Boutique Design - Winter 2024 - 80

CHECKING
IN
CROWN CREAT I VE ' S DAVID
CAROFANO RESPONDS TO A
CHANG ING INDUSTRY
By Katie Kervin
Working in restaurants since the age of 14, David
Carofano's passion for hospitality started early. A
transformative graduate program at the School of
Visual Arts in New York, however, encouraged him
to take a different route.
It was there that he uncovered a new
dimension of hospitality: branding. Introduced
to industry connections by a professor, Carofano
experienced what he describes as a light bulb
moment, realizing he " could be in the hospitality
space but not work in a restaurant, " he recalls. " I
could create designs, brands, and concepts and be
the creative vision behind it. "
This revelation led him to roles at fi rms such
as Brand Bureau, an AvroKO company, and Pure
Grey, an independent hospitality consultancy.
While at the latter, where he collaborated with
several branding agencies, he connected with
Ryan Crown, founder and creative director of
Crown Creative.
Today, as the Belfast, London, and New
York fi rm's strategy and commercial director,
Carofano's work emphasizes the critical role of
brand identity and design in setting hospitality
concepts apart.
Why is branding so important in hospitality? In
restaurants, the level of food quality has risen,
especially in bigger markets. For the most part,
everyone has good food and everyone is talented.
We expect that now as consumers. The question
is: How do you differentiate one restaurant from
another? It's about attracting people to your space
even before they walk in the door and taste the
food. That's where branding comes in.
How does Crown Creative collaborate with clients?
If we are working with a chef or restaurateur, they
may have an idea of what kind of restaurant they
want to open. We help them articulate that. What
does it look like? What are you serving? What's
the music like? Those touchpoints go back to my
hospitality days.
We start with a story we're trying to tell.
Sometimes we work with folks who are not in
F&B or hospitality, like a developer or real estate
person, so we're a little bit more involved and do
market research to understand what that location
needs. There's a fi ne balance of fi tting in but
standing out. You don't want to do something in
80
W I N T E R 20 2 4 / 20 2 5
THE FORTHCOMING B I RCH
CABINS IN NORTHERN
IRELAND, A COLLABOR AT ION
WITH 2020 ARCHITECT S
THE BR AND I NG FOR THE
REGENCY HOUSE HOTEL AND
MEMBERS CLUB IN BELFAS T
SEPPE RES TAURANT IN NEW YORK
TAKES CUES FROM 1930S ITALY
a location where people don't get it or it won't
resonate. You want to do something familiar, but
in a new way.
Describe your process. When we're working with
a designer, we love to collaborate with them and
share inspiration. If we're doing the concepts
fi rst, we'll create mood boards for where we
think the concept should go. Then we have a bit
of a back and forth on what the direction may be
to try to understand the vision.
What shifts are you observing in the industry?
We're in an age of contrast, where you can have
a beautifully designed restaurant but you're
serving fried chicken sandwiches. We're seeing
this juxtaposition a lot more. Another is this
idea of modernism versus nostalgia. We want
to go back to old-school supper clubs, classic
steakhouses, and Italian restaurants
like Carbone.
The idea of restaurants being multipurpose
is also interesting, where it's a café in the
morning and a wine bar in the evening, or it has
a retail shop, but it's also a bakery. We've taken
the restaurant and broken it apart into these
different experiences, which is cool if done right.
What's your dream project? As we grow as an
agency, the dream project for me is to own every
single piece of the process-from brand creation
to opening the doors. BD
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF CROWN CREATIVE
Boutique Design - Winter 2024

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