No Walls Studio’s ‘anti same old, same old’ approach elevates their left-field work for placemakers

For a company called No Walls Studio, the research, brand and design agency’s work has everything to do with walls and the spaces they contain within them. The Chicago-based agency works with placemakers to create brand worlds for spaces that will resonate with the people living in and using them. For anyone coming across the work of No Walls Studio for the first time, their name is especially interesting, given how their approach isn’t bound by the limitations of what’s been done before when it comes to hospitality or real estate branding. They’re here – as they say – to work with placemakers that are eager to break the mould.

With a tight core team, the agency goes all in. “We’re always trying to push the envelope on what a spatial brand can stand for and how that gets executed in everything from amenities to wayfinding to the scent in the corridors,” says Founder Jake Rynar. In this conversation, Rynar and Founder Andrew Johnson take us into the inner workings of the agency, revealing how their insightful understanding of spaces, and hence, their brands, always hinges on two things – people and culture.

“We do a lot of work to understand the end user, cultural context, and core genius of our customers.”

Jake Rynar
Founder

“We’re slowly shifting the role of brand in placemaking and trying to move the goalposts.”

Andrew Johnson
Founder