You’re Invited! Dining with Cultural Inspirations: Wesley Meyer, Creative Director, f.r.a.
Imagine hosting a dinner party where every detail – from the enchanting venue to the eclectic guest list – reflects the passions and inspirations that have shaped your creative life and work. In this joyful feature, we step into the mind of Wesley Meyer, Creative Director of London and Shrewsbury based, f.r.a. to explore his ultimate dinner party with the people who have influenced him as a designer.
My Party Set Up
In planning this dinner party, a theme of ‘Other Worlds’ emerged. Informed mostly by the guests, each of whom seemed to create their own world within ours, I sought to create an evening where all these worlds could mix and maybe create news ones.
Venue
Given the guestlist, menu and entertainment to follow, the venue for the party needs to be a blank canvas. I’d have nothing more (or less) than a marquee in a beautiful green field anywhere in England on a perfect summer evening.
Menu
I’d ask Francis Mallmann to cook for us. His blend of hospitality, grandeur and authentic cuisine is completely inspiring. As a chef he abandoned a successful career in French cuisine to return to his native Argentine roots. He served the International Academy of Gastronomy a nine-course meal of only potatoes and never looked back. I’d leave the menu to him.
Entertainment
No one can create ‘other worlds’ like Mr. David Bowie. His music and theatrical narratives have always been a source of inspiration and I’m sure he’d provide just what our party needs throughout the evening.
My Guest List
Possibly the one person in history I’ve most wanted to share a meal with. Not only an amazingly talented chef in his own right, but someone that connected the two joyful worlds of travel and food in a non-pretentious way; equally comfortable with a glass of Château Lafite as he is a paper cup of mezcal. Sadly, living too vividly by the quote “Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park.”, I’d have to seat him far from Pattie Smith.
Although I’m not a Buddhist in a religious sense, there has been at least one of the monk’s books on my bedside table for at least 20 years. His perspectives have not only helped me through some rough spots in life but have been really influential on my design perspective. The focus on mindfulness and simplicity can really inform the difference between lifeless minimalism and something that is focused and joyful. I’d seat him with Lynch because they both exist on an extradimensional level.
This Czech theatre designer captivated my imagination when I was at university. Although I was studying photography, I spent my spare time doing technical theatre. Svobada was generations ahead of his time, creating immersive theatrical worlds through lighting and animation and inventing the systems to do it as he went. This is someone who was doing ‘projection mapping’ before the invention of colour film. What I loved was even though he was creating the technology, it was done to serve the expression of the art and not just for the sake of invention.
Pattie Smith
Poet, songwriter, artist and activist, I’ve always admired Smith for her unrelenting expression and uncompromising world view. She’s strong but not unkind and without humour. I like that no one can really find a box to put her in and when life has thrown a barrier in her path, she’s simply worked harder than everyone else. I’d also love to get some extra Mapplethorpe gossip.
David Lynch
I’m still feeling a sense of loss over his recent passing. Lynch was magical to me on so many levels. His work seemed to weave impossible worlds out of thin air. He built this bridge between an artistically complex world and the everyday. It still blows my mind that Twin Peaks was actually shown on mainstream television. His ability to pluck actors and musicians out of obscurity and thrust them into stardom was something Warhol talked about, but Lynch actually did.
Audrey Hepburn
How can you not invite Audrey Hepburn to diner? The actress and activist’s life story has always transported my imagination into other worlds. From classic films to the realities of world war I’d imagine she’s got endless chat. This is someone who just by walking across a room seems to create a whole narrative around the act. My daughters are coming to an age when we can start watching some of her films and it’s great to share her story (warts and all).
Wesley Meyer, Creative Director, f.r.a.
Wesley is the Creative Director at f.r.a., a design studio focused on unlocking the full potential of the built environment. Their work creates experiences at the intersection of architecture, interior design and brand by delivering wayfinding, placemaking and environmental graphics at every scale. Meyer’s career has spanned more than 20 years working on projects globally and is a frequent contributor and speaker in the media and organisations within the design and built environment industries. He leads the award-winning creative team at f.r.a across studios in London and Shrewsbury delivering projects in retail, residential, hospitality, workplace, life sciences and culture.