Return on design

ZONE 3: Positive return

In Zone 3 we’re seeing a dramatic increase in return. Everything from a small coffee kiosk to a seven-star hotel can generate incremental sales and better utility as a result of fresh, smart design. 

Segafredo coffee shops and The Address hotels fall into this zone. You’re unlikely to get this level of design from a Far Eastern CAD drafting factory or a design-and-build contractor. You need a design team with international perspective — and they should be from a city where high standards are not just optional but mandatory, so look for them in London, Tokyo, Milan, Barcelona, New York or Sydney. They won’t be cheap, but independent research has shown they’ll return much more money than the extra they cost you.  (Have a look at the Design Council website for case studies: www.designcouncil.org.uk)

ZONE 4: The whole thing

There are a few products where smart design is the product (or at least the product’s reason for being). If you’re not in love with the design of a Porsche 911, you would never consider buying it.

The challenge of building your restaurant around a breakthrough design is that the design has to in fact be a breakthrough. And that means spending far more time or money than your competitors who are merely seeking a positive return.

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Knowing where you stand and where you’re heading is critical: if you have a negative return on design, go ahead and spend enough money to get neutral ASAP, but don’t spend so much that you’re over-investing just to get to neutral.
 
Watching a small-town take-away restaurant build an expensive custom building is the perfect example of this mismatch; so is trying to do too much with a hotel dining room when nobody would go there for a unique dining experience anyway. (That’s why most hotels restaurants are so average — there’s just no point in trying harder. No one’s coming in from outside, you’ve just got to hang on to business from unadventurous residents.)

If you’re betting the whole business on making design your only strategic difference, skimping on your designer is plain foolish; Zuma would be empty if they’d hired a designer who was merely ‘good’.

Visitors often say Dubai is superficial; figures show that tourists seldom visit more than once.

Maybe there’s a connection here? Good design costs more, but it’s never more than a few percent of the total project spend. That’s a small price to pay to create something inspirational.

Nigel Witham is a chartered designed who has run his own design practice for 20 years and has offices in London, India, New Zealand and Australia. For more information email: nigel@nigelw.com