In any hospitality environment, beyond the dramatic lighting and furniture lies a series of subtle details you might not even notice — until you get tasked with designing them. “I think of it like, it wasn’t until I started learning to play bass in a band that I suddenly realized there are bass lines in music,” says Stephen Dalrymple, the creative director of . “But since then, I’ve started to really care about them.” Last year, Sonia Ruparell-Martinez, an entrepreneur with a background in hospitality, enlisted Dalrymple and his small-batch furniture design and fabrication studio partners, Nathan Clarke and founder Peter Coolican, to help her reimagine products like menu holders and signboards — relatively unassuming fixtures that are nevertheless critical to day-to-day industry operations.
Ruparell-Martinez, who also works as a pediatric sports medicine physician, has an exacting eye for operational efficiency. In 2024, she founded , a hospitality marketplace that offers thoughtfully sourced options for frequently restocked supplies like soap, towels and mini-bar drinks. In growing the platform, she saw an opportunity to also develop alternatives to common signage components. Working with Coolican & Company (which she first connected with at ), she launched these through Whence under the brand . “The name is meant to feel inviting and intuitive — we’re welcoming people to a new space with signage,” she says. With hotel housekeeping, guests and ownership top of mind, designs are practical, delightful and competitively priced — a holy trifecta. Even better, the team is leveraging offcuts from Coolican & Company’s existing collection to create the products. Next up: New Neighbour lobby and guest room furniture that scales the vision up.
1
Move Past the Mundane
- Sonia Ruparell-Martinez:
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“ started with us talking about this gap in the industry that was leading to functional objects like signage being sourced through the path of least resistance — people would say, ‘I’m just going to Uline.’ That felt wrong, and the products they got were not very fun. But we also knew that if we couldn’t hit a price point, we weren’t going to sell any product.”
2
Embrace Offcuts
- Stephen Dalrymple:
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“We had this abundance of wood in our shop that is too small to turn into a furniture part but too big to throw away or burn. With that in mind, we refined a series of countertop sign-holders that use these blocky wooden supports. They check the box of being mindful of cost, but also diverting what would otherwise be waste.”
3
Spark Delight
- SD:
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“When we’re detailing a dining chair at Coolican & Company, it might have, like, eight design moments that make it something we did. Whereas with these products, the detailing is in the angle of a single cut — but at the same time, we’re haggling over half-degrees to find an angle that feels pleasing. You end up with very minimal yet well-considered pieces that don’t look thoughtless.”
4
Test and Refine
- SR-M:
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“We developed our A-frame sign by doing industry interviews to determine key needs. We learned that it can’t get too hot to carry in the sun, hence the wooden handle [also an offcut]. And we made the letters friction-fitted so that people can’t run off with them too easily. We’re constantly getting feedback, and we want to return the hospitality to our customers, making these invisible refinements that make their lives easier.”
5
Allow for Customization
- SR-M:
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“There’s pressure in the hospitality industry for every hotel brand to have its own personality — so how do we sell a product that looks different in each space? Our A-frame sign can come in any custom colour, with a handle in black ash or walnut. It’s flexible but scalable, which keeps it affordable and repeatable to deliver these small Easter egg moments in a hotel or restaurant space.”
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