Offline rules: The Paris bar where Twitter and Facebook are discouraged

The bar is designed to encourage members to engage more with the environment and the people around them, and will nudge visitors away from using devices by purposefully not providing wifi.

Practising what it preaches, L’Isolé will push nearly all promotion offline, except for its Instagram account. ‘We don’t prohibit our customers or members from using social media in our club, but we’re encouraging them away from it,’ creative director and co-founder Guillaume Le Donche tells LS:N Global. ‘All of our promotion is by print and postal service, and we’re also doing collaboration items such as a silk scarf, an apron and more besides. We will sell these in stores outside the club, and word of mouth will spread – our definition of ‘viral’.’  

The founders of the bar, tucked away in the red light district of Pigalle in Paris, enlisted the help of Le Creative Sweatshop, which designed the primary colour-led interiors featuring royal blue walls and a poppy red floor. Glass has been used to surround the staircase and for presentation cases displaying ceramics as a tribute to Italian design collective The Memphis Group. Read our Portfolio feature on Le Creative Sweatshop here. 

The name of the bar translates as ‘The Isolated’, perhaps referring not only to its hidden location, but to its decision to cut itself off from the vast networks of social media. L’Isolé is part of a growing movement away from the intensity of constant social media engagement. Our Behaviour Insight report examines how Britons are increasingly turning away from digital overload and seeking offline experiences.