Saved by alexi gunner
Caffs Not Cafes Finds the Magic in London’s Old School Joints
Like many writers before me, I tend to lean on vague hand-waving when the need to define taste, or rather, good taste, arises. A common trope is to use the phrase US Supreme Court justice Stewart famously gave to describe obscenity, a similarly hard-to-describe bedfellow of taste, in 1964: “I know it when I see it.” In design, good taste can be kno... See more
Elizabeth Goodspeed on the Importance of Taste – And How to Acquire It
To court the large demographic of customers molded by the Internet, more cafés needed to adopt the aesthetics that already dominated on the platforms.
Kyle Chayka • Filterworld
They showcased trends in both beverages and food. They included a particular selection of music with soft ambient soundtracks, like lo-fi beats. Each café comprised a temple to all forms of contemporary taste—they were total works of art, to use Wagner’s term for a fully immersive aesthetic creation that engages every sense. Cafés turned out to be
... See moreKyle Chayka • Filterworld
Restaurants and nightclubs grow on the strength of their newness. After a couple years, the novelty wears off, and they become a business like any other—relying on marketing and reinvention.
Bobby Hundreds • This Is Not a T-Shirt
It’s not that these generic cafes are part of global chains like Starbucks or Costa Coffee, with designs that spring from the same corporate cookie cutter. Rather, they have all independently decided to adopt the same faux-artisanal aesthetic. Digital platforms like Foursquare are producing "a harmonization of tastes" across the world, Schwarzmann ... See more