Dinner With a Designer

Join our award-winning hospitality design studio, Way of Normal — recently recognized for Bar of the Year 2025, Frame Magazine — for an immersive evening exploring how hospitality design goes far beyond aesthetics to shape human behaviour, emotion, and connection.

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The experience begins inside our studio, where guests will step into our creative process firsthand. We’ll unpack the evolution of hospitality spaces from initial concept to final execution — sharing preliminary sketches, iterations, challenges, mockups and the intentional thinking that sets our work apart in the design world.

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In partnership with Monica Blain from Mount Royal University’s Interior Design program, we’ll explore how foundational design principles become tools to challenge convention. Together, we’ll discuss how today’s hospitality designers must become observers of human behaviour — tuning into the subtle ways people move, gather, connect, and experience space.

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From our studio, guests will then tour two of our latest hospitality projects: Stable Palms Club and The Pali Room which is located across the street. The evening culminates in a curated dining and cocktail experience within the atmosphere we helped create, offering the opportunity to fully immerse in the layered sensory experience of hospitality design in action.

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The night concludes with an open Q&A forum where our lead design team is happy to explore topics such as design process, storytelling, human-centred hospitality, and the future of experiential spaces.

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Speakers: Joel Riep
Landon Anholt
Monica Blain