Industry Opportunity: LCF and Sodexo
Collaborative Project between LCF and Sodexo for the 2012 Olympic Games
Context:
The City of London has a historic connection with the Olympic Games, and has had the honour of hosting the Olympic Games in 1908 and, significantly the celebratory post war Games of 1948. Each time, London left its unique mark on the Olympic Movement with its innovative approach.
The 2012 Games will draw upon the country’s proud Olympic heritage, and as the excitement surrounding the Games gathers, London will again, offer an unforgettable Olympic experience.
Hospitality is a crucial aspect of the whole Olympic experience, and during the course of the Games, more than 14 million meals will be served across 40 different locations.
London 2012 Chief Executive, Paul Deighton has stated:
‘We want to ensure everyone at the Games has a fantastic experience and key to that is the food and drink that is available – we want it to be affordable, sustainable and celebrate the fantastic diversity and quality that Britain has to offer’
Sodexo is an internationally renowned Company and a Global Market leader providing Quality of Life service solutions.
Sodexo is a world leader in food services and has won the hospitality contract for the 2012 Olympic Games & the Public catering contract for South Park. They will be responsible for eight top end, fine dining restaurants, which will be housed in a state of the art triple decker marquee next to the main stadium and a series of public catering pods located in and around the stadium. Each restaurant will celebrate a different sport and the fine dining experience; will be defined by the delivery of two services:
Sodexo will have 600 staff working each day over a six week period, providing a quality experience and service to an estimated 40,000 customers within Hospitality.
As part of the public offer, Sodexo will be providing food & drink to all of the visitors to the stadium and other areas of the south section of the Olympic Park.
The Brief:
Your mission is to develop a series of visionary, innovative, forward thinking design proposals for an exciting range of uniforms for the catering staff of Sodexo’s prestigious fine dining restaurants and public catering outlets at the 2012 Olympic Games.
You will also develop designs for the catering staff who will work at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and these can be imaginative and quirky.
When researching and developing design ideas, you will consider:
Practicality: The practical issues and suitability to specific roles of a catering uniform, the design of which must take into account various body shapes and age ranges of their staff.
Hierarchy: Your design responses need to incorporate an understanding of job roles. For example: senior staff will need a uniform which differentiates them from drinks and food service staff.
User Friendliness: Staff may have to change roles at short notice and need to be able to put on the appropriate uniform with speed and ease. Currently many of the existing uniforms are unisex: i.e. women and men have similar style shirt and trousers, but they are differentiated by fit and proportions.
Branding:
You are not allowed to use any logos or branding on any of your work.
The Olympic ‘Rings,’ and Olympic logo must not be used due to copy right laws.
Sodexo would like the uniforms to have relevance in other contexts beyond the 2012 Olympics, as they are involved with providing solutions globally.
For the initial research stage of this project, you will work in small teams and will research collaboratively to pool sources and findings, share ideas and opinions. Your team will need to nominate a team co-ordinator whose role it will be to communicate between team members and record minutes and details of meetings. You will need to discuss, negotiate and delegate the key areas of research such as:
Primary research will be important, e.g. interviews with catering staff who work in this environment. What are their needs, wants, desires? Are there any uniforms currently in use that they covet? Can you find examples of uniform collaborations with designers?
You will conduct investigation into suitable fabrics for your design proposals as well as new materials development and their potential application in the catering environment. Well being factors such as microencapsulation which provide anti-bacterial protection, anti- allergenic properties and aromatic agents that can all be integrated into textiles may provide solutions that go beyond novelty applications.
Research into the potential of future ‘Smart’ and ‘Interactive’ technologies and textiles will be important, for example the newly emerging wearable electrically conductive fabrics which can connect people unobtrusively to their environment. The integration of ‘smart’ technology into fabrics which can change colour or pattern by touch has been in development since the end of the twentieth century and may provide tangible benefits in this context.
3D Technologies. You may wish to consider the implementation of Optitex Softwear and 3D Body Scanning.
Ergonomics is the exploration of the relationship clothing has with the human body and movement and how garments respond to the practical demands made upon them. The study of the basic principles of ergonomics will allow you to develop a pragmatic approach to design and fit.
This is the study of the emotive, historical and cultural signifiers that indicate criteria such as hierarchical position, approachability and cleanliness etc. It will be crucial to poll opinions on the visual communication impact and functionality of catering uniforms by conducting questionnaires and focus groups with the public as well as end users.
Consider the graphic impact of form and colour. Explore visual signals in nature (Biomimetics) and effects of psychology of colour.
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