Form Follows Feeling: Studio DADO Unveils a New Look Rooted in Empathy and Experience

We worked with Motto, a branding agency out of New York, to take a fresh look at our work and put words and images to our philosophy. They didn’t know any of us previously, so they were able to see who we are in new ways; ways that we even had trouble articulating ourselves. Where we ended up encapsulates the depth and breadth of who we are as designers and as human beings.

At the heart of Studio DADO’s philosophy is empathy. What should a space make someone feel? How do we create an environment that sparks joy, calm, possibility, intimacy, or all of the above? These are not abstract questions. They’re the foundation of our design process.

Empathy, for us, isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the starting point. A hotel suite, for example, isn’t just a beautiful room. It could be the backdrop for a couple’s first steps into a shared life. Or the space where a family celebrates their first vacation together. Or a place that helps give vivid meaning to a 40^th anniversary trip. These stories deserve more than pretty patterns and high-thread-count sheets. They deserve intention. They deserve soul.

Studio DADO isn’t a firm with a signature style, and that’s entirely the point. Our work is shaped by our clients, their stories, and the guests they aim to serve. We immerse ourselves in each project’s specific personality. Sometimes that means designing a ballroom with a hidden shoe rack for when the dancing really starts. Other times, it’s shaping a corridor that gives a mobility-limited guest the confidence to move independently and with ease.

We ask a lot of questions. We listen more than we speak. And we look for those small, human moments that can turn a good space into a great one. Our spaces may look wildly different from one another, but they all feel like Studio DADO; layered, intuitive, and built for life as it’s really lived.

Our best work comes from real collaboration. It means being present, curious, and deeply attuned to what a project really needs. The people behind each space are what make it come alive, and we’re lucky to work with clients who bring their full selves to the process.

We’re not here to impose. We’re here to translate feeling into form and that means knowing our clients just as well as we know the craft.

Form Follows Feeling isn’t a trendy mantra. It’s a promise. It’s a recognition that people don’t experience space in a vacuum. They experience it in context through movement, memory, and emotion. A hallway isn’t just a hallway. It’s a transition, a threshold, a moment of anticipation. A restaurant isn’t just a place to eat. It’s a place to gather, to celebrate, to pause.

With this new brand expression, Studio DADO is giving shape to something that’s guided us all along: a belief in human-centric, emotionally resonant, rigorously crafted design. The new identity may come with new fonts and colors, but at its core, it’s about depth. About clarity. About owning what has always been true —that we design not just for the eye, but for the heart.