Checking Out: Daniel Montaño

Barcelona, the city of Gaudí, is your hometown. Were you inspired by the great architecture?
I clearly remember my attraction to his work – or, better said, the emotion it conjured. How different and free-flowing his work was from everything else around it. It shattered my concept of progress and time. His was a reminder of what could be possible.

Have you employed anything about Gaudí’s design into your own work?
Gaudí’s work reminds me never to underestimate the power of collaboration. His ideas required a single vision, but he benefited from the input of master craftsmen to refine and shape the work along the way.

You include the word “branding” so much in your explanation of your work. How do you think retailers consider branding?
Understanding the importance of branding is universal today. How to create it, improve it and leverage it is more complicated. Customers’ brand perceptions are influenced by so many variables that retailers have a tough time wrapping their arms around it all. Most retailers function within compartmentalized and isolated departments, but customers see brands as interconnected experiences. We help our clients tie all those variables together.

“Communication” is another hot industry term. How do you explain what you mean by that to your retail clients?
By “communication,” I mean the architecture of messages: what, where, why and how. The in-store experience begins with what happens before the visit.

Healthcare is becoming a new frontier for retailing. Talk a little about the retail elements that go into such a non-retail environment.
Our approach to healthcare design follows the same principles we use for retail design. We shape the “patient” experience using a mapping process and ensure that all the design elements are aligned.

So a classic consumer experience?
Not exactly. We focus on how to address an altered mind state: When patients visit the doctor, they are ill and often defensive, so we craft an experience that removes anxiety, bringing calm and clarity to the process.