Hi, I'm Barrie.

I build brands for places people actually walk into: clubs, cafés, wellness studios, and the programs that give people a reason to show up.

Over fifteen years in, mostly leading brand and design teams, most recently running the entire brand function for a members' club in midtown Manhattan. That job taught me more than any brief. When you sit close to the programming, the partnerships, and how the rooms actually get used on a Tuesday, you stop designing for a deck and start designing for the person deciding whether to come up.

Three things guide how I work.

Beauty comes first. A space, an invitation, a menu card only works if someone wants to stay in the room with it.

Foundation is what makes beauty last. The identity system underneath every touchpoint, built so one good idea survives fifty events instead of one.

Innovation is the seasoning. A detail, a format, a small risk folded into something that already works, never a gimmick standing in for craft.

They're tools, not a hierarchy. I look for the beauty and the simplicity in everything I make, and I hold the small details to the same standard as the big idea, because guests notice both.

If you're opening something, renaming something, or trying to get a brand to hold together across fifty touchpoints, I'd love to hear about it.

Contact
barrie.connell21@gmail.com