Sophy was our first cocktail bar build and an important step into hospitality, interior-led venue design and customer experience.

The project involved taking a renowned local property and giving it the attention, care and creative direction it needed to become a highly sought-after bar. We were originally brought into the project for design and marketing support, but the process developed into something broader, giving us hands-on experience across the build process, interior decisions, venue positioning and the detail required to bring a physical hospitality concept to life.

The aim was to create a bar that felt fun, moody and memorable. Sophy needed to strike the right balance between sophistication and mischief: polished enough to feel premium, but playful enough to feel alive.

That atmosphere was shaped through lighting, music, layout, visual identity and the overall customer journey. The lighting design helped create warmth, intimacy and late-night energy, while the playlists were built to move the room naturally from relaxed drinks into a more social, dance-led atmosphere.

The project required an understanding of how every detail affects the way people feel in a space: the first impression when they walk in, how long they want to stay, what they photograph, what they remember, and whether the room encourages conversation, drinking, movement and repeat visits.

Sophy became a real-world introduction to the relationship between design, hospitality and commercial experience. It showed how a venue can be shaped not only through branding and marketing, but through mood, lighting, music, customer flow and the feeling created in the room.