The ice cream shop experience

This article is part of a series on the future of architecture and design. We hope to inspire conversations about creating a better world for tomorrow, together.

Article by Robert Fiorino

Through time, people and places in your life will change. However, some things remain embedded – feelings. Why we get them, when and how, is a singular experience. The happiness a child projects, as they enter their favourite ice cream shop – delight from start to finish. There is no downside to this experience. Or taking a bite from your favourite sandwich – every layer having its own specific purpose, creating a beautiful composition of taste. Perhaps it's sitting around a table, enjoying a meal with those close to you. You don’t have to speak the language to bond. There is an innate intimacy to sharing a meal.

For me, I vividly remember how I felt playing with Legos as a kid. Yes, Legos might be an obvious toy for a future architect, but they were so effective looking back now. They sparked curiosity and represented a concrete link with life’s possibilities. My only limitation was the amount of carpet space I had. The blocks fostered a drive to build and create something that otherwise existed in my mind – resulting in a sense of astonishment and achievement at a young age. The association of that memory, and the feeling that toy created, elevated that plastic block into a different realm of purpose that I still associate with to this day.

I have always held a deep association and connection to brands, fuelled by feelings and experiences.

Brands exist to articulate an experience and speak to a story within oneself, based on a certain point in your life. My relationship with brands changed alongside my worldviews, my age, and my self-perception. To quote a good friend, “once you change the way you look at things, the things you look at, change”. My filter was continually changing whether it was through a short sports career, close family losses, studies, new and old relationships, or the emergence into professional life. Brands have lasting power, whether we like it or not. The good ones figure out a way to reflect what’s necessary in a moment in time to stay relevant, becoming driven by purpose. They became the backdrop to my emotional state of mind – happiness, depression, achievement, or failure. Brands captured my trust, loyalty, and emotions for one reason or another. In developing our new identity and approach, we never strayed from what makes Lemay special and memorable. We found ourselves using words like joy, delight, and generosity to frame what we set out to achieve as designers.

A truly great brand is a feeling. It’s a relationship. It’s a memory – like visiting an ice cream shop or sharing a meal. Its story becomes an invitation to become a part of something bigger. With the new collective shift from “me” to “we”, brands can also represent hope for future generations. Their newfound responsibility as social and environmental stewards afford them the ability to affect real change. Let’s all be accountable. Now is the time to come together, move forward, and affect real change.

Think of a brand you believe in. How does it make you feel? Hopefully, it’s your own ice cream shop experience.

Read the full article on our emotional connection to brands and how that informed Lemay's new brand, here.