How SPACEBASE Designers Collect References

Perhaps inspiration is not a flash of brilliance but the product of diligent records built up day after day. For designers who draw a complete space from a blank page, gathering references becomes the very skeleton of great design. To design offices that keep pace with the latest trends while blending seamlessly into a company's organizational culture, where does the SPACEBASE team usually find inspiration, and how do they manage it? From the team's vivid list of bookmarks to the way they curate and reflect on their references, we introduce the meticulous archiving methods that are uniquely their own.

Image: AI-generated

1\. The Fastest Compass for Catching Inspiration: Digging Through Overseas Websites

Image courtesy of yellowtrace

Online platforms, where countless portfolios and fresh visuals pour in every single day, are the fastest and broadest reservoir of inspiration for designers. The SPACEBASE team, too, frequents high-caliber architecture and interior websites both at home and abroad to catch the latest trends. From magazine websites that spotlight innovative spaces from around the world to specialized sites where you can glimpse the delicate texture of a finishing material or a bold color match, the range of platforms they favor is wide and varied.

“Through Dezeen, we get the fastest read on architecture and interior trends worldwide. In particular, we mainly reference overseas projects that use bold forms or innovative materials to expand our sensibilities. On sites like Yatzer or Yellowtrace, we look at how distinctive finishing materials and furniture come together. They're a great source for the detailed ideas that breathe life into an office space that might otherwise feel flat.” — SPACEBASE team designer

Image courtesy of Yatzer

But the SPACEBASE team's reference gathering does not stay within the monitor. Going beyond the images on screen, the whole team sometimes heads outdoors to experience, with their entire bodies, the distinctive atmosphere and sense of scale that only a real space can offer. They visit high-end furniture showrooms in Nonhyeon-dong to check the proportions of furniture and the tactile feel of materials firsthand, and at times they tour museum exhibitions to study how lighting and circulation shape the way a work is perceived. This process of sensing and verifying on offline sites what they have broadened through online digging becomes the solid foundation that lets the team turn flat design proposals into dense, fully realized spaces.

Image courtesy of SPACEBASE

Image courtesy of SPACEBASE

2\. Feeling the Materiality Beyond the Pixels: Subscribing to Print Magazines

Image courtesy of Monthly Design, Monthly Deco, Bob

We live in an era where everything has been digitized to be fast and convenient, yet SPACEBASE still subscribes to and reads major design magazines from home and abroad, including <Bob>, <Shopfront Architecture>, <Monthly Design>, and <Monthly Deco>. Through print magazines, you can take in the texture of paper and the information conveyed by printed color, things a monitor screen can never fully capture. You can sense, with your eyes and hands, the dimensional editorial vision and the depth of the text that are unique to magazines. In this way, they offer the SPACEBASE team, who grapple so intensely with the materiality of real spaces and the stories of brands, a firm inspiration of an entirely different texture.

“Unlike online digging, where you search only for the keywords you want and consume them quickly, with a paper magazine you sometimes stumble upon an unexpected idea in an unfamiliar texture or an in-depth article you happen to meet while turning the pages. Beyond simply chasing trendy forms, they also serve as references when we need to give a client's space its own unique story and concept.” — SPACEBASE team designer

Image courtesy of Shopfront Architecture

3\. Beyond Collecting: Archiving That Designs the 'Why'

More important than collecting references is how you apply them to the actual design of a space. After an overall concept meeting, each SPACEBASE designer searches for sample images by zone, and on that basis the team holds another full meeting. At this point, one very special rule unique to SPACEBASE comes into play. The images finally chosen through the meeting must be saved back to the server with their 'reason for selection' noted. It goes beyond simply gathering visually pretty images in a folder; it means recording clear justification for 'why this finishing material and this lighting must be used in this space' and sharing it with the team is the point.

“At first, the process of annotating every single image with a written reason felt cumbersome. But as these records accumulated, we became able to propose and persuade clients with solid logic rather than a vague hunch. The original design intent stays steady to the very end and miscommunication among team members disappears, so in the end it has become a powerful weapon unique to SPACEBASE that prevents unnecessary revisions or rework.” — SPACEBASE team designer

Image courtesy of SPACEBASE

These days, we live in an era where, with just a few clicks through AI, you can effortlessly collect and browse a vast trove of references. But rather than the speed of efficient technology, the SPACEBASE team chose the 'autonomous logic' earned when designers search, look, and reflect for themselves.

Rather than simply scanning pretty results, the designers go out on foot to feel the materiality of the site and chew over magazines and a variety of references, intensely working out for themselves 'why this design was applied to this space.' The SPACEBASE team believes that this time of reflection, of endlessly posing questions to countless images and giving them logic, is ultimately what determines the direction and density of an office design.

Going forward, the SPACEBASE team will keep refining the perspective and attitude that only a designer can bring, things no technology can replace, and through records imbued with our philosophy will steadily expand the way we see space.

👇🏻Want to know more about how the SPACEBASE team works?

[Explore the SPACEBASE Team Story]