Hospitality & Experience Development
End-to-end experience design and development. Hotels, restaurants, and the worlds behind them.
Coquille is French for shell. The hermit crab finds one and makes it sanctuary — then moves through the world in community, trading homes, protecting each other. We build with that same instinct: start with the raw truth of a place, honour it completely, and create something that feels like it was always meant to be there.
Coquille Creative is a solo studio led by principal Sonia Symoom. The scope varies by project: concept development, brand and positioning, team assembly, go-to-market, and the digital experience that extends the concept online. What stays constant is a meticulous eye for cohesion. Every touchpoint intentioned.
The studio slots into any team at any stage, drawn by genuine excitement for what the people around the table are building and a drive to help them realize it. On the hospitality projects, the studio takes an equity position alongside its partners, keeping creative instinct and commercial stake in the same hands.
A strong sense of place and a viable business aren't competing priorities. They're the same problem.
A decade spent at the intersection of technology and experience design — building products at Shopify, designing service systems at Athena, learning how boutique hospitality actually performs at Life House. That background makes for a different kind of developer: one who understands that the experience starts long before arrival, and that the digital world wrapping a hotel matters as much as the rooms themselves.
That discipline is rare in hospitality. It means thinking end-to-end: from the first impression online to the last moment on site, and everything in between.
I always knew I wanted to end up in the business of leisure. The creation of spaces where people make an intentional choice to step away from the day-to-day. Whether that's to share a meal, explore a new place, to be somewhere that earns their presence. I believe these are the memories that stay with you. Getting to build them, and the spaces that hold them, is an honour.
For investment inquiries, partnership opportunities, or for a coffee chat.
sonia@coquillecreative.com