Combine immense natural talent, originality, ambition, charisma and a headstrong attitude, and you have all the key ingredients of a great designer. It is unusual, however, to find someone that not only possesses these characteristics, but whose work commands such respect within their field. Afroditi Krassa is one such designer, and Hospitality Interiors’ Gemma Ralph had the honour of speaking with her about her career thus far, from dockyard daydreams to running her own, immensely successful company.
Born in 1974, in London, Afroditi was raised in the region of Mount Olympus, Greece, before returning to the big smoke at the age of 17 to launch a career in design. After attending some of the country’s most prestigious design institutions, among them Central St Martins and the Royal College of Art, her first official forays into the industry saw her working at some of the world’s largest consultancies, designing products and strategies for globally-renowned brands like Jaguar and Casio.
Fast forward to today, and she has now been running her eminently successful brand, AfroditiKrassa, for 12 years; has undertaken the branding and design of a plethora of leading restaurant, office and retail establishments; collaborated with some of the globe’s most prestigious producers and, most recently, brought out her signature product collection.
Afroditi’s early life in Greece has has rightly been credited as one of her key design influences, and she has often remarked that Greece’s modesty and self-sufficiency taught her the value of resourcefulness within design – of the ability to create something of profound beauty with very little.
“Resourcefulness is always important to me, I”grew up in a relatively poor country and there is a simplicity in the Greek style,” she says. “Whether the food or the island architecture of Greece, I”learned how to cope with little and appreciate something bold, yet simple. This is very much ingrained in me and, as a studio, we try to apply it not only in our work, but in our design process.”
Perhaps just as significantly, her early years also seem to have foregrounded a great deal of the characteristic stubbornness and determination that have got her to where she is today.
“When I”was a child, I”asked my dad what professions required ambition, and were not appropriate for women,” she explains. “He answered ‘shipping’, and I”said ‘that is what I will do’. I was always rebellious and didn’t want to conform.”
Although moving to London signified the start of an incredible journey for Afroditi, her self-confessed distaste for the status quo was both a curse and a blessing during the formative years of her formal education and career.
“I made a terrible employee, I wasn’t good at it at all,” she confesses. “That actually kept me going in the beginning [after setting up her own business], when things were pretty tough, I”kept thinking that if I”give up, my only option would be to work for someone else’s studio, and it just kept me going.”
It was acclaimed German industrial designer, Konstantin Grcic, however, who actively encouraged Afroditi to channel this rebelliousness in her work, and she recalls one particular episode that really drove her to challenge her own approach.
“I”was designing a campaign for homeless people and I”was looking at possible photography to go with it, so I showed him all the expected imagery surrounding this sensitive subject,” she remembers. He said ‘why don’t you use photos of nice cars?’ I was quite shocked, but intrigued. I”spent days, weeks, trying to understand what he meant. I”have a lot of respect for what he has done, the fact that he is gutsy without being loud – he does things his way without asking for attention.”
This combination of guts and modesty so admired by Afroditi is certainly something she herself has embraced throughout her career thus far, in particular with regards to the gender politics of the design world.
As the first-ever female designer to be employed by design duo, SeymourPowell, she has flouted her fair share of tradition, and is keen to encourage other aspiring female designers to do the same.
“Unfortunately, I think there are few industries which are not male dominated, especially on an entrepreneurial level,” she says. “This is the way of the world, we either sit back and do nothing or enter this world and try to change it by example.
“I”was one out of eight women in a year group of 68 people when I studied design, and I was the first female designer at SeymourPowell – I was shocked when they told me at the interview.
“Being different is good, it is what also makes you creative. I”have never met a creative in any field who wants to be the same as everyone else. So my advice is go for it!”
Differentiating her work from the mainstream is something that seems to come naturally to Afroditi, and the way in which she brings her earlier experience in product design to bear on her interior design projects certainly seems to aid this originality.
“I come from a product design background, as does most of my team, so we look at things slightly differently when it comes to interiors,” she explains. “I spent years trying to solve problems. Most people assume there is no problem solving involved when it comes to interiors, yet there is.
“I”love putting interiors in the wider context of a marketplace, which again relates to my product design training. There is no point designing a great interior if it looks the same as the competitor next door, if there is no differentiator.
“In a similar fashion, interiors deal with the emotional side of things in a more powerful way, the storytelling side of design. I”always tried to do this when I designed products – they were almost mini-installations, quite complex, and this is what led me into the discovery of the hospitality world.”
Afroditi’s flair for storytelling is evident in her prestigious portfolio of hospitality projects and – whether it be conceiving the concept, branding, interiors and retail packaging for Japanese eatery, Itsu, or creating the interior for Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant, The Perfectionists’ Café – Afroditi is highly skilled at weaving a compelling narrative with the many layers and components that make up a hospitality space.
Her reluctance to pick a project that is her particular favourite, when asked, captures this mental and emotional investment in her work: “This is never a question I want to answer, it’s like picking from your children. We have four projects at the studio that we call the ‘greatest hits’ as they embody that idea of being the category definers, the ‘poster boys’ of their market.
“Dishoom [a contemporary Indian restaurant which opened in 2010] is one of them, and to me it is a very clear example of what great design can achieve for a business and an industry. When I launched it, there was nothing remotely similar in the Indian casual dining sector – it really ripped up the ‘textbook’ Indian style.
“I feel happy every time I pass by and see the queues of people outside the restaurant, it took years to convince people that this is the way forward.”
Challenging preconceptions and clichés through design, or even reinventing the accepted use or experience of space, seem to be part of Afroditi’s DNA. Indeed, one of her most recent projects has involved designing a state-of-the-art interior for Curzon Victoria – the flagship branch of a new generation of boutique cinemas from the brand. With five minimalistically-designed screening rooms, a private lounge space, bar areas and a library and archive space, this new cinema symbolises a renewed fervour for innovative, multi-functional spaces that shows no sign of slowing.
“The last two decades have been amazing for our industry in the UK and beyond … the last two to three years even more so,” says Afroditi. “We have seen a phenomenal switch to dining-focused experiences, from food stalls to fine dining. Hotels have become part of everyday urban living, beyond travelling, and mixologists are now the new rock stars.
“If traditional high street retailing continues to shrink, our homes continue to get smaller and we keep on travelling, then I do not see much of a stop in the rehaul of hospitality.
Design is always the necessary ingredient to any major cultural shifts, and will continue to play an instrumental role in responding to those fast-changing needs of society.”
As revolutionary designs and exctiting new concepts continue to spring up at increasing speed, Afroditi’s progressive outlook is sure to be in high demand. The ephemeral nature of this climate, however, may prove to be Afroditi’s biggest challenge – in her eyes at least.
“My greatest professional aspiration is to design anything that survives me,” she says. “We live in such a transient world, it is hard to imagine that products, interiors and brands will not see ‘the rubbish bin’.”
Given her talent, charisma and glowing record, something tells me Afroditi will not be forgotten easily.Â
My favourite things:
Designer(s): This week Andre Courreges
Place: New York
Moment in history: Classical Athens
Drink: my partner’s coffee
Item in your house: my Marantz
Pastimes: walking, eating, drinking coffee, in that particular order
Time of day: dusk after a sunny day, when the light changes and all white looks brighter than normal
Book/film: Manhattan by Woody Allen
Quote:””Whatever the status quo is, challenging it gives you the chance to be remarkable” Tribes, Seth Godin
