What about Ikigai
Beautiful Pieve Ligure in Liguria
For us, Ikigai is less a theoretical framework and more a lived practice: a way of folding work into life so the two nourish each other. During our three-week road trip in Italy — from bustling piazzas to a hike through the mountains down to San Fruttuoso — we found that the visual cues, proportions and craftsmanship that occupy our thinking in retail, hospitality and store design followed us everywhere. Trying to “switch off” didn’t mean closing our design sensibilities; it often meant opening them in new, unexpected ways.
What about holiday
When your work is close to your identity, breaks are rarely binary. Stepping away from deliverables can take many forms. On trips where curiosity guides you — pausing to touch a doorframe, studying the seating layout of a small café, or chatting with a local artisan — you’re not producing outputs, but you are harvesting impressions. Those impressions let the core of what you love and do well breathe and rearrange itself quietly.
We saw it most clearly through our children’s eyes. They pointed to small things: an edge, a color pairing, an unusual tile. Their attention reminded us that design begins with observation — those tiny nuances that shape how a place feels. Seeing through them sharpened our own vision and reminded us why we design spaces and identities in the first place.
Details from Bologna
The hike down to San Fruttuoso was emblematic: after hours of effort, there’s a clarity that settles in. When the body rests, the mind wanders through scale, light and rhythm. We talked through details — not as immediate briefs, but as ways to reconnect with simplicity and honesty. That is where our ikigai sits: the intersection of passion, skill, impact and viability.
A rugged hike through the mountain to San Fruttuoso
What about design
For a design studio like KIND, travel doesn’t switch our work off; it reshapes it. Inspiration can come from a curb in an Italian village as easily as from an innovative retail concept in Copenhagen. When we return, it’s often the small observations — how light falls across a surface, how an entry feels inviting, how tiny elements signal quality — that feed our most precise ideas. Those ideas are stronger because they grow from experience rather than obligation.
This isn’t a call for everyone to “work on holiday.” Some people need to disconnect fully, and that’s essential. For us, it’s about creating conditions where curiosity and presence can coexist without pressure. That mindset elevates experiences in retail, hospitality and store design because great solutions reflect how we live, not just how things look.
So what does this do for our work? It makes it more alive and more honest. When life and work blend in the right way, design becomes not only smarter but more human. Perhaps that is the essence of ikigai: finding meaning in what you do so you wake up wanting to do it again.
Parkhotel Mondschein in South Tyrol
Discover more about our approach and projects in retail, hospitality and branding at kindcph.com
or give us a call +45 7025 1925.
Ikigai = The reason to get up in the morning
KIND is a way of living.
It’s a respect of time and skills.
A way of cherishing the beauty of everyday life.
Believing in the value of craftmanship.
Being present and focused.
KIND Design is our promise.
Our promise to bring out the best in every detail.
To refine the extraordinary and the wonderfully simple.
To greet history and challenge the present.
To unlock secrets and tell new adventures.
KiND is our way of living.
Be kind.