Born from a love of travel, hospitality and lifestyle, Abound is a strategic design studio for a new wave of forward-thinking, experience-makers reshaping our cultural landscape.
Our Story
We believe in the power of design and creativity to enrich lives, and in a world where business and brands can add both cultural and commercial value to the communities they live in.
Over the course of our careers we've travelled the world to partner with likeminded businesses to redefine the way we live, work and travel. Together we've created category defining concepts, brands and experiences people love and keep coming back to.
Living Feeling Brands
Design You Feel
Our ethos and values guide us – collectively acting as a lens to uncover new perspectives and meaningful design stories that become vibrant platforms of discovery.
Curious about the ideas, customs and behaviours of people and their lifestyles. How we choose to live, eat, work and play. We put people and place at the centre of our thinking, to uncover what matters most, we design with empathy.
In-tune with our surrounds, we are conscious about craft and impact, both socially and environmentally. We design with purpose and provenance – bringing likeminded people and partners together, to inspire and grow communities.
Inspired by our love of travel and creativity, we look for fresh ways to see and to be. Seeking the authentic and meaningful, to inspire new ideas, evocative stories and authentic experiences that elevate the everyday.
Our work spans continents as well as areas of speciality. Our Founder, James, is a creative hybrid who works as a designer, strategist and innovator at the intersection of brand and design. He’s spent his career directing the creation of some of the world’s most progressive hospitality, travel and lifestyle brands. Including London’s game-changing Hoxton Hotel and IHG’s fastest growing brand voco™.
Having led a string of successful collaborations agency and client side, with high-profile architects, developers and entrepreneurs, James joined forces with his partner in business and in life, Alison, to create a design studio that enabled a collective approach, an eco-system of creative and commercial minds. The right team, if you will, rather than the only team, where the project directs the team assembly and not the other way around.
Supported by Alison’s extensive experience working with luxury high end lifestyle brands, the studio blends a real-world commercial understanding with experience working across design disciplines. A portfolio rich in narrative, each project fostering a collective mindset. A mindset that inspired Abound.
Abound captures the wanderlust of travel – discovering new cultures, immersing yourself in local life and exploring the world’s abundant beauty. But it’s also an attitude that inspires the way we work as a studio. Built on collaboration and a collective approach, our mindset embodies curiosity and optimism. Finding new ways of thinking, opening up possibilities and inspiring greater adventures. Where opportunities and ideas Abound, every day.
ABOUND
What started as a single project has grown into multi-year collaborations and new beginnings with likeminded businesses spanning continents, segments and teams.
