Studio Brief 01 - Dan Saul Interview

My COP question has required me to reach out to professionals when, researching was reading/looking at a publication called Coffee Shop North. This is a book that showcases a series of interviews and essays all about the independent coffee culture in the north of England. Dan Saul-Pilgrim is the curator of the publication so I reached out to him for some knowledge on the current coffee culture in Leeds and just a general chat about his work, as I felt that this might be able to help me make more sense of my essay question, as well as getting some advice. 

Dan is a free-lancer working under the name of Saul-Studio he specialises in typographic and printed based design, besides the Coffee Shop North book which has gained a lot of traction for being one of the only coffee publications to talk about northern coffee culture Dan has also done some other interesting work which is really starting to get noticed for its deistic style.

Notes -  When talking to Dan I had some questions/areas that I wanted to talk about so I found the easiest thing to do was just make up notes as I went along and it was easier to make the convocation flow and get what I wanted from the interview. 

Subcultures, people who are part of the sub cultures want to be seen in these places so the design influences their choice of coffee shop if you’re attracted to the Kinfolk lifestyle people have certain places that suit them and there opinion of these places is very much supported by the design and the community that comes with each cafe.  

Characteristics, if a place doesn’t have the right character it can feel empty and the business may become unsuccessful as they can’t keep a loyal costumer base. A place could be done up in a certain style but it if it hasn’t got the community and appeal to keep an audience to succeed. 

Budget, its what you can do with your budget a place that has a small budget would have to make the most of what they have available to them to create the best environment for the costumer, and place with a larger budget should use that to to a massive advantage as it will bring them the flexibility to create something new and special that can really make an impact on people. 

Quality over quaintly, its more about the quality of the design that will add value to a cafe if it new and original it will entice people to visit and also come back. 

Trends, does it look cool on social media, are people seeing that I’m going to these places - the design is a massive part of the trends because without it they won’t get the word of mouth that it deserves 

Visual appreciation/aesthetic value 

Purpose, the soul purpose of a coffee shop has changed its not just about the coffee anymore its about the completive market and the way people perceive the place, does it look cool on social media etc. When a place is designed people are thinking more about the community that they will be supporting and but at the end of the day it does boil down to the coffee 

Starbucks are to thank for introduction coffee to a wider audience, a lot of people that are going to independent coffee shops probably started going to Starbucks but soon learnt that places like Laynes existed and it was more appealing to go to a place where you would feel more at home with the style, music, people, food etc… (subcucltures) 

Local business are supporting each other this creates a community - this adds value to the character of a place, places like Starbucks and Costa all have the same interior and design but a small independent place will have quirks that make it more appealing to the right audience (the people who appreciate the better things in life)

Coffee shops in Leeds have to try harder than London. This is because places in London are easy to fill with the amount of people that are there (trendy) but a place like Leeds where there are less trendy around so the coffee shops have to have the visual presence to get not just coffee enthusiasts to visit. So these places have to be welcoming to everyone and you can do this by creating a community and not letting a snobby place, as it is a lot to do with image. 

Balance between aesthetic and quality, to make sure the business can succeed there needs to be a balance between the two otherwise you will loose the costumers either because the coffee is bad or because people might find the place to run down and could be put off by the bad interior/aesthetic 

Integral design from the beginning, bring something new to the scene, location is massively important, different to what people have seen before, budget, first impressions count without these you wouldn’t be able to have a successful business and this would be the downfall of a coffee shop this is why you need to have that balance with everything. 

From talking to Dan I was able to learn a lot about the subject in mind, and we both spoke about the subject throwing the questions back and forth so I was able to take good notes to help structure my essay for COP. After we also spoke briefly about how Dan finished university and managed to set up his own free-lance studio, this was very interesting to listen to. 

From this I have learnt that it is very valuable reaching out to professionals especially younger creatives as they are still familiar with the struggle of being a student and needing advice from people with more knowledge. I will defiantly be keeping in contact with Dan to get some feedback on the essay and maybe even the supporting work. I feel that it is a good idea to keep in contact with Dan as I have similar interests within design and I also feel that if I am going to continue this COP theme into level 06 then I will be able get a lot of help from Dan.