About

Our Origin Story

In the fall of 2015, the founders of Origin met for lunch and ended up talking halfway to dinner. Recognizing a shared passion for problem-solving and a need in the design industry for both more empathic design and smarter, leaner processes; Kevin Denlinger and Brian Tolman began a journey to what we call Design with Purpose.  After building a design team for Convene, and opening award-winning hospitality-infused workplace, meeting, and amenity spaces across the US and UK, they decided to blend the owner-side operational savvy, a zeal for technologically driven leanness, and a deep commitment to creating spaces that inspire, into a new place-making consultancy.

Welcome to Origin.

With over 20 years in the design industry and a decade of collaborating as a team, we bring experience in the workplace, hospitality, F&B, and retail sectors to a world where lines are blurring, and attitudes and uses of spaces are converging.  We think that “breaking bread” is the new “breaking bread”, and coffee will always be a part of work and home.  Origin is poised to deliver for a new world, with shifting paradigms.

We are a next-generation design firm, delivering design excellence through seamless adoption and development of design technologies, our proprietary integrated delivery platform, OASIS, and our belief in listening and observing before acting. Driven by our pioneering industry perspective and a genuine understanding of operations and business drivers, we pay attention to the details, in design, delivery, and operations.