Dose of Design & Tech #04

Hi friends 👋, Welcome to another dose of design and tech in the hospitality world. The community is growing every week but our goal is to get to 50,000 subscribers by summer (49K so far). Please share this link to help grow.

Ok, let’s get to it.

☼ Residential interiors with sociable split-level living areas. Living alone might be something you are not interested in yet. It’s been considered for a long time, the ultimate goal. Finish school, get a job, get a flat, get a partner, move together, buy a house, family, care home, die. But what if this concept of life was obsolete? What if some people did not want to live a life like the old days? That’s probably why the success of the residential interior is spreading around the world. Let’s not forget about WeLive (WeWork) which had a huge interest.

☼ Should you stop saying that staying in your hotel will make travellers feel at home? This was originally mentioned by rich families with servants who when travelling, could find the same “type” of staff at their disposal. Nothing related to the hospitality they were receiving or the nice furniture they could find.

☼ Ever wonder what works by Antoni Gaudí might look like if they were designed today? Ariadna Giménez, a visual designer based in Spain, has. And thanks to the power of AI, she—and her 120,000 followers—are finally able to get a peek into this never-built, fantastical world. “I was going through a difficult time, so I found an escape,” she says about the genesis of her project, which she shares on the Instagram page.

☼ Tech brands have Tech Crunch, Art and Entertainment have SWSX and I often wonder what the F&B industry has in terms of big & cool events. Well, New York Times brought back last year its wildly popular celebration of food and drink for Fall 2022. Nothing announced for this year tho.

☼ A winner of the Red Dot Design Award, Vestaboard comes in black or white, with individual Bits (split-flap modules) to match. The entire analogue display comes manufactured using the highest quality materials and components and is designed by the folks at Bould Design, who’ve also worked with Nest, Roku, Eero, and GoPro. Vestaboard ships with its own app, that’s compatible with both Android and iOS, and can be used as a web app from a laptop or desktop computer too. It’s great to look at too, and unlike your digital screens, has a wonderful human touch, and an undeniable sense of mystery!

☼ A new generation of hospitality influencers is coming. They make 10x what they are making by being a “content creator” on TikTok, Instagram or…OnlyFans. Good for them?

☼ Cory Doctorow, a Californian author, journalist, and activist, recently fell victim to a fake website scam after searching for a local Thai restaurant’s website. Doctorow intended to order takeout from Kiin, a popular Burbank Thai restaurant in his neighbourhood and proceeded to search for their website on Google. However, instead of finding the official website, Doctorow stumbled upon a fake website that had been cleverly designed to look identical to the real one. The fake website, which appeared as an ad at the top of the Google search results, was registered under the domain name (https://kiinthaila.com), which was in no way associated with the real restaurant. The fake site even managed to place an order on behalf of Doctorow at the real restaurant, but with a markup of 15 per cent.

☼ Thanks! That’s all for this week. Romain.