In coffee shops all over the world, the same set of design elements keep popping up. What is happening? This week, Quartz News looks at the global look that’s part Starbucks, part Silicon Valley, and very “Brooklyn”.
If you’re in cities like Mumbai, São Paulo, Seoul, Paris, London, Kuala Lumpur, Lagos—anywhere, really—you might notice something: coffee shops are starting to look the same.
Distinctive design elements—Edison bulbs, reclaimed wood, potted plants, exposed brick—are popping up in coffee shops everywhere. It isn’t just the design of these spaces that are becoming increasingly uniform. The expectation of enjoying beautiful, artfully-decorated, high-quality coffee has spread to places as far-flung as Auckland, New Zealand, and Atyrau, Kazakhstan. (To understand this, just follow #latteart on Instagram.)
While it’s debatable where this look originated, it has come to be associated with one place: Brooklyn, New York.
