Interview with Henry Chebaane

To tell interesting stories about people and places, and assist clients in achieving their business goals.

It was a gradual process from age 15 and still continues today.

I create narrative concepts and design their physical manifestations in time and space.

Dream big, act small. Work hard, stay humble. Be ambitious, have patience.

The relevance to an audience, a time, a place, a purpose.

A really good design is always useful so is timeless, even when created for a particular audience and purpose.

Good design means good business. Good design enables and supports commercial success for clients and for the studio, so it's a reciprocal, self-perpetuating positive loop.

I have created and drawn several characters that I would like to develop into TV animated series, merchandising, retail stores and leisure outlets. To develop this will require finding time, resources and commercial partners.

My first animation series, which could possibly become a franchise for cinema and other activities. It's the story of three characters who try to save humans from ignorance, greed and dogma...not an easy mission.

Many, but I would highlight Christopher Dresser, Walter Gropius, Raymond Loewy, Dieter Rams, Eero Saarinen, Alvar and Aino Aalto, Finn Juhl, Hans Wegner, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gio Ponti, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid.

Too many to list here but I would single out every products from Patricia Urquiola. She is consistently bringing innovative solutions that work as well as they look.

The greatest is yet to come and will be so for eternity..it's a process, not an end-goal.

Learn every day, never stop watching and listening to others

A gardener

Design is the manifestation of intelligence with consciousness

Perseverance

Mostly envy, ignorance and stupidity by some people. Thankfully much less than all the support and appreciation received from others.

With integrity and respect for their client and audience.

I will continue to merge art, culture, philosophy into functional commercial spaces and products. It is the interdisciplinary polymath dimensions of my work that keeps me curious, motivated and challenged every day.

To continue dreaming, thinking and creating until the last day.

Understanding their aspirations and solving their problems.

By combining intelligence with consciousness, design can provide solutions to most challenges on earth.

Hotels in Madrid, Budapest and Belgium: all are the conversion of a century-old buildings into contemporary hospitality spaces so the design requires to connect heritage and modernity into a seamless experience. I am also working on a restaurant project in Seoul, Korea and a large scale resort on the Baltic coast in Poland.

Every project that we could deliver as intended has been very satisfying, because we could demonstrate the validity of the thought process that took place during design conception and execution.

More attention to authenticity, relevance and waste-reduction.

As wide as the horizon ahead of us, as blue as the sky above us.

Between a few days and a few years

48h of insomnia

Think big, act small

There is creative design that set the trends, and reactive design that follow trends.

Design is a combination of art and science, so both must be applied to effectively articulate and communicate intent and execution.

Personally I use a pencil and a bit of Adobe Creative Suite, my team are experts in all technical software to draw and render effectively and precisely every detail required.

The human eye, nose and ear have a narrow bandwith perception of the physical reality around us, most of which we are oblivious to.. so it is essential to fully utilise what we are able to perceive and implement into our design work.

What is the story?

Great design or product by others always make me smile, it makes me feel connected to other human beings.

Everyone with an open, educated, enquiring, positive mind without dogma can make a great collaborator.

Each client

Too many to list but I would highlight the work on environmental psychology by the likes of A. Mehrabian, J. A. Russell, anthropology work by E.T. Hall, D. Morris and research on Semiotics by D.Chandler and R.Barthes.

Reading, observing and listening every day to the world around us.

The authors of all the books I have read.

Recognition is important to assess if our work has a positive impact..though there is much more to learn and improve ahead of us. Design is a continuous process not a destination.

Everything on Planet Earth and beyond.

The more I learn, the more I realise how little do I know but also that somewhere, someone has also thought about the same idea. Once we realise that we are not as unique as we thought, we can just go with the flow and focus on enjoying the journey with others.

Smelling flowers, listening to birds and playing with my dogs.

No. Nothing will happen if you don't work increasingly harder at becoming better all the time.

Humanity is now in a very unstable position because of constant, rapid meta-evolution of technology..particularly in artificial intelligence, big data processing, bio-engineering and exploitation of natural resources. Design through intelligence and consciousness is the only tool we have available right now to create a better, safer, brighter future.

Design is only a point of view at a particular time and place. Our universe is in constant change and expansion, and so should design be.

I started Blue Sky Hospitality in 2002 with a single focus: to create extraordinary stories for ordinary people, through strong brand development and commercial interior design. The widest audience is found in retail and hospitality consumers, so I have specialised in this business area. We provide Creative Direction and Brand Strategy as a multi-disciplinary design studio specialised in the creation and development of hotel, retail, restaurants, bars, clubs and leisure branded concepts.

I consider Design to be the act of creating the future, by analysing problems and imagining solutions that could become reality. Without making any claims of particular knowledge, as a personal point of view, I believe that the main aim of design for commercial spaces is to enable human connections, transactions, and interactions. This aim should be provided as a sustainable solution with consideration for all stakeholders in the future business for which we design—owner, management, staff, suppliers, the local community. This should inform not just ethical and environmental considerations, but also knowing how much to spend in relation to the marketplace, target audience, and local capabilities and opportunities. Spend too much on design and construction and returns will underperform. Spend too little and the business will never perform to its full potential.

Hospitality projects. We try to take projects that have a broad range of creative deliverables from naming, branding, space-planning, interiors, lighting, tabletop, uniforms, art curation, and communications so that we can be fully in control of the overall product design and deliver a distinctive competitive advantage to market.

I don't have a favourite, having worked on every continent in an endless quest to learn and improve my understanding of our world and its inhabitants. Each project provides the opportunity to meet new people with their own ambitions, concerns and desires. My role is to assist each one of them to come closer to the future they seek, within given constraints. We use design as a tool box to provide solutions to clients balancing technical contribution, cultural awareness and artistic imagination. Each project is memorable for different reasons but each involves experiencing our planet and its local cultures

My first commercial project was the creation of the first London boutique (in Notting Hill) for Diptyque, the cult fragrance brand from Paris. Almost simultaneously I was also asked to design the interiors for two luxury penthouses for the marketing of a very prestigious residential development in London called "Kings Chelsea". Soon after I designed my first restaurants in Warsaw, Poland and Cologne, Germany (published by TeNeues in the book "Cool restaurants Cologne"...the first of many.

I believe every thing on the planet can be used to produce great design from sand and concrete to silk and laser.

Early mornings around 4 am

I focus on what is the purpose? first, what is the meaning? second, what does it look like? last.

That it serves the purpose for which it was intended..and more if possible.

What purpose does it serve?

Our world is precious and fragile, humans have taken control of earth future and resources, much to the detriment of other living beings and mankind cultural diversity. Designers can influence and rebalance the perception of our world by introducing genuine ecological message and cultural sensitivity in their work while also looking into the future. I don’t believe in zoos and museums: their time has passed. Our planet and its people can do so much better for preservation and communication of cultural legacy and the natural world. For example, food is the ultimate human connector and restaurants are the ultimate stage to articulate this, so it is conceivable that restaurants could take on part of the cultural and educational functions of current museums and galleries.

Design has become one of the most important resources of mankind. We live in an era of exponential change in fundamental fields of activities produced by humans such as artificial intelligence, big data processing, ecological destruction. This is affecting everyone's life now and in future. Design is the only tool we have as a society to produce tangible solutions that can be executed and utilised to make life safer and more enjoyable for all.

I am inspired by science, cultural and ecological diversity found on our planet: so many stories that have been told and can be re-edited for new generations of audiences. So many new stories that can be imagined from connecting random dots and patterns to create a meaningful narrative.

I don't have a specific style. In my point of view that would be arrogant or lazy. The fundamental reason for design is to accept an aspiration, a problem or set of constraints and resolve it at best you can using your mental resources to create a physical solution. The problem should drives the design or as was said by others before: form follows function.

I was born and grew up in Paris then moved to London almost 30 years ago. Without doubt the best decision I have ever made. The cultural diversity, creative energy and juxtaposition of heritage with avant-garde is very special to London and has been a major driver in allowing me to explore the depth and breadth of creative activities. Working from London as a launchpad has allowed me to meet clients from all over the world. I have done projects in over 30 countries and have visited as many more in the course of my work from Canada to Korea, from Iceland to Australia.

We care deeply that our clients can make the optimum reputational and financial returns from our contribution. Yet, the design and branding of a space cannot exist in a vacuum: it is entirely reliant on how much the client will refrain from injecting personal taste and then how well the operating team will execute the everyday delivery, once open.
we are dealing constantly with moving parts, differing agendas and cultural backgrounds, and varying levels of competence among the stakeholders that require constant polite, but firm, diplomacy. No matter how clever, innovative, and thorough the design is, a car performance is only as good as its driver. A balance between ambition and humility helps everyone keep a healthy sense of perspective.

Design for commercial purpose has a very specific goal: optimise return on investment.
A designer can be the most important decision taken by a company to create, develop and project a brand image onto the market. So it is in the interest of the company to choose carefully a designer with whom they wish to work instead of just treating this appointment as a commodity like picking any other suppliers.

Be yourself, work hard and always put your client's aspirations first.

If anyone can make a living being a designer, that's positive enough to compensate for any other considerations.

Don't follow any rules

diplomacy

HB pencil and paper

The only way I manage is to be always thinking 24/7. Design is an all consuming activity, it involves a considerable amount of research, trials and exploration into the unknown before emerging at the end of a frustrating process, having resolved (hopefully) the constraints and obstacles along the way.

It can take a few minutes or hundred of hours..more the latter if dealing with complex spatial design issues.

Being a dishwasher in a restaurant. I learned about cultural diversity, the value of hard manual work, the value of imagination to make everyday life more enjoyable, and the importance of functionality in tools, layout and work processes.

I work for a number of international hospitality and retail operators, investors and developers to maximise tangible and commercial assets on a local, regional and global basis. Clients have included individual restaurants and large international hotel brands like Radisson, Hilton, Marriott, InterContinental, Four Seasons and Hyatt. Other kind of clients are owners of mixed-use residential and commercial development with a hospitality or retail component.

The type of work I enjoy most is where there is a clear sense of purpose to the design requirements. Aesthetics is a very subjective field of perception, so the only way one can assess the objective value of design is if its result create a tangible value that was not present before the design process took place. I use design as a tool box to provide solutions to clients balancing technical contribution, commercial potential, cultural awareness and artistic imagination.

I am very interested in cultural and ecological conservation, as well as promoting the importance of science in designing a better everyday life for all people, both physically and philosophically.

I always take responsibility for the entire detailed design process from ideation to conception, execution and implementation. Naturally, due to the large scale of many projects it is essential to have a good team who can identify with and support each idea that comes to mind.

We are currently working on the design of a very exciting project on the Gran Via, in Madrid. It's the launch of a new lifestyle hotel brand in Europe: Hyatt Centric. I have created much of the interior design and art content to express and share a rich narrative about Madrid and its culture past and present.

info@blueskyhospitality.com