Setting New Standards
The award-winning retail experience innovation agency, Outform, is leading the future of in-store shopping with cutting-edge design and technology. Building on its strong foundations in retail, the company is now expanding into the hospitality sector, applying the same principles of immersive design and customer engagement to a broader range of environments. As we look to better understand what they offer their clients, Johan Holm Thornhammar, Senior Vice President Hospitality, explains to RLI how they transform spaces into immersive brand stories and enhance customer journeys.
In today’s world, hospitality is now undergoing the same pressures that Outform has long addressed in retail; shifting customer expectations, compressed timelines, lack of consistency and the need for staying relevant.
Technology is key to tackling these challenges and sits at the heart of what the company does – from driving transformational guest experiences and turning spaces into an ever-changing platform, to enabling a technology-driven procurement system that streamlines FF&E (furniture, fixtures and equipment) specification, pricing transparency and sourcing a global supplier network, as well as supporting their in-house manufacturing.
“Building on our decades-long track record of delivering complex, experience-led brand environments worldwide, hospitality is a natural extension of our core strengths – an integrated model that seamlessly connects design, production, procurement and technology,” highlights Johan Holm Thornhammar, Senior Vice President Hospitality at Outform. “With the broader convergence of customer expectations and lifestyle sectors, this felt like the right time to expand further into this space.”
Johan feels that the customer experience is no longer defined by how much a brand or destination offers, but by the care with which it curates and the intentionality behind every detail. Guests increasingly value environments that offer experiences built on authenticity, substance and wellbeing. They expect these spaces to work as hard operationally as they do emotionally.
“But keep in mind the pace with which expectations shift; what is true today might mean something completely different tomorrow! This means physical environments must not only be coherent and cohesive experientially but they also need to be designed for and allow constant renewal. We call it the ever-changing platform.”
People today no longer separate shopping, socialising, working or resting. These all work together to form individual lifestyles. As such, destinations must serve these multiple needs at once and hospitality has grown to become the connective tissue across the spectrum. This convergence has been driven by both functional and emotional needs such as aspiration, community, time scarcity and the demand for places that offer purpose and relevance.
As we move the conversation onto how Outform is leveraging its expertise in retail storytelling and experiential design to shape hospitality environments that go beyond traditional models, Johan highlights that “Brand is the promise we make; Customer Experience is the promise we keep”.
Over the years, retail has taught the business that storytelling is multi-sensory, spatial and behavioural, not decorative. They apply this to hospitality by shaping environments where materials carry meaning, flow feels intuitive and every detail and feature reinforces the promise of the brand. Their integrated approach ensures the story survives the different phases of concept, sourcing, production and installation. This creates hospitality spaces with depth, intention and long-term relevance, delivering on any promise.
“We design for emotional cadence, creating immersive environments that balance clarity, calm, contrast and comfort. Long dwell time comes from frictionless experiences: acoustic comfort, natural materials, intuitive tech and lighting that guides the mood. Whether retail or hospitality, spaces become memorable when they feel engaging, effortless and restorative. The goal isn’t simulation, it is creating places people naturally want to stay in and come back to,” Johan explains.
They position hospitality as a strategic layer, not a standalone category and lead with the experience. It enhances every other component of a destination. When considered early, hospitality increases dwell time, improves emotional engagement, diversifies revenue and elevates asset value. Outform help clients integrate hospitality thinking at the masterplanning level, so it becomes a unifying force, not an amenity.
Focusing on digital elements that enhance ambience, clarity, personalisation and operational ease without overwhelming the guest, this includes elements such as extending the pre- and post-customer journey, seamless check-in flows, integrated lighting systems, digital storytelling and interactivity. Johan comments that the goal is not more technology, but better technology and tools that augment or facilitate the experience and allow guests to move through a space feeling supported and inspired, not managed.
“Experience-led hospitality has become one of the most powerful levers for improving destination performance. It extends dwell time, encourages repeat visits, increases retail conversion, extends hours of traffic and activates spaces that might otherwise sit dormant. For landlords and developers, hospitality is no longer optional, it is a core driver of value creation across mixed-use portfolios,” says Johan.
Instead of forcing uniformity, Outform designs flexible systems that allow global brands to adapt and enable localism as a living narrative. Authenticity emerges when a space reflects both brand identity and local relevance and when done right, it allows spaces to come alive with the soul of a society, its people.
Johan feels that hospitality will become the anchor layer in destination ecosystems, embedded not just in lobbies or F&B, but in circulation spaces, social zones, work areas and wellness concepts. He says to expect more hybrid environments, more focus on renewal cycles and greater emphasis on comfort, acoustics, wellness and integrated technology.
“Brands that embrace integrated hospitality can unlock new revenue models, deepen loyalty, activate underused space and differentiate through experience rather than price. Thinking beyond format allows brands to become ecosystems, not just places, transforming it into an ever-changing platform,” Johan remarks.
“Our vision is to shape the future of hospitality by creating environments designed for constant renewal, spaces that refresh as fast as expectations. We aim to connect creativity with execution, ensuring design integrity at scale through our Think, Make, Run model. Our role is to help brands dare to innovate and to make that innovation real, practical and ready for the world.”
Meet us at HD Expo in Las Vegas May 5th -7th at booth 4961
For more information, please visit: www.outform.com
