December 2010
Blacksheep profiled in one of world’s coolest magazines
We are hugely honoured this month to be profiled in ‘bob’ magazine (issue 77), a glossy Korean design and lifestyle publication, both widely available internationally and greatly respected in the design sector worldwide. Our interactive ‘Inamo’ restaurant in London’s Soho was chosen to grace the front and back covers, whilst inside a magnificent 32-page spread highlights key works from our hospitality industry portfolio, including The Cuckoo Club, Whisky Mist, Kismet, Vista, Lumière Fine Dining, St Germain and our latest completed project – the Jamie’s Italian restaurant (for Jamie Oliver) at Westfield, the high-end fashion emporium in West London. An accompanying interview with company Co-founder and Creative Director Jo Sampson lays out the history, design philosophy and global ambitions of the Blacksheep studio.
November 2010
First pictures of our luxury hospitality scheme in Jeddah, UAE
Site pictures are now in from Jeddah, where Blacksheep's designs are taking form. The scheme covers a range of linked hospitality spaces, which will combine to offer customers a luxury 5* dining and retail experience. The multi-faceted project includes fine dining restaurant Lumière (pictured), where food excellence will be matched by a dramatic interior design scheme, referencing water and movement, linking the space to the views of the sea beyond. Also within the space is casual dining offer ‘Amara'; Asian fusion restaurant ‘Geisha' and luxury bakery and food emporium ‘The Connoisseur'.
October 2010
Blacksheep Redesigns Fifteen For Jamie Oliver
Blacksheep has redesigned Fifteen London, the flagship restaurant of Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant group. Blacksheep was asked to carry out the redesign, which accompanies an overall relaunch including a new menu, following the successful completion of the Jamie's Italian restaurant at Westfield. The restaurant will feature the same 28-strong team of professional chefs and brand new apprentices for the year - the 9th group of young people to start Fifteen's unique training programme since the restaurant was the subject of Channel 4's "Jamie's Kitchen" series in 2002. Fifteen London continues to draw inspiration from the most exciting food destinations of Italy - Campania, Tuscany, Piedmonte and Puglia - and sees a refresh of its menu designs both upstairs in the Trattoria and downstairs in the flagship restaurant. Jo Sampson, Creative Director at Blacksheep, who designed the new look for the restaurants, says "We wanted to bring a bit of soul and heritage back into the interior. The restaurant has a great location in a wonderful old building and we sought to reconnect the space to the building's fabric and context in our materials palette. The interior will be contemporary and urban as well as rich, warm and welcoming."
September 2010
Stunning first reviews for Vista at The Trafalgar
New rooftop bar Vista ‘teetering on top of the discreet and boutique Trafalgar Hotel like an olive balancing on the edge of an elegant martini glass' (according to TheTravelEditor.com) is getting some rave reviews. ‘We wanted to avoid the whole cliché of an English garden pastiche and instead took our inspiration from Miami' explained Blacksheep Creative Director Jo Sampson. ‘Phase I was all about maximizing the extraordinary views over London and so the colour scheme for the hard and soft furniture is monochromatic, so as not to distract from the dominant views.' Fashionfoiegras said ‘I can honestly say I have never been more impressed with a transformation of a London establishment,' whilst the Metro noted ‘Vista is causing so much excitement that there's already a waiting list to get in'. A second, larger phase of the scheme is still to come.
August 2010
Jamie’s Italian at Westfield opens for business
The first ‘Jamie's Italian' restaurant, designed by Blacksheep for Jamie Oliver at the Westfield London shopping centre at White City, is now open for business. ‘We were very impressed with how open the client was to new ideas that expressed the fresh, honest and accessible feel of the brand,' commented Blacksheep MD Tim Mutton. Stand-out design features at the 250-cover restaurant include a vintage Citroën van parked outside, serving Jamie's 'Smash Ups', where ice cream, fruit and nuts are all mixed to order and served on a plate; a ‘Scooter Wall', made up of rows of individual scooter headlights and a ‘Market Place' section to highlight the retail and theatrical aspects of the kitchen. Blacksheep is also working on a further restaurant for the brand, due to open later this year in Birmingham.
July 2010
Whisky Mist scoops another award
Once again, a Blacksheep-designed project has been declared a winner at the London Club and Bar Awards. Whisky Mist at Zeta, London's top nightspot at The Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, won the ‘Best Established Boutique Club' award at the 2010 event. The club, rarely out of the papers thanks to its high profile guests, has been a non-stop success since its launch, and also won both the Best New Club and the Best Night award at the London Club and Bar Awards 2009. Club and bar projects designed by Blacksheep have now been winners five years in a row at the awards in 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006, with eight wins in total.
June 2010
Blacksheep designs for Mary Portas
As reported in Design Week at the end of May (May 27th issue), Blacksheep were chosen to work with presenter and retail guru Mary Portas on a new series of ‘Mary Queen of Shops'. This third series of the show, which airs from Monday 7th June on BBC2, sees the former Harvey Nichols creative director moving on from the fashion and charity sectors to focus on struggling independent stores across the UK. Blacksheep was tasked with helping revitalise the look and layout of a village store in Corfe Castle, Dorset for one of the shows. Laura Elwick was the Blacksheep designer on the case and hugely enjoyed both her brush with the world of television and the opportunity to work with Mary. This is the second time that Blacksheep's design skills have been requested in this way - an earlier request to help with a failing restaurant for ‘Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares' led to Blacksheep's appointment to design Gordon Ramsay's first gastro pub, The Narrow.
May 2010
Stunning new interior by Blacksheep’s interior design & styling team
Blacksheep's Interior Design & Styling team, under the direction of Creative Director and company co-founder Jo Sampson, has just completed a stunning new interior for property developer MJWP in the St John's Wood area of North London. The interior scheme is for a classic five-storey townhouse, with an entire storey of the new layout now dedicated to the master bedroom suite. The scope of works covered every surface, including all floors and walls, with a brief to create a high-quality, elegant and contemporary scheme, with a hint of the classic and a nod to the vernacular of boutique hotel design. The new space-plan for the scheme created a series of impactful, flowing spaces, with a full view through the ground floor from the front door.
April 2010
Blacksheep seek inspiration on the streets of Milan
Blacksheep Creative Director Jo Sampson and Associate Mark Leib will be attending the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan this month to see not only what's new at the world-famous furniture fair, but also to soak up the atmosphere of the shops, homes, restaurants, bars and streets of this ultra-stylish city. "Having worked in Milan in the early part of my career at Studio de Lucchi", Jo Sampson commented, "I love to come back as often as possible to revisit a place that has always been a great source of inspiration for me." Jo and Mark will be sharing their thoughts and impressions on what they see in Milan on Twitter; please click here to sign up to Blacksheep's Twitter page and see what inspires them for 2010 and beyond.
March 2010
Tim Mutton at Hi Design & Hotel Investment Forum
Blacksheep Managing Director Tim Mutton is to attend two leading European leisure events this month: Hi Design, which takes place in Malta from 4-6 March and The Hotel Investment Forum, taking place in Berlin from 8-10 March. Blacksheep's international leisure portfolio is also expanding. The latest project to be announced is the first in a new hotel chain called Puro for Norwegian client Genfer Hotels. Located in Poland's 4th-largest city and burgeoning metropolis Wroclaw, the hotel will open in early 2011.
February 2010
A Blacksheep introduction for new Chinese book
A new book looking at the world's top restaurants - Global Vogue Restaurant - has just been published in China by the Shenzhen Chuangyang Cultural Dissemination Co. Ltd. Blacksheep were honoured to be asked to write the introduction to the book and contributed an essay, authored by Tim Mutton and Jo Sampson, on the most important ingredients, in our view, in the creation of a successful luxury leisure environment. ‘As designers', the article opined, ‘95% of our efforts are invisible to the casual diner or drinker. We spend a lot of time talking to clients in the early stages and clarifying what the offer is. What is the venue selling and where do they see their profits coming from? We don't overcomplicate things.' The introduction concludes that a successful venue ‘is all about vision, integrity and detail. A signature space makes people - customers and staff - feel special. And it's that shared enjoyment of something out of the ordinary that keeps the coming back for more.'
January 2010
Why architecture & design should work together
Blacksheep co-founders Tim Mutton and Jo Sampson were approached recently by UK publication ‘Commercial Interiors’ and asked to compose an article on why interior design and architecture can be a great one-stop shop offer for clients. Jo and Tim’s article began by highlighting the differences between the disciplines – ‘architecture creates context and space, but interior design determines much of how that space feels to be within’ – and then went on to spell out the advantages for clients of a seamless flow between the two: ‘we believe that the two disciplines can cross-pollinate and have an entirely positive effect on each other, with the real benefit being felt by the client and the client’s end-user(s). If a building is built from the outset to create optimum spaces for the interior designer to use, then the user will feel that seamless flow….’. To read the article in full, please click here.
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