An AmCham Member Company Profile
Art at Work
How AmCham Member Featuring Spaces is Building Brands and Shaking Up Corporate Office Design
With a finger on both Norwegian and global trends, Featuring Spaces is helping companies redefine Norwegian restaurants, hotels, and office spaces with dynamic paintings, photos, and installations – many produced locally from the company’s Skøyen headquarters.
Featuring Spaces is among a select group of actors that is bringing Norwegian office, hotel, and restaurant design to fore, with Norwegian design steadily gaining more and more acclamation in design-oriented international publications such as Monocle.
However, Featuring Spaces Art Consultant Tinius Greve notes that this was not always the case.
“Ten years ago, the scene here in Oslo and Norway was much more dormant. Now it’s completely different, you have hotels and restaurants competing on the world stage, and this competition extends to design as well – Norway is really making a name for itself.”
“If you start off telling them what they need, instead of listening to what they want, you’re not building a great framework for a collaborative relationship. What we focus on is asking our clients what they like before we do anything else – and after that, we can go wild with different suggestions.”
Tinius Greve
Featuring Spaces
Tinius and his colleague, Featuring Spaces Director Einar Halto, work hand-in-hand with clients to bring together diverse pieces that range from limited run prints of American rapper Tupac Shakur to commissioned work from Norwegian artists as Sofie Vesterøy. It is all a part of an open creative process that unites office design with a company’s overall brand profile – a process where listening first and advising second is key.
“We approach each and every client differently. We do a lot of research before we meet, looking at their communications profile to understand what image or message they want to convey and figuring out how our works can contribute to that message,” Greve says.
“If you start off telling them what they need, instead of listening to what they want, you’re not building a great framework for a collaborative relationship. What we focus on is asking our clients what they like before we do anything else – and after that, we can go wild with different suggestions.”
A Testament to Collaboration
Evocative of this collaborative approach to working with clients is Featuring Spaces’ work for fellow AmCham member Hotel Continental.
“In the beginning, they just needed some framing,” Greve recalls with a laugh.
“Then we had one meeting, another after that, and soon enough, six or seven more. We really tried to understand what they were trying to do, and after a year, we were playing a key part in the most extensive refurbishment in the hotel’s history, providing everything from custom works to framing, of course.”
By utilizing both commissioned work by Norwegian artists as well as works from around the world, Featuring Spaces effortlessly fused the traditional with the contemporary, deftly blending local notes with global influences to create a uniquely Norwegian, yet distinctly cosmopolitan style evocative of the hotel’s storied international history.
- Artists: Sophie Vesterøy
Skøyen Production
The Miami Connection
Featuring Spaces is represented in the US by sister company ICArt in Miami, where they have numerous projects and have participated in the Cruise Ship Interior Expo. While ICArt retains a distinct maritime profile, Featuring Spaces aims to leverage ICArts US footprint to establish itself stateside, providing an important launching pad for Norwegian artists looking to break into the US market along the way.