A creative studio for hospitality

We design the feeling of a place

We find the idea behind a place, then carry it into every moment a guest will remember.

Tell us about your project

01Where we start

Before we ask what it should look like

  1. What story belongs here?
  2. What should guests feel when they arrive?
  3. Why would someone remember it?
  4. What could happen here that couldn't happen anywhere else?

02What we do

Five kinds of work.

Most projects need a few of them. We bring in trusted specialists when a place calls for it.

Envisioning

What a destination could become, before it's designed.

Vision and positioning · The big idea · Place narrative · Hospitality concept · Naming · Experience principles · Amenity and programming ideas · Mood and visual direction · Creative workshops · Cultural research

Brand story & strategy

What the place stands for, and how it speaks.

Positioning · Brand story and pillars · Personality and voice · Naming · Verbal identity · Messaging · Story architecture

Visual identity

A visual language that could only belong here.

Logo systems · Typography and color · Graphic language · Art direction · Print collateral · Environmental graphics and signage direction · Guidelines

Experience curation

Moments, rituals and surprises worth retelling.

Guest Experience Mapping · Arrival and departure · Rituals · In-room moments · Food, wellness and family ideas · Nighttime and seasonal programming

Creative direction

One world, held together until opening day.

Creative vision · Narrative briefs for interiors and landscape · Brand and spatial integration · Photography and illustration direction

  • Chef at the counter at Diptico, crane logo glowing behind
    Diptico, Café Omakase
  • Diptico awning with a white crane over the café entrance
  • Wooden trays engraved with cranes, holding small plates
  • Bartender garnishing three cocktails on a Diptico tray
  • La Ondina mermaid sign on a stone wall
    La Ondina, Private Residence and Wellness Retreat
  • Stone path through trees to a modern lakeside house
  • Emerald La Ondina tote bag carried against stone
  • Móberg bottles displayed in a sandstone canyon room
    Móberg, Icelandic Haute Parfumerie
  • Móberg fragrance bottle set into dark stone
  • Incense burning in a red-lit Lac & Lumière alcove
    Lac & Lumière, Boutique Hotel
  • Lac & Lumière script logo embossed on grey paper
  • Red and blue Lac & Lumière amenity bottles
  • Lac & Lumière key card sleeves on orange
  • Woman walking into the softly lit Lac & Lumière entrance
  • Chacha lettering set in a green mosaic floor
    Chacha, Matcha Joint
  • Bottle of Chacha matcha liqueur held against pale green
  • Munay paper bag with a croissant against blue sky
    Munay, Artisanal Bakery
  • Cream Luna Roja tote bag with red moon embroidery
    Luna Roja, Boutique Hospitality Collection
  • Two figures in a lit OBMI entrance hall
    OBMI, Architecture Firm
  • ANA Design Group logo in dappled leaf shadow
    ANA, Architecture Firm
  • Large O letterform over an escalator
    FOB, Software Devs.
  • DWNTWN billboard glowing above a city street at twilight
    Downtown Dadeland, Urban Lifestyle Destination
  • Blue DWNTWN registration desk against an orange lettering wall
  • Orange DWNTWN shopping bags with blue handles on blue
  • Orange DWNTWN wayfinding totems on a palm-lined shopping promenade
  • Yellow DWNTWN umbrella with a soft dot pattern

Details create memory

A path. A sound. A table under a tree. A midnight swim.

Graphite sketch of a swimmer diving into calm water

03The stay

A stay is a story in sixteen chapters.

Guest Experience Mapping follows the whole arc. We find the few moments that deserve design, and leave the rest alone.

Discovery · Booking · Anticipation · Arrival · First impression · Room · Exploration · Food · Wellness · Recreation · Ritual · Evening · Sleep · Morning · Departure · Memory

  • Anticipation

    The confirmation email

    Three weeks out, it already sounds like the place.

  • Evening

    A ritual before dinner

    Ten minutes that turn a schedule into a tradition.

  • Memory

    The story at home

    What guests tell their friends. Ideally, in words we wrote.

In good company

Hospitality Brands our team has worked with across hotels, resorts and residences.

Logos of hospitality brands our team has worked with: Raffles, The Ritz-Carlton, Six Senses, St. Regis, One&Only, Rosewood, Andaz, Fairmont, Oil Nut Bay, Jumeirah, Four Seasons, Waldorf Astoria, Autograph Collection, Curio Collection by Hilton, Hilton, Auberge Resorts Collection, Hyatt Centric, Marriott, Kimpton, W Hotels and Park Hyatt

04Working together

We sit beside the architects.

Okinah works with architects, interior designers, landscape architects, developers and operators. We bring the story that lets every discipline design toward one idea.

We like to arrive early, while the building is still a drawing. That's when an idea can still shape the plan.

We speak every team’s language.Two decades inside design studios, from plans to operations.

We protect the concept.A clear story survives value engineering and opening day.

We give owners a story to say yes to.So they can feel the place before it exists.

05Luna Roja

The Luna Roja family

Work you can sleep inside.

Luna Roja Collection is our own family of private residences and stays, designed under Francesca's creative direction.

It's where our ideas meet real guests every night. We test rituals there before we suggest them to you.

Visit Luna Roja Collection

06The studio

Founder & creative director

Built on twenty years of places.

Francesca Prado spent more than eighteen years inside architecture studios, telling the stories of hotels, resorts, residences and whole destinations before they existed.

She reads plans fluently, thinks in stories, and is a little obsessed with the one detail a guest will mention ten years later. She leads every project herself, in English or Spanish.

Francesca Prado

Follow me on LinkedIn

The name

A name with a story.

Okinah comes from a fascination with Japanese Noh theatre, storytelling, symbolism, and a culture that takes space, ritual, craft and good design very seriously. So, naturally, we felt right at home.

Mysterious, theatrical and entirely intentional. A name for ideas with presence, the kind that stay with you long after.

Red ink sketch of a Japanese daruma doll

07Portfolio

Portfolio · on request

Eighteen years of hotels, resorts, residences and destinations, for some of the world's leading luxury hospitality brands.

Request a curated portfolio

08Begin

Tell us about the place.

What it is, where it is, and what you believe it could become. Rough is fine.

We read every message and reply within two working days.

studio@okinah.com