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We talk trends, pitfalls and delights with expert practitioners of bar and restaurant design.

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Simon Hall Managing director of Simple Simon Design, Bristol-based hospitality design specialists -

What makes for a well-designed bar/ restaurant?
Design is a business solution to a business problem. Those who are experienced in the sector will understand the operational requirements, the need for flexibility, and how consumers experience the space. It's important that a venue has a strong identity that sticks its neck out and appeals strongly to one sector - people want to experience a sense of belonging.

Are clients willing to pay what it takes?
It depends. Those who are experienced and know what they're asking for are willing, but a lot of the others aren't. It's very hard to do a high-end venue for a low-end budget. If you want to shoot for the moon, I'm afraid you have to pay for it, and it's our responsibility as designers to justify that expenditure.

What's the hardest part to get right?
Trying to shoehorn in an operation that doesn't fit the space.

Graze Bath designed by Simple Simon Design.

Is there much scope for design creativity?
It depends entirely on the client and the project. Sometimes you can do a superb design that works effectively even if it looks incredibly traditional. It's the designer's responsibility to use creativity in a way that's appropriate for what the client is offering their clientele.

How long would you expect a restaurant/bar design to last?
Depends how edgy and contemporary it is. The more of its time it is, the faster it goes out of fashion. But if you make it appropriate for the building, it is relatively easy to change a handful of fittings and colours to keep it fresh.

What big design trends have you noticed in this area?
The whole industrial thing has almost been done to death. I think we'll see more of what I call Scandustrial, using nice natural materials rather than just reclaimed timbers, and also an increase in purity, simplicity and a sense of order.

Which of your own restaurant/bar projects are you most proud of?
Mission Burrito, which proved the difference design can make by more than doubling turnover, and Graze Bath, which is our most accomplished restaurant and won a Casual Dining Award. Also Beerd, a craft beer bar that was ahead of the trend.

What's your favourite bar or restaurant?
I really like Spuntino in Soho for its balls-to-the-wall branding. I admire Meat Liquor as an assault on the senses.

Julie Humphryes Co-founder of Archer Humphryes, the practice behind the The Print Room, Great Northern Hotel and Busaba Eathai among others.

What makes for a well-designed bar/ restaurant?
Creating energy, vitality, social interaction and a background for conversations are key, along with what you are eating and drinking. The design has to reflect aspirations for the product and most importantly the place in where the venue is situated.

What's the hardest part to get right?
Where the heart of the scheme is and why.

Is there much scope for design creativity?
Every project can find a narrative to let your imagination spark. Currently we are coming up with a brand identity for Yamagoya, an eatery that will begin in Soho for a client already established in Bangkok for providing exquisite Japanese food. Finding cultural activities, sometimes entwined with religious customs and eating rituals, is not hard to navigate. The real challenge is combining many colliding opportunities into a holistic approach bound by its own location.

How long would you expect a restaurant/bar design to last?
It can be as short as a fleeting event or a pop-up restaurant to something that almost rests in the psyche of historical settings, such as Harry's bar in Venice.

Great Northern Hotel is one of Julie Humphryes' favourite projects

What big design trends have you noticed in this area?
I am not sure if a singular big trend exists in design currently as there is abundance of restaurants and bars for almost everything.

Which of your own restaurant/bar projects are you most proud of?
Every project has a story. Whether it's our early beginnings with The Print Room in the art-deco newspaper works in Bournemouth, the projects we do for Alan Yau, or the restaurants launching later this year in conjunction with the Turkish design practice Autoban. Our favourites at the moment are the Chiltern Firehouse, the Great Northern Hotel Bar, Plum & Spilt Milk and the soon-to-open Beach, Samui.

What's your favourite bar or restaurant?
Tricky. I think the restaurant has to be Fluhalp in Zermatt because of the jaw-dropping view of the Matterhorn, followed by the Felix Bar in Hong Kong, which was a treat to visit when I lived there as a student. Most importantly, my favourite place is where I can relax with my family and keep them all occupied in a beautiful setting - the closest to this is Le Sereno Restaurant in St Barthélemy.

Brendan Heath Associate director of SHH, design practice that created the Barbican Food Hall, Coach House at Hatfield House and Mayfair restaurant Umu

What makes for a well-designed bar/ restaurant?
I think it has a lot to do with the design being appropriate - for the type of food on offer, the service style, the location, and even the building it's in. It's about creating an atmosphere that's right without being contrived. And making sure everything is considered: not just the space, but the chair you sit on, the staff uniform, and the cutlery on the tables.

Are clients willing to pay what it takes?
That depends on the client, their priorities and the means at their disposal. Commercial realities call for design pragmatism, and this often works to the benefit of a design by weeding out the inessential.

What's the hardest part to get right?
The thing about bars and restaurants is that it's not about parts in isolation. And pretty much everything is hard to get right because if one of them isn't, the whole thing can fall apart. So, I guess it's the whole, and never letting that out of your sight.

Is there much scope for design creativity?
There is enormous scope, particularly in restaurants. Food comes with its own connections and associations (and baggage) to a culture, period of time or even psychology be it sushi, 19th-century Mitteleurope, or mid-century nostalgia. All fertile ground for design, depending on how didactic you want to be.

The Terrace Restaurant at London Zoo is one of the projects Brendan Heath is most proud of.

How long would you expect a restaurant/bar design to last?
It would be great to create somewhere that had the longevity of a J Sheekey, but generally five to seven years. Design fads come and go, as do food fads.

What big design trends have you noticed in this area?
The biggest recent trend has been Prohibition and speakeasy nostalgia, which has morphed, particularly in the UK, into the ubiquitous presence of Americana, be it pulled pork and brisket, lobsters and burgers or gin and whisky.

Which of your own restaurant/bar projects are you most proud of ?
It would either be The Coach House restaurant for the way in which it has a grain and texture that feels natural to its setting, or The Terrace Restaurant at London Zoo because it aims to dignify the experience of mass-catering.

What's your favourite bar or restaurant?
Without question Pollen Street Social. Everything is right with it.