People Who Design the Experience of Staying

Hello🙌 Before we start the interview, tell us about Hazel at Handys!

Hello. I'm Hazel, working on brand planning and spatial experience design at Handys.

After graduating with a master's degree in spatial design, I started my career with spatial design and planning work. Later, I built expertise in handling brand philosophy through brand planning and consulting work. Thanks to that, I've been able to view both the physical realm of space and the conceptual realm of brand together. Now, at the Handys Brand Experience Team, I'm creating moments where space and brand meet. I'm refining details to make the moments customers spend more comfortable and to allow brand sensibility to permeate through them.

Recently, while preparing Plott, Handys' new integrated brand, I'm coordinating with various teams. I'm preparing a process to help internal members empathize with and understand the brand philosophy we've created, while simultaneously planning how it can be delivered as a consistent message to external customers.

What does it specifically mean for Hazel to "design the experience of staying" as you understand it?

It means allowing customers to feel the sensibility intended by the brand throughout their entire journey, from the moment they search for a room online to when they leave the physical space they've visited offline. Since the physical aspects like spatial structure and flow differ greatly from room to room, creating identical experiences is more complex than expected. So I adjust every element—from the tone and manner of guidance text, to the brightness of lighting, to the intensity of scent, to the composition of common areas. By carefully attending to such minute details, I'm working to maintain balance so that the message the brand intends to convey doesn't waver.

I believe designing the experience of staying means implementing the brand's philosophy into actual space and operations. I'm refining the details of each moment so that customers can accumulate experiences of the same quality regardless of which location or room they visit.

What is the Brand Experience Team particularly focusing on while preparing Plott, Handys' new integrated brand?

We're clearly defining what kind of experience the brand aims to provide, and creating standards for implementing it based on the characteristics of each location.

Plott consists of five brand lines. Among them, Plott's 'The Won(院)', 'The Gak(閣)', and 'The Jae(齋)' were born inspired by the spatial hierarchy of Joseon-era royal palaces. Each brand is characterized by how it expresses the depth of the staying experience it should convey through Korean sensibility and contemporary aesthetics. To implement this mood across existing spaces and services, all team members are repeatedly experimenting by fine-tuning elements of experience. This also demonstrates the culture of 'experimentation' deeply rooted in Handys. We plan to further solidify the brand core through endless experimentation and retrospectives so that Plott's unique sensibility and contemporary interpretation resonate with all customers.

How does the Brand Experience Team collaborate?

The Brand Experience Team is a group that finds one singular texture by layering our perspectives. When solving problems, we share our individual viewpoints and create better directions together through those differences.

We have tea time every morning where we share insights with each other. Without boundaries on topics, we comfortably discuss exhibitions we visited the day before, newly discovered spaces, or small decorative items. This time plays a big role in broadening our team's sensibility. Conversations that flow naturally often become small seeds for new attempts. Field visits and external seminars don't simply remain at insight collection. When we say things like "What if we brought this feeling into our space?" and immediately reinterpret each person's discoveries from an implementation perspective, we further strengthen the team's direction.

Most importantly, a culture of caring for and encouraging each other has taken root. It's natural for us to solve problems together rather than for one person to bear concerns alone. That's why individual attempts expand quickly into team strength. The Brand Experience Team has been able to maintain stable coordination for so long because of this culture as well.(laughs)

What kind of person do you think fits well with Handys, and who would you like to work with?

I think I'd get along well with someone who doesn't get shaken when facing difficult challenges and can quickly refocus. As we work with various spaces, unexpected variables constantly arise, and the ability to not panic in those moments and quickly shift to thinking "How can we solve this?" becomes a great strength.

Another important thing is the attitude of not shouldering everything alone. When a roadblock comes, naturally reaching out to the team for help and finding better answers by borrowing each other's perspectives is both our team's way of succeeding and what Handys means by 'responsibility'. If someone can comfortably put forward even small ideas and enjoy the process of gathering those pieces and connecting them into one direction, they'll adapt quickly. I'd like to work with people who aren't afraid of trying to improve and who don't lose their center even amid change.