Boutique Design - September 2019 - 64

CHARACTER
BUILDER
Denise Korn has been busy crafting
one-of-a-kind hospitality brands
and paying her success forward by
making the business and design
worlds realize each other's potential.
BY ANNMARIE MARTIN

HOW HAVE YOU SEEN BRANDING'S STORY EVOLVE AS THE YEARS PASSED?

I was drawn to the independent hotel space very early in my career. My team
and I wanted to champion owners and developers with a distinct, humancentered vision. We sought out clients with a passion for transforming what
was then a relatively prescribed hotel and travel experience and depart from
the security of the established signature brands to chart new territories. Today,
all leading brands now have their own "soft brands," and the shift has provided
hotel owners and developers the opportunity to more easily enter this corner
of the market. Our job is to help them build meaningful places that speak to
individuality and deliver guest-focused experiences.
IN GOING AFTER BRANDING ENGAGEMENTS, WHAT FACTORS GET
LOTS OF HEAD NODS DURING YOUR CLIENT PRESENTATIONS?

That's easy: ROI! The smiles break out when we talk about how the ROI of
leveraging a powerful brand platform can drive asset value and help boost
overall financial performance. We come to the table not just with an
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understanding of how independent hotel ecosystems operate, but also a
knowledge of best practices in sales and marketing, enabling us to work
across business objectives and goals. For Halcyon, a hotel in Cherry Creek,
Denver, Colorado, we worked in complete synergy with owner and operator
Sage Hospitality on a brand strategy that introduced compelling new
concepts like the "Gear Garage," to give guests direct access to a test-run of
the very best outdoor gear and gadgets, and a private pass of sorts into the
neighborhood with access to branded Vespas, bikes and longboards.
WHAT DROVE YOUR PASSIONS TO HELP NOT JUST THOSE STARTING OUT
BUT ALSO THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY REALIZE THE POWER OF A
STRONG DESIGN STATEMENT?

I founded the non-profit Youth Design because I felt the need to provide
urban creative youth in Boston with awareness, exposure, training, access
and opportunities in the design profession. From the start of my career, I
also saw a big gap in the business community's understanding of how
design and designers could have an impact in smart and disruptive ways. I
know that designers possess a unique ability to wrangle disparate viewpoints and expertise and to engage diverse people around big ideas with
new ways of thinking to realize great outcomes. I helped create forums that
brought them all together to realize that and discuss the role of design
communications and its value in smart business practices. I did this with
AIGA ( formerly known as the American Institute of Graphic Arts) as an
advisory board leader for business outreach and with civic leaders
throughout New England on the Creative Economy Council.
WHEN KORN DESIGN JOINED GENSLER HOW DID YOU ALL HANDLE
THE TRANSITION?

We like to say "the band is still together" as our team all made the move over
and established a new Lifestyle Brand Design Studio within Boston's Gensler
office. One of the primary reasons I made the choice to join Gensler after so
many years leading my own firm is because of its entrepreneurial culture and
deep commitment to its people. We feel great about our new home and are
inspired by the incredible talent and global resources that complement our
work and that we can now provide to our clients as well! £

KO R N AT C A F É H A B A N A I N N E W YO R K C I T Y ( A N T O N Y C R O O K )

FRESH OUT OF COLLEGE in the late 1980s, Denise Korn worked with an
international stable of illustrators, artists, photographers, writers and
editors at The New York Times-an experience that defined her course.
"Landing in this lane was a natural place for me and had a huge impact,"
she explains. "It ignited a passion for a deeply collaborative approach and
a crossover between culture, fashion, business, politics, etc. to tease out
great stories verbally and visually."
She's been applying that thinking to the hospitality industry since
opening her own brand design business, Korn Design, in 1992 and through
June of last year when her firm joined Gensler's Boston office, where she now
serves as creative director. While she saw the light early on about what brand
strategy could mean for independent hotel developers, it took time and
metrics to convince hoteliers that building solid brand strategies to drive
their concepts was critical to their success. "Today, 'storytelling' has become
the big buzz word. But honestly, strategic designers and communicators
have been storytelling through visual and verbal design for centuries," she
says. Here's how she's channeled her energies into creating revenue for her
long list of clients and opportunities for the community at large.

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Boutique Design - September 2019

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