Helping people navigate and experience the world around them
Holmes Wood is the leading design company specialising in the creation of beautiful and effective design solutions that help people navigate and experience the world around them.
Blending aesthetics and function, our multi-disciplinary team of designers combines unique expertise to produce award-winning wayfinding, graphics, placemaking, information design, exhibition design, branded environments, print and motion graphics.
Taking into consideration both the bigger picture and the granular detail, the team combines creative flair with commercial knowhow to achieve maximum impact for clients.
We simplify and solve complex challenges
Whether it’s enabling visitors to wander intuitively around a museum, or supporting a passenger’s journey through an airport, our aim is to simplify and solve complex challenges linked to space, place and the built environment.
A lot of what we do is about looking after people. Helping them feel comfortable and safe by providing the tools they need to access and understand their environment. And enabling them to interact with their surroundings in a pleasurable, practical and meaningful way. It is wayfinding in its broadest sense, which is about more than just putting signs into buildings and landscapes.
We focus on creating people-centric, context-relevant designs that will stand the test of time and deliver lasting value to our clients and the people that use them.
Our work begins with insight
Whatever the challenge, we use research, combined with common sense, empathy and an understanding of human behaviour, to inform our design strategy.
Our work begins with insight. Meeting all the elevant stakeholders linked to a project, we gain a thorough understanding of a space and organisation. We immerse ourselves in the dimensions and dynamics of a place. We collaborate closely with clients to understand the problem they need to solve, or the experience they need to enhance. This could mean providing interaction with an exhibit or a brand. It could mean provoking a sensory response to a rational structure. Or it could mean unblocking bottlenecks and helping people navigate a building.
We create design solutions for spaces that don’t yet exist, and help improve people’s experience within spaces that do.
To achieve a balance
In all our design work, we try to achieve a balance between the state of being ‘comfortably’ and ‘uncomfortably’ lost.
Based on John Maeda’s thesis that there is “an important trade-off between being completely lost in the unknown and completely found in the familiar”, we modulate our approach to suit each client and environment. For example, we want visitors to feel ‘comfortably lost’ in a gallery, but reassuringly ‘found’ in an airport.
In all our design work, we try to achieve a balance between the state of being ‘comfortably’ and ‘uncomfortably’ lost.
Based on John Maeda’s thesis that there is “an important trade-off between being completely lost in the unknown and completely found in the familiar”, we modulate our approach to suit each client and environment. For example, we want visitors to feel ‘comfortably lost’ in a gallery, but reassuringly ‘found’ in an airport.
We offer a genuinely holistic design service
From strategic visioning to graphic design, product design and delivery, we offer a genuinely holistic design service few companies can match. Our integrated skillsets enable us to address the aesthetic and functional aspects of design with equal weight and ability.
Bravery, honesty, thoughtfulness and respect are the hallmarks of our work – qualities which enable us to build unique working relationships with our clients:
Bravery to push the boundaries of design.
Honesty to speak our mind, question key elements of a project or suggest new directions.
Thoughtfulness and respect for the people who will interact with our designs, as well as for our clients and each other.
It’s an ethos that breeds trust and understanding, enabling us to collaborate freely with clients and consultants as we create our design solutions.
Bringing our experience to advise on social distancing
With the current social distancing measures, we're bringing our experience to help people safely move through spaces.
We apply critical thinking and in-depth analysis to ensure that people still get the high-quality experience they are used to and consider all aspects of their journey, from their initial arrival to when they leave.
Our analysis of people movement means we can advise on how best to control the flow of visitors while minimizing queues and maintaining social distancing.
There's no typical Holmes Wood client
We work within the cultural, transport, retail, educational and development sectors, among others.
- Cultural
- Transport
- Retail
- Educational
- Development
Our multi-disciplinary team has a range of skills and capabilities
Drawing on our expertise, we specialise in the following areas of design:
Wayfinding
Graphic design
Placemaking
Information design
Exhibition design
Product design
Branded environments
Motion graphics
Print and publications
We work with partners from a variety of specialist areas
In addition, we work with partners from a variety of specialist areas. These include architects, engineers, artists, lighting designers, landscape designers and sound experts who help us create fully integrated design solutions.
In particular, we collaborate with digital specialists to connect the physical environment with a sophisticated virtual experience, including pre- and post-arrival information to help engage, inform and inspire.