting process, with some owners and operators depending on designers who were just blips on the radar or dress designers who wanted to dictate, air kiss and run. What attracted him to Missoni was the staying power and clear identity of the brand as well as Missoni herself. “She’s personally involved in and committed to bringing the Missoni family’s lifestyle to the hotel experience. This is not just a licensing agreement; it’s the embodiment of that lifestyle,” Ritter says.
Coming to the table as equals, first for the brand’s 2009 debut in Edinburgh and again for the March 2011 opening of the Hotel Missoni Kuwait, allowed each of these specialists to play on their own strengths while learning something from their colleagues. “The gamut of the construction process has been a learning curve for the Missoni team, from the pragmatics of the building regulations and planning laws—especially in Kuwait—through to the foibles of building contractors,” says Nolan.
That was made even more complex by the fact that the seafront building that houses Kuwait’s first Missoni hotel has an irregular footprint and sweeping curves. So while Missoni and her team were thinking pattern, color and texture, Graven Images was tapping into a new outlet for its creativity.
“It was a great opportunity to explore how to exploit the visual connections, particularly between the public spaces, using both built form and the patterns and colors of Missoni,” says Nolan. That included ideas the firm had never addressed, such as the requirement to have a separate women’s entrance to some of the public spaces. “There was a significant period of debate and compromise on the initial materials palette, arising from local cultural perceptions,” Nolan says. “But once the scheme was approved by the developer, CRC, they pretty much deferred in later aesthetic discussions. They showed great faith in the vision of the Missoni brand.”
Hospitality firms working on fashion hotels can expect to have to build out their skill set. Initially, Graven Images was to deliver the interior finishes package within a tightly defined scope and timeframe. That grew to position the firm more as the executive architect, requiring significant input in the works packages for building services, building structure, statutory utilities, back of the house, environmental and landscaping works and branding responsibilities.
Ross Hunte, managing director, Graven Images, and Nolan agree that it was critical that Rezidor and Missoni were available for program meetings, not only in Milan, but in Kuwait as well. “It helped that we all had so much common ground, right down to sharing respect for the quality of craftsmanship and enhancing the environment,” says Nolan.
Missoni and the Scottish architecture/design studio were also aligned in the way they work. They collaborated on the mock-up sample rooms built in Missoni’s studios. Both wanted the operator, developer and investors to have a hands-on review of the color and materials selections—as well as to generate some pre-launch publicity buzz. “It was a lot of fun setting up mock-ups on a kitchen floor in Milan,” says Nolan. “The conversations darted around from fashion to horticulture, from ceramic ware to furniture. They usually ended up around a large wooden table covered with fabric swatches, mosaic tiles, an RAL [European color matching] chart, a few bottles of family-label wine, some bread and a cartoon-sized wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano. It was a fabulous environment.”
Rosita Missoni also saw the upside. “We need to be able to work with an interior design firm that can take our ideas and work closely and openly with us to translate them into the right architectural language. Graven Images does that very well,” she says. “Having worked with them for several years, I know they have a true understanding of what I like and don’t like and what I’m trying to achieve. They have an open, down-to-earth way of working.”
This kind of professional-to-professional working relationship will increase the cross-pollination of design disciplines and create new job opportunities for hospitality designers willing to give up the starring role. “Every design job is collaborative because we work with huge teams of specialists. It’s a way of working we’ve become very familiar with over many years,” Hunter says. It’s one all design firms might be learning. Currently, Graven Images is looking at building out the Missoni chain with Michael Graves & Associates in Oman, and the Rezidor connection has introduced the firm to projects in Chicago and Minneapolis with Radisson. Clearly, playing well with others has its own fashionable and financial rewards.
