For one of this year’s creativity days, our designers Anabel Twitchell Requena, Sam Pearce and Melissa Bratton decided to have a group trip to Birmingham to explore a range of bars and restaurants. Taking time away from the office for inspiration is something we actively encourage at ABDA Design, as we believe that this really helps with creativity and overall team wellbeing.

Investing in creativity

Sam loves that the team are given this time back to invest in their own creativity. She told us: “I believe that creativity is something that can be built up over time when involving yourself in creative activities and experiences, and likewise it can lessen over time when not doing so. Being more creative allows us to think outside of the box and produce more unique ideas.”

Discovering design stories

The first stop of the creativity day was at a venue called The Mailbox, which was built on the location of a railway goods yard and was originally the site of the Royal Mail’s main sorting office. It was part of a £150 million redevelopment in Birmingham and opened in 2000. This is the UK’s largest mixed-use destination outside of London. Within this venue, our designers explored a number of different areas including Medicine, Castle Fine Art and Restaurant at the Woods as well as the public areas within The Mailbox.

Time for luxury

The highlight of the day was lunch at Six by Nico. Earlier this year, our director, Claire Smith recommended that Anabel check out the book ‘Unreasonable Hospitality’ by Will Guidara. This opened Anabel’s eyes to another level of hospitality that she wasn’t used to. She was so blown away by how much she could relate to it and knew that for her creative day she wanted to explore luxury dining.
At Six by Nico, they offered a six-course tasting menu. The team chose to visit there because they wanted to explore the luxury restaurant interiors and look at how they could implement the detail into future design ideas.

An open theatre kitchen

As Sam works predominantly in the catering side of the business and Anabel and Melissa focus on interiors, they felt that Six by Nico gave them inspiration for both sectors, with its open theatre kitchen being visible from where they were seated. Sam was able to see the functionality of the kitchen, as well as being able to experience a luxury restaurant experience that will help them all as they work more with restaurants and dining spaces offering this level of service.

Anabel told us: “The biggest inspiration I took from this day was the level of hospitality we received at Six by Nico. The whole experience was so well thought out, from start to finish. And the interior design was 10/10! The way the staff looked after us and explained each dish made it so memorable. The interior of this restaurant showed me how important it is to pay attention to every detail, and I felt very inspired to design with luxury in mind. We are always encouraged to consider new ideas, and this definitely dusted off my creative gears.”

Thinking about future designs

Whilst in Birmingham the team explored a few additional bars and restaurants to see how the interior design was approached. Each venue had a very different theme and interior to offer, and they discussed what they liked and disliked so that they could take inspiration for their own future designs and know what to avoid.

For anyone struggling with their creativity, Melissa said: “A great way to get creative again is to look in new places for your inspiration. This could be going out to see something new physically such as other restaurants like we did, or this could be digitally on Pinterest or subscribing to magazine platforms for interiors and hospitality.”