Bringing Hospitality into Design: Human connection leads to better work

Dahlia worked as an Art Director, Designer and Owner/Operator of multiple hospitality businesses for 15 years before starting her own specialized Food&Bev Banding & Packaging studio in 2020. Shifting from operating hospitality shops into running a design studio, she wanted to retain the spirit of hospitality and has built the studio around the ethos of bringing people together. Dahlia believes that enriching experiences and shared human connection is what makes work meaningful, memorable and more fun. Good experiences create good memories, which is what brings people back.

Learn how her studio, Public House, offers personalized experiences by incorporating key hospitality principles such as proactive service, empathy and attention to detail. Learn how these simple yet crucial hospitality skills can be brought into all aspects of running a studio, from forging lasting client relationships, building a strong network of collaborators to creating work with character and depth. It also makes work more fun and enjoyable.

Key takeaways will include:

• A breakdown of key principles of hospitality and how they apply to both serving clients and the creative process.
• She will break down how to approach onboarding, milestones and launch through a hospitality mindset, which leads to smoother projects overall.
• Learn how to build open and trusting relationships with clients, which unlocks insights that lead to branding work with personality, depth and longevity.

About Dahlia Ishak

Dahlia has 15 years of experience as an agency brand designer and art director. This flexibility has allowed her to also be an owner-operator of multiple hospitality businesses. In 2020, Dahlia founded Public House, an award-winning branding & design studio with a focus on Food & Beverage businesses.

The studio launched as an initiative to support local hospitality shops in response to pandemic closures and has since grown to serve local and national clients in the Food & Beverage, Hospitality and Start-up sectors.

She is passionate about creating thoughtful and memorable brands with personality that foster community and connection.

Dahlia also teaches Graphic Design and Design Entrepreneurship to foster the confidence to use creativity to build things from the ground up.

Her work has been awarded and published in various media including The Dieline, Applied Arts, Monocle Magazine, Eater, Fast Company and Food Business News. Her studio, Public House Studio, has been named top 5 agencies to watch for 2026 by The Dieline.