There’s a particular kind of coherence that only comes from thinking about everything at once. A recent project from Crown Creative demonstrates exactly that: it’s work where brand identity, interior design and digital experience aren’t just aligned, but built from the same idea.
The Belfast-based studio was working with Birch Cabins, a company providing luxury glamping pods on the 200-acre Florida Manor Estate in County Down, Northern Ireland. And Crown Creative were given the brief every designer dreams of: complete control.
From naming and strategy through to the last lighting detail, the team shaped the entire guest experience around a single organising principle: creating space for stillness. The result earned commendations for both brand and interior design at the recent Institute of Designers in Ireland awards, and it’s easy to see why.
Starting with meaning
The logotype references a 17th-century sign discovered at Florida Manor itself, lending historical weight without nostalgia. A bespoke monogram distils the brand’s quiet confidence into something that works equally well embossed on a welcome card or set into timber cladding. The colour palette (soft neutrals, warm woods, muted greens) mirrors the surrounding landscape, rather than imposing something foreign onto it.
But the real intelligence lies in how this visual language extends seamlessly into three dimensions. The same restraint and material honesty that defines the brand system governs the interior architecture.
Oak cladding unifies the kitchen, wardrobe and dining area along one wall. A sliding door conceals the bathroom, which features a walk-in shower and skylight. The bed faces uninterrupted forest views through expansive glazing. Every timber joint was aligned to maintain visual continuity. This isn’t decoration applied to architecture. It’s a single design idea expressed through multiple media.
Digital as another material
The website continues this discipline. Earthy tones, generous white space and texture-driven photography add up to a digital environment that mirrors the physical one. Soft transitions and balanced composition encourage users to slow down rather than scroll quickly. It’s not flashy, but it’s effective; conveying the experience through show, not tell.
Social media and printed materials follow the same template: typographic restraint, tactile imagery, and an atmosphere of understated luxury. There’s no jarring shift in tone when you move from Instagram to your arrival. The brand maintains its composure across every touchpoint because it was conceived as a complete system rather than a collection of separate executions.
For creative teams juggling multiple specialists, this offers a useful model. Crown Creative’s work here isn’t about one discipline serving another: brand supporting interiors, or interiors illustrating brand. Instead, every element has emerged from shared strategic thinking about what the place should mean and how it should feel.
Local collaborations deepen the story. Woven artwork by textile artist Emily McIlwaine, throws from Mourne Textiles, ceramics by Annandale Brick Works and framed pieces from Canvas Galleries all feature throughout the cabins. These aren’t arbitrary styling choices, but root the experience in local craft traditions and connect guests to the wider creative community. The physical presence of handmade objects speaks directly to the brand’s emphasis on renewal and connection, without requiring explanation.
Why this matters
So what’s the broader takeaway for creatives here? I’d argue that as more studios position themselves as full-service or multidisciplinary, the question becomes how to genuinely integrate different design modes rather than simply offering them under one roof. Birch Cabins suggests an answer: start with a clear conceptual foundation, then let that idea govern every subsequent decision, regardless of medium or scale.
When identity work stops at the visual and hands off to other specialists without a shared understanding, you get inconsistency. When interior designers treat branding as an afterthought, you get spaces that photograph well but lack narrative depth. Crown Creative avoided both traps by maintaining creative continuity across disciplines.
The project also demonstrates another important truth: restraint is harder than decoration. Every surface in these cabins could have carried more pattern, more texture, more visual incident. Instead, the studio trusted simplicity and let the forest do the work. That confidence comes from understanding not just what to add, but what to leave out.
For creatives working on placemaking, hospitality or brand environments, it all offers clear lessons. Multidisciplinary design isn’t about breadth of services; it’s about depth of thinking. And when strategy, space and story develop together from the beginning, the result isn’t just coherent, it’s complete.
