How Emily Cunnane Turns Everyday Design Into a Secret Weapon for Business Success—and Why You Can’t Afford to Ignore It
Ever wonder what it takes to transform cold, clinical corporate spaces into vibrant, storytelling hubs that actually feel alive? Well, Irish designer Emily Cunnane just pulled off a masterclass in this very art—landing the gig to outfit three of Fin’s six global offices. Now, Fin isn’t just any tech company; it’s a bona fide Irish unicorn shaking up the AI helpdesk scene. And they didn’t reach for some big-name, far-off design firm—they went local, picking Emily, a design maven who treats interiors like cinematic sets with a sprinkle of Wes Anderson whimsy. This isn’t your typical rinse-and-repeat office makeover. Instead, it’s about fusing function with delight, mixing bold artworks and warm hues to breathe personality into spaces that could’ve easily been another row of grey desks and generic walls. So, how do you design for a company on the cutting edge of AI, while keeping it welcoming and surprisingly human? Emily’s got you covered, reshaping offices not just as workplaces but as narratives that build brand reputation one room at a time. Intrigued yet? Dive deeper into how this visionary Irish designer is rewriting the rules of commercial interiors and why her approach might just be a sign of the future.
Having recently completed the fit-out of tech unicorn Fin’s global offices, Irish designer Emily Cunnane talks to Alanna Gallagher about her ethos and how she marries function with delight
When it came to fitting out three of its six global offices, Irish tech unicorn Fin (previously Intercom) shopped local, selecting Dublin-born designer Emily Cunnane who was tasked with how to physically convey the company’s AI business.
Her approach was to humanise the steel and glass spaces with Wes Anderson-influenced fit-outs that feel like film sets.
If the first dot-com boom saw offices with mini basketball hoops, foosball tables and decent coffee on tap, the bar has been infinitely raised in the quarter of a century since.
The 2.0 décor era was heralded in by Google’s first purpose-built campus, which officially opened to workers in 2022. Located at Mountain View in Santa Clara County, California, near its existing HQ, the Bay View campus was one of two new Californian developments by the tech titan.
The other campus, Charleston East, opened in 2023 and featured what was christened a ‘dragon’s scale’ roof.Both were designed by London-based Heatherwick Studio and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).
This design team replaced AHMM as lead architects on Google’s groundscraper Platform 37 at King’s Cross, London.
In Dublin’s docklands, tech firms have changed the skyscape. Google’s re-imagining of Bolands Mills was overseen by Henry J Lyons.
In more traditional business districts, Facebook took over hallowed ground on Ballsbridge for its campus. The site of the AIB centre there was designed by Andrew Devane of Robinson Keefe Devane (RKD), who had studied under Mies van der Rohe, while Mola Architecture created the look for Pinterest’s EMEA office on Dawson Street.
Now Fin, founded in Dublin in 2011 by Eoghan McCabe, Des Traynor, Ciarán Lee and David Barrett, has tapped an Irish designer for three of its six offices worldwide.
Fin provides helpdesk software and introduced its first AI product in 2018, debuting a self-titled service agent in 2023. Salesforce recently announced it will acquire Fin for $3.6 billion.
When Fin wanted to upgrade its London, Dublin and Chicago offices, it chose Emily Cunnane (who also goes under her Irish name, Emily Ní Chuinneáin), an interior designer who approaches space, mood and volume as if she were a set designer.
It was co-founder and CEO Eoghan McCabe who spotted her work. “The CEO is Irish and saw my Instagram,” she says. “It was so random. He lives in America.”
McCabe had someone from the office get in touch. Providing service products to over 30,000 businesses and currently with about 1,400 employees acrossits six offices, which are in San Francisco, Chicago, Sydney, Berlin, London and Dublin, Fin’s offer was quite the coup for the Irish designer who lives in Portugal.
Fin’s Dublin office is considered a significant hub. Cunnane has been on an upward trajectory herself. She upped sticks during Covid, sold the home she and her partner shared in Stoneybatter, Dublin 7, and moved to Cascais, south of Lisbon, to (as she puts it) see if she could make working worldwide work for her.“I’m here [in Portugal] doing my designs on my laptop and come home every six weeks or so, or go to a project location,” she explains.
Cunnane recently moved the business from having a residential focus to concentrating on commercial clients. “In commercial you have more ownership of what you present and of the ideas. I pour a lot of myself into it.”
The Fin gig is a big boost for a small creative firm. Original artworks drive the visual narrative. Between the London and Dublin offices there are some 120 pieces. Fin was looking for something with personality, Cunnane explains.
“Offices can be very generic, very grey and white. They wanted someone to work with their branding team and Fin’s new branding. I had a lot of meetings with Scott Smith, Fin’s branding director, teasing out how it might feel, [ensuring] that it would be welcoming, somewhere the team would want to hang out.”
Cunnane brought in a mix of local makers, artists and artisans to collaborate on the project, which is part of her design DNA. She keeps note of every idea that she likes and files it away on a spreadsheet to recall for future projects. “Art plays a huge role in adding that human touch,” Cunnane says.
She chose artists whose work is more figurative than abstract and who were working within the same warm palette she had chosen, using colours such as orange, red and yellow.
Technology played a role in the creation of some too. These include Irish artists. Enda Burke was selected because “his pieces almost look like AI. There’s a David Hockney quality to them.”
Burke builds sets and the image is a photograph of one.Peter Smyth’s colourful, abstract paintings start life as observations of ecology, with 3D models and digital printouts made first.Cunnane has designed three of Fin’s six offices, Dublin, London and Chicago, re-imagining them almost as set pieces rather than the typical corporate look.
Wes Anderson influences abound, but so too do references to the sector the firmworks in. While art set the tone, Cunnane then coloured in between the lines. The story and personality of Fin’s brand is told through a mix of art and furniture, not job lots of corporate art, she says.
This collaborative approach has served up an edgy space with a filmic feel, a little dystopian and also future-looking, perfect for an AI company.The Dublin office is an utterly contemporary building on St Stephen’s Green’s western side, large and set over three floors.
Its top floor features glass and terraces that frame Dublin city centre views.This is also a multi-tasking location that has to perform several roles within the company.
By day it’s a place where colleagues can gather, have a coffee or collaborate over lunch. By night it completely changes personality. Its three-metre-high tambour doors glide back to reveal a tomato red interior that is in and of itself mood-changing. The fact that it’s a bar also enhances a different mood. The design is by Wicklow-based Bear Creation.
At the same time as Cunnane was pitching the idea to the tech unicorn, she was also working on her own positioning in the commercial space. She hired branding specialists Conor Clarke and Ruth Maria Murphy to help with her reinvention. Clarke is an industry veteran who created identities for the Road Safety Authority (RSA), the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) and 2fm, to name just a few.
Murphy’s photography has appeared in international style bibles such as Architectural Digest, Elle Decoration and House & Garden.Clarke and Murphy collaborate on such branding projects.
They recently worked on the developmentof furniture company Jaqi, which opened a retail premises on Charlemont Square, Dublin, last November and has just launched a second space in Malahide.
Murphy had previously photographed Cunnane’s designs. “Having landed the Fin gig, she had new eyes on her work. She engaged with artists early in the schedule and incorporated them into the schemes,” Murphy says, explaining the reason for Cunnane’s tagline, “artful interiors”.
The key word is consistency, Clarke adds. “Your brand is your reputation. It is a hugely commercial and valuable asset. She’s sending a strong message. It’s not your beige boardroom table. It’s a whole different approach to a contemporary workspace environment.
“Most people will never get to walk through those spaces. Fin can use those images as a calling card and as an expression of what the brand is. It’s an atmosphere, reputation building through interiors and environment.”
Photo: Emily Cunnane.
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