30 Korean Spatial Branding Agencies: A Practical Comparison Guide

When walking around Seongsu or Hannam, there are times when each store can be read as a single sentence. When signage, entrance flow, textures, employee uniforms, packaging, and even playlists point in one direction rather than being separate.

That's the difference between interior design and space branding. Interior design is about beautifully implementing a given brand into a space, and space branding is about deciding what the brand is and then translating it into spatial language. The starting point is different.

The problem is that in Korea, the two are called interchangeably. If you look at the portfolios, they all look similar, but when you actually sign a contract, some places start with brand naming, while others only draw drawings. So, we organized the 30 places by their characteristics. Whether it's competitor research or references, looking at this list in a row can cloud your judgment.

Standard divided into three branches

• Cluster A — This is where the brand starts. We first decide on strategy, naming, and BI and then come down to the space. It most accurately fits the description of a space branding agency.
• Cluster B — Starting point in space. Strong in interpreting brands in spatial language. Click here to see the latest grammar of retail visuals.
• Cluster C — A place with a strong architectural and interior design tendency. Although it is not a branding company, it has great benchmarking value as it has good commercial space references.

A place to start from the brand

1. LABOTORY

• URL: labotory.com
• Personality: BX + space + furniture + SI
• Representative work: INC Coffee, YUN, various F&B, hotels, and retail
• Characteristics: He defines his work as “Create brand experience through space.” Rather than creating a space and then fitting BI into it, we design naming, graphics, space, signage, and product experience under one concept.
• What you should know: At INC Coffee, we participated not only in the space, but also in branding, application design, and communication. If you want to see just one place to understand what space branding is, this is the most direct.

2. Service Center

• URL: service-center.kr
• Personality: Brand Strategy + BI + Space + Content
• Representative work: WERK Roasters, Burgershop, Raw & Sweet, Small Good Coffee, Compose Coffee brand renewal
• Features: A branding studio started in Busan. Our personality is very different from companies that only create BI, and our brand identity is comprehensively handled, including interior design, music, customer experience, and social media.
• Points to note: If you are creating an F&B brand, this structure of strategy → name → graphics → interior → content → operation experience is a good benchmark. WERK is an example they bring up repeatedly when explaining their point of view.

3. GLOW SEOUL

• URL: glowseoul.co.kr
• Nature: In-house from planning to construction and operation
• Representative works: Cheongsudang, Hot Springs House, Oasis 80, Chahong, Suwon Starfield Project
• Features: Founded in 2016, it has the most unusual business structure on this list. The real estate, planning, space design, construction, landscaping, art, branding, video, menu development, and operation teams are all in-house, and we directly handle everything from planning to operation.
• What you need to know: This is a model that does not just sell design, but also the space business itself. Cheongsudang announced that it will directly operate a branch in New Jersey, USA, and develop F&B brands in nine countries by 2026. It is good for comparison in terms of scale and commercialization.

4. Collective B

• URL: collective-b.com
• Personality: Brand/commercial space consulting
• Representative work: SEOUL MADE brand experience space
• Characteristics: We position ourselves as a brand and commercial consultancy rather than a company that only designs space.
• What you need to know: This team has expressed the view that in space branding, the brand should be placed at the center rather than the space itself. I use it when referring to the consulting perspective of commercial facilities and properties.

5. Z_Lab

• URL: z-lab.co.kr
• Personality: Place Branding, Hospitality
• Representative works: Blind Whale, Breathe Hotel, Breathe in Jeju, Nuwa, Nujung, Upflo Hostel
• Characteristics: This is the team that best demonstrates the concept of turning the space itself into a brand and product in Korea. It is a design collective that spans planning, branding, architecture, space design, and styling.
• What you need to know: Blind Whale is an early example of turning an old Jeju stone house into an independent lodging brand, and Breathe Hotel is a project that involved not only a space designer but also a brand designer and a project manager. If you are a business where the place itself is the product, like a hotel or stay, you must see this.

6. Be My Guest

• URL: bemyguest.co.kr
• Personality: Brand consulting + F&B and hospitality
• Representative works: Osulloc, Innisfree Jeju House, Tea Stone, SSG Food Market, Sulwhasoo, Primera, Donginbi, Capella Yangyang
• Features: Founded in 2004, it is the oldest axis on this list. We design comprehensively from initial concept to final implementation across F&B, art, graphics, fashion, media, and space.
• Points to note: If you look at the project list, there are a lot of Amore Pacific affiliates. If you want to see our process for dealing with large corporate clients, here is it.

7. NONE SPACE

• URL: none-space.com
• Personality: Spatial branding, space planning
• Representative work: Sonocalm Gyeongju
• Characteristics: Analyze the purpose, commerciality, and locality of the space and specify that it be made into a space that speaks to the brand's identity and philosophy.
• What to know: There is a clear approach to translating locality into brand language. It is worth reference if you are preparing a local-based project.

8. SAM Partners

• URL: sampartners.co.kr
• Personality: Integrated BX + spatial experience
• Representative work: corporate showrooms, brand spaces, AI centers
• Characteristics: Starting as an integrated branding company, we are expanding our scope to include actual space design and space strategy projects.
• Points to note: Unlike the previous studios, this is a large-scale comprehensive branding company. This is useful when viewing the proposal structure of a corporate project.

9. studio XYJ

• URL: xyjxyj.com
• Personality: The intersection of branding and interior design
• Representative work: Retail/F&B space
• Features: Self-described work as a cross between interior design and branding.
• Good to know: Although it's not large, it has one of the clearest positioning statements, so it's great to see how a small team defines its territory.

10. DOID Design

• URL: doid.kr
• Personality: From Identity to Space
• Representative work: Commercial/brand space
• Features: It is pursuing the direction of identity as a space.
• What to know: As it advocates an approach that extends identity into space, it is worth taking a look at potential competitors.

Group B · Where we start from space

11. WGNB

• URL: wgnb.kr
• Character: Integration of retail, architecture, and furniture
• Representative works: Musinsa Standard Seongsu, Innisfree Flagship, JUUN.J, Polène Seoul, SVRN Chicago, Kansong Art Museum Daegu, Kohler Studio
• Features: This is a studio established by Director Baek Jong-hwan in 2015 after working at Wolgak Associates for 10 years. We treat architecture, interior design, and furniture as one brand experience rather than looking at them separately. Rather than adding a logo or color to the space, we translate the brand concept into physical properties, structure, and movement lines.
• Good to know: Its awards history is the most spectacular on this list. It was selected as Studio of the Year at the 2018 ICONIC AWARDS in Germany, Designer of the Year at the FRAME Awards in the Netherlands in 2020, and Designer of the Year at the Dezeen Awards in the UK in 2021. We are currently working on projects in the US, UK, France and Italy.

12. Studio Fragment

• URL: frgmnt.kr
• Personality: Spatial branding, fashion retail
• Representative works: 29CM Seongsu, Musinsa Seongsu, Musinsa Daegu, MINJUKIM Anguk, Kolon Sports Hannam, Le Beige, OUR Bakery Sungnyemun
• Features: Founded in Seoul in 2018. It states that it connects architecture, interior, furniture, graphics, and branding into one experience, and Spatial Branding is a separate work area.
• Good to know: "The store as the brand's clearest sentence" on the site reflects the studio's point of view. If you are looking for recent Korean space branding references, this is one of the first places to look.

13. BY SEOG BE SEOG

• URL: byseog.com
• Personality: Space Strategy + Brand Experience
• Representative works: Runner Station Yeouinaru Station, YUN Pangyo, Taste & Taste Seongsu Flagship
• Characteristics: The work areas are divided into Brand Experience Design, Space Strategy, Space Identity Planning, Spatial Design, Furniture & Lighting, and Exhibition Experience. Just looking at the name, it is quite close to space branding.
• Remember: Rather than simple decoration, we take an approach that studies the nature and purpose of a space and designs an experience that users will remember. The fact that it also deals with public space is also where it differs from other places.

14. Studio Unravel

• URL: studiounravel.com
• Personality: Space + Brand Content + Art Direction
• Representative works: Nonfiction Seongsu, MO-NO-HA Seongsu, Jeongsaemmul 101 Seongsu, Super Matcha Seongsu, Genesis Retail Store Content
• Characteristics: We work in a fairly wide range, from architecture and interior design to brand content, art direction, and installation art.
• What you should know: This is a team that represents the mise-en-scène of so-called Seongsu-style contemporary retail. It is a good reference when setting the tone of a fashion/beauty brand's space.

15. NIIIZ Design Lab

• URL: niiizdesignlab.com
• Personality: Fashion/retail space
• Representative work: acmé de la vie, etc.
• Characteristics: The fashion flagship and commercial space segments are particularly strong. We are introduced as a spatial design studio with experimental and bold visuals.
• Good to know: It has a strong tone. It is not suitable if you are looking for a quiet, minimalist reference, but is suitable for projects that need to leave a strong impression.

16. H(office)

• URL: hoffice.kr
• Personality: Fashion·F&B Retail + Branding
• Representative works: No Manual, Bad Blood, 999Humanity, Espoir, Whipping House Seongsu
• Features: Recent domestic fashion retail references are especially good. I worked on a number of stores and pop-ups for brands targeting people in their 20s and 30s.
• Things to know: This portfolio is the fastest way to see how far the visual grammar of Seongsu and Hannam stores has come these days.

17. DEEF Design Studio

• URL: deef.kr
• Character: Concept-oriented commercial space
• Representative work: eFULLY, Lantern Light
• Characteristics: Rather than simply interior design for an F&B brand, space concept keywords are drawn from the brand slogan to design the design.
• Things to know: eFULLY derived the spatial concept of ROLL & MINGLE from its brand strategy. This is the clearest example of the process of translating brand language into spatial concepts.

18. stof.

• URL: stof.kr
• Personality: Spatial Experience
• Representative works: Flat Point Seongsu, PONT, FELT, DDP Store
• Characteristics: This is a relatively young team, but their spatial language is clear.
• Points to note: Flat Point Seongsu used a method of adding brand color and experience on top of regionality. If you are looking for a sensitive F&B/retail reference, this is the most recent one worth checking out.

19. COV Studio

• URL: covstudio.com
• Personality: Retail/F&B interior
• Representative works: OY Seoul, Honeybee Seoul
• Features: Although it is focused on commercial interiors, the level of completion in transferring the brand tone to the space is stable.
• Good to know: This is a good reference when you need an organized retail space rather than a flashy experiment.

20. Studio Eccentric

• URL: studio-eccentric.com
• Personality: Hospitality experience
• Representative work: F&B, hotels, retail, showrooms
• Characteristics: Positioned as designing the Ultimate Hospitality Experience through an architectural approach.
• Note: It is useful as a control when comparing hospitality references with Z_Lab.

Group C · A place with a strong tendency toward architecture and interior design

21. Teo Yang Studio

• URL: teoyangstudio.com
• Personality: Luxury, culture, Koreanness
• Representative works: Hansot Flagship and HQ, SJYP Flagship, EATH Library Showroom, Kansong Art Museum, Yeol × Chanel, Vacheron Constantin, Samsung Bespoke × Eastern Edition
• Features: This is the studio of designer Taeo Yang. It is a multidispensary studio that specializes in space but also deals with culture, crafts, brands, and products, and its scope is wide, from Seoul City consulting to the National Museum.
• Good to know: He is well known for his work connecting traditional Korean culture and modern spaces, and was also selected as one of Architectural Digest's AD100. In this area, there are few domestic substitutes.

22. NBDC

• URL: nbdc.kr
• Character: Retail/Large commercial facility SI
• Representative works: Mellower Seongsu Flagship, E-Mart The Town Mall, Retrokit Hannam, Lotte World Mall Giftium, Hyundai Department Store ARTSPACE
• Features: Covers a wide range of scales, from small furniture and objects to interior design and architecture. Rather than directly creating a brand identity, we are closer to a SI specialist who translates brands into spatial language.
• Good to know: This is a great candidate when you need experience in a large commercial facility. As the scale grows, know-how in this area becomes necessary.

23. Fabrikr

• URL: fabrikr.com
• Character: space + installation + object
• Representative works: Cafe Onion Anguk, Cafe Onion Plaza
• Characteristics: This is a studio that moves between objects, installations, furniture, and space, centered around Kim Dong-gyu and Kim Seong-jo. The official site is also divided into Furniture & Object, Installation, and Space.
• Note: What's interesting about Onion is that rather than erasing the existing context of a region and duplicating the same store, it chose to build different spaces and content for each region. If you want to see how to turn an old space into a brand asset, this is a great example.

24. GGJH

• URL: ggjh.kr
• Personality: Retail VMD, spatial UX
• Representative works: The North Face, ZOOC Seoul, MAGJAY Starfield Suwon, AVEN Starfield Suwon, Hankook Tire related spaces
• Features: Describe your work as sensory spatial design and user experience. Rather than a traditional brand strategy company, we are a studio that solves retail space and VMD from a UX perspective.
• Points to note: There are many references to stores located in department stores and shopping malls. We look at this when spatial strategies within distribution channels are needed.

25. Joongho Choi Studio

• URL: joonghochoi.com
• Personality: Product, furniture, space, branding
• Representative work: Commercial space and furniture projects such as Dorobo
• Features: This studio is led by designer Choi Joong-ho and handles Product, Furniture, Spatial Design, and Branding. Rather than a traditional space branding company, we are closer to a designer studio that bridges the boundaries between industrial design, furniture, and space.
• Good to know: Dorobo handled the entire branding, space and furniture design. It is suitable for brands that need to connect everything from product to space with one design language.

26. Plot M

• URL: Search by Platm
• Personality: F&B, fashion, lifestyle
• Representative works: Via In Kino, Life Books, grds, Pay Attention Coffee
• Features: It's a fairly old studio, but it's important for seeing the flow of Korean commercial space design. It crosses F&B, fashion, living, and lifestyle.
• Note: You can see grammar that is slightly ahead of the recent trend. This is useful when you want to trace back where your current Seongsu style came from.

27. Design Studio Minwoo

• URL: Instagram @designstudiominwoo
• Personality: F&B/retail interior
• Representative work: Compose Coffee space identity, JM Coffee
• Features: We were in charge of space identity in Compose Coffee's rebranding along with the service center, and work on independent F&B spaces is also confirmed.
• Good to know: This is a great example of how a branding studio and a space studio divide roles on a project.

28. Studio EAEA

• URL: Instagram @studioeaea
• Personality: furniture + space + pop-up
• Representative work: HGBB Studio pop-up
• Features: Although small in scale, the way it flows from furniture to pop-up to space is interesting.
• Points to note: This is an example that shows the order in which a small team expands its territory, so it is worth reference if you are preparing for a studio.

29. Design by 83

• Search by URL: design by 83
• Personality: Hospitality/Interior
• Representative work: F&B and many commercial spaces
• Characteristics: This is a place where the emphasis is on interior completion rather than branding.
• Note: When comparing the space quality itself, it is included as a candidate.

30. SAM SEOUL

• URL: sampartners.co.kr
• Personality: Expanding from integrated branding to space
• Representative work: Enterprise AI Center, Brand Space
• Characteristics: As part of the SAM Partners family, this is a case that has brought integrated branding capabilities to the space.
• Good to know: This is a reference point when comparing the differences between a studio-type organization and a comprehensive branding company-type organization.

Summary comparison table

So who should we consider our competitors?

30 places should not be placed on the same line. It is divided like this according to purpose.

District 1 — A real contender. LABOTORY, Service Center, GLOW SEOUL, Collective B, Z_Lab, Be My Guest, NONE SPACE, Studio Fragment, studio XYJ, SAM SEOUL. These are companies that are closer to creating a brand and implementing it into a space than designing a pretty space.

Group 2 — For observing design quality and trends. WGNB, BY SEOG BE SEOG, Unravel, H(office), NIIIZ, DEEF, stof., COV, Studio Eccentric, NBDC. It's great to see where the visual grammar of the Korean retail space is going.

Group 3 — References by specialty area. Stays and regions are Z_Lab, F&B brands are Service Center, fashion for those in their 20s and 30s is H(office), fashion luxury is WGNB, luxury and Koreanness is Teo Yang, large-scale F&B and commercial commercialization is GLOW SEOUL, commercial facilities and properties are Collective B, and sensitive F&B is stof.

Eight new places to see

This is the list of places that are worth checking out right now, rather than places whose names have already been established.

1. GLOW SEOUL — In-house from planning to operation. Size and commercialization model can be compared
2. Collective B — Approaching space branding from a consulting perspective. Put the brand at the center rather than the space
3. NONE SPACE — Analyzing the purpose, commerciality, and regionality of the space and converting it into a space that speaks to the brand philosophy
4. H(office) — Domestic fashion retail reference is the best right now
5. stof. — Young and clear spatial language. Flat Point Seongsu adds brand color to regional characteristics.
6. NIIIZ Design Lab — Fashion commercial space with experimental and bold visuals
7. studio XYJ — Directly asserts the boundary between branding and interior design
8. DEEF — Space concept keywords are extracted from the brand slogan. eFULLY's ROLL & MINGLE is an example

finish

As I organized the 30 locations, one thing became clear. As the term space branding becomes popular, almost all interior design companies are using this expression, and only about one-third of them are actually involved from the brand strategy stage.

The way to tell them apart is simple. You can check whether the portfolio page only has drawings and photos, or whether there is a description of why this concept was created. Places that use the latter are those that started out as brands, and places that only use the former are well-made interior design companies. Both are necessary, but they are not something you can buy for the same price.

You can expand the list further to 50 or 100, but from that point on, the quality of analysis deteriorates as a large number of general interior design companies are mixed together. A pool of 30 primary competitors in the domestic market is sufficient.