We sat down with Design Wolf founder Aseil Amgheib to reflect on the future of design and her workspace at Cornerstone Studios.

After meeting Aseil Amgheib in her studio on a quiet afternoon, it’s clear how deeply her background in interiors shapes her approach. From her workspace within Cornerstone Studios, Eat Work Art’s reimagined Georgian townhouse location, light stretches across the room, a space that feels at once a productive sanctuary and a calm, welcoming environment for both team and clients. It’s the kind of studio that invites thinking in layers rather than on screens alone.

Since moving into Cornerstone Studios in late summer, her practice has shifted in pace and scale, a change that feels less like expansion for its own sake and more like alignment. Aseil is the founder of Design Wolf, a studio known for building brands that prioritise structure, story and longevity over surface appeal. It’s no secret that, for successful brands today, experience matters more than finish. Branding, in her view, isn’t a static output but something lived across environments and materials.

“Because my background is in interior architecture, I’ve always approached branding in the same way,” she explains. “It’s about purpose, structure and experience. Every logo, visual system or campaign we create is designed to work across touchpoints, digital, physical, spatial. It has to function in the real world, not just exist as a nice graphic.”

That insistence on intention runs through how she sees the wider role of studios evolving. For Aseil, the shift is already well underway. “Brands aren’t just looking for a logo anymore,” she says. “They want partners who understand their business, their audience and their long-term goals. Good branding isn’t about trends, it’s about clarity and building something that can grow and adapt without losing its core.”

Design Wolf sits comfortably within this space, working at the intersection of strategy, storytelling and culture. Much of the studio’s work happens at moments of transition, helping founders translate vision into something coherent, scalable and emotionally grounded. It’s within this broader reflection on the future of design work that Aseil touches on the changing tools shaping the industry.

When the conversation turns to the future of design, Aseil is measured. The rise of AI is unavoidable, but she resists framing it as either threat or solution. “Rather than replacing designers, AI is changing how we work,” she reflects. “It’s speeding up ideation and allowing us to spend more time on strategy and direction.” What remains central is judgement, authorship and human connection, qualities that can’t be automated and are becoming more valuable precisely because of that pressure.

The studio itself has become an active part of this evolution. A larger, dedicated space has allowed Aseil to bring clients into the process, “inviting people into the studio, lay projects out and talk things through face to face.” In this way, she knows that “branding becomes an experience, not something that just happens behind a screen.”

The move, as well as being embedded within a wider creative community, has also supported a shift from freelancer to founder, and showcased the power of shared intent. Taking part in Cornerstone’s inaugural Open Studios in October last year, just weeks after moving in, offered an early moment of exchange, positioning Design Wolf firmly within our network. The environment has sharpened Aseil’s sense of where the studio sits and where it might go next.

As Design Wolf enters this next phase, the work feels rooted rather than restless. The right space hasn’t dictated direction, but it has created the conditions to think more expansively and work more deliberately. For creatives considering what comes after the early years, it’s a reminder that environment is not neutral. Sometimes, it quietly shapes everything.

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