Interior as Identity: The Spatial Truth of Brand
When people talk about brand identity, they often mean logos, messaging, or tone. But the moment someone enters a physical space, like a hotel or a store, they’re inhabiting the story that brand wants to tell. At that point, theory meets lived reality. And more often than not, there’s something I call the "experience gap".
1. From Narrative to Space
Design theorists describe this as narrative architecture: the translation of values and intent into spatial relationships and materiality creating “stories you can walk into.” For hotels and retail, this means layout, light, texture, and circulation aren’t optional, they’re the content. If your interiors can’t reflect core values in touch and tone, the brand is hollow.
2. The Multisensory Imperative Most people assume design is about visuals, but perception is multi-sensory. Temperature, acoustics, weight, orientation affect how we trust, relax, or engage. A warm light or a quiet corridor is not “styling", it’s emotional. This is especially critical in hospitality. When people are tired, alert, hungry, curious: their nervous systems register whether a space supports them or performs at them. No visual identity can fix a room that feels off.
3. Identity is Tested in Space
Does your interior deepen the brand experience or distract from it? Is the layout intuitive? Do materials age well? Does light shift throughout the day with intention? These aren’t style questions, they’re structural. They reveal whether a brand has been lived into, or merely designed around. People may forget the cushion fabric or the wall color. But they remember how the space made them feel.
Why This Matters
If your work touches hospitality, lifestyle, or experiential brand presence, then interior identity is not decorative or an afterthought, but it needs to be foundational. It either holds the brand or exposes its incoherence. Which means when a space is aligned, the guest doesn’t need to be convinced. They come back for exactly that feeling.
Photos I shot at Astikon House in Athens recently.
