In Profile:
PriestmanGoode

Name: Ben Rowan
Company Name: PriestmanGoode
Position Within Company: Director
Website: https://www.priestmangoode.com

Tell us a little about the company background:
Founded in 1989, PriestmanGoode is one of the world’s foremost multidisciplinary design consultancies, a 100% employee-owned studio with a 35-year legacy of shaping the environments in which people move, travel and live. Headquartered in London, the practice operates at the intersection of transport, product and brand design, working across commercial and private commissions.

From this, PriestmanGoode has built ‘Private Studio’, a practice dedicated to bespoke craftsmanship, spatial ingenuity and client relationships. The Private Studio team has led the ground-up design of bespoke interiors for the Airbus A350, A330 and Boeing B787 and B737 widebodies, as well as ultra-long-range business jets including the Gulfstream G700. Beyond aviation, the studio extends this same ethos to private rail and the world of yachts and superyachts. Each commission is developed in close collaboration with the client, translating a singular vision into a fully realised environment, resolved to the last detail across architecture, materiality, lighting and finish.

How does your company approach each project from concept to completion?:
No two clients are alike, and no two projects follow the same path. At Private Studio, we work across a range of transport modes; from narrow and widebody aircraft, yachting and private rail to eVTOL and each brings different spatial constraints, different regulatory contexts, and above all, a different human being at its centre.

We begin every project with detailed research: not generic trend research, but a genuine investigation into the client’s world, their life, their aesthetic, and what they want this space to become for them. This discovery phase is what makes our proposals feel authentic rather than applied. We understand the brief deeply, we know exactly where the boundaries are and where we can challenge them. We are always looking to innovate, to bring something unexpected, to go further than the client imagined possible. And critically, what we bring to a pitch is always achievable. Our renders sit very close to the final delivered product, because we do not propose what we cannot build. Ambition and deliverability are not in tension for us; they are the same discipline.

We see ourselves as vision guardians: translating a singular brief into a fully resolved environment, attending to every detail across architecture, materiality, lighting and finish. We work in close collaboration with clients throughout, not as a service provider handing over a product, but as creative partners taking them on the journey. The client should feel part of the process from beginning to end.

We do not operate on a linear process. We are responsive, adaptive, and always honest about what is and is not deliverable, because in this sector, trust is everything.

Where inspires your company in this sector?:
Inspiration at Private Studio comes from genuine curiosity about materials, about human behaviour, about where luxury is heading. We are always looking to challenge the norm, to push further creatively and to find solutions that are more innovative than the brief demands.

Sustainability is a core value for us as a company, and one of the most exciting creative frontiers in private luxury design. The materials now available to us are genuinely inspiring: the question of how to make responsible, considered choices without sacrificing beauty or craftsmanship is one we find endlessly compelling. Our collaboration with studios such as F/Lab, Atelier Midavaine, Nature Squared and the London Embroidery Studio on Private Sanctuary exemplifies this, working with artisans to develop bespoke, more sustainable palettes that feel both contemporary and crafted.

New technology is another constant source of inspiration, as is the craft of customisation. Every commission is bespoke by definition, and the possibilities that open up when you design entirely for one individual are extraordinary.

The discovery phase of every project is where we find the most authentic inspiration. Detailed research into a client’s world, their references, their rituals, their sensibility, means that what we design is genuinely personal rather than applied.

We are also inspired by the challenge of the space itself. PriestmanGoode’s decades of experience designing commercial first class products and cabins has given our team an exceptional understanding of how to make smaller, highly constrained spaces work hard, and we bring that same discipline to private aviation and yachting. The goal is always to make a space feel as considered and refined as possible, without a single element wasted.

In what direction do you feel that your projects are moving towards in a general sense?:
The most significant shift we are seeing is the emergence of what we think of as the ‘third space’: private travel environments that are no longer simply modes of transport, but fully adaptive sanctuaries. The journey itself is becoming as important as the destination.

Wellness is at the heart of this evolution. Clients are seeking calm, restorative, tranquil environments: spaces that support rest, recovery and focus alongside social connection and productivity. This is something we explored deeply in Private Sanctuary, a concept that transforms across four distinct zones, each designed to adapt intuitively to the passenger’s mood and activity.

We are seeing the profile of private aviation clients is shifting. A new generation is redefining what they expect from these spaces, bringing different lifestyles, different values and a different relationship with luxury entirely. Responsible material choices are increasingly woven into the brief from the outset, not as a gesture but as a genuine reflection of how these clients want to engage with the world.

Technology is moving in a direction we find genuinely compelling: shy tech. Features that are present but invisible until needed, revealing themselves at exactly the right moment.

Name five key themes to consider when approaching projects in the future. :
1. Wellness and the restorative environment – Designing for physical and psychological wellbeing, from circadian lighting strategies to spaces that support rest, focus, and calm.

2. Adaptive, multi-functional space – The evolution away from fixed interiors towards environments that transform intelligently around the individual.

3. Sustainable luxury- Collaborating with specialist suppliers to develop material palettes that are both exquisite and consciously specified.

4. New sectors and emerging modes of transport – Luxury travel in new contexts, from eVTOL and vertical mobility to ultra-private rail, requires fresh thinking about what luxury means in each space.

5. Shifting client demographics The definition of luxury is evolving. New generations of private clients bring different perspectives, different lifestyles and different expectations of what the design can and should deliver.

If your company could offer one piece of advice when it comes to projects, what would it be?:
Don’t propose what you cannot deliver. In this sector, trust is built or lost in the gap between the pitch and the product. Our philosophy in both the private and commercial sector has always been that what we show a client at the outset should be a true reflection of what they will receive. That said, this never stops us from pushing boundaries and bringing genuinely innovative ideas to the table, we simply make sure that everything we propose, however ambitious, is something we know we can deliver.

Beyond that, our deepest belief in the Private Studio is in the value of genuine collaboration from the outset. We bring clients with us on the journey. That means not just checking in at milestones, but continuously engaging, refining and ensuring they feel part of every decision. We design for the individual, and the individual should be present throughout.

Finally, think beyond the client alone. The most exceptional private environments consider the full ecosystem; the team, the crew, the service experience and how design can elevate every element of the world around the primary passenger.

How important are The International Yacht & Aviation Awards?:
The International Yacht & Aviation Awards represent a vital platform for a sector in which so much of the finest work is, by necessity, confidential. Private Studio exists in a world where discretion is fundamental where client privacy means that some of our most significant and innovative commissions will never be publicly known.

The Awards offer a rare and important opportunity to share ideas, celebrate craftsmanship, and set a benchmark for what design in private aviation and yachting can achieve. For us, they are also a chance to shine a light on the artisan collaborators and specialist suppliers who are as essential to the final outcome as the design itself.

Recognition through these Awards matters not simply for profile, but because they raise standards, inspire new approaches, and give the industry a shared language for excellence.

What projects are you currently working on?:
Given the confidential nature of Private Studio’s commissions, we are unable to share specifics as discretion is a fundamental part of how we work, and a commitment we uphold in perpetuity.

What we can say is that the studio is currently engaged across a range of projects, including widebody and narrowbody aircraft interiors, private yacht projects, and private rail. Each commission is at a different stage of the design journey, and each reflects the breadth and depth of expertise our team brings to the private sector.

What was one of your company’s key projects to work on and why?:
Working on the first privately owned widebody A350 was a defining moment for Private Studio. It was the commission that took this part of the business to another level entirely, demonstrating that we could operate at the most complex and ambitious end of private aviation with the same creative rigour and attention to detail that defines everything we do.
What was your company’s most challenging project to work on and why? : Clients in the private aviation and yacht sectors are, by definition, extraordinarily exacting. They have experienced the finest environments the world offers and they expect us to exceed them. That is the nature of the challenge, and we would not have it any other way. The most challenging commissions are invariably those that push us furthest whether that is the spatial complexity of a widebody aircraft interior resolved to the last detail, the integration of highly bespoke technology in an environment where there can be no visible compromise, or the articulation of a client’s vision that has never been expressed in design terms before. We rise to these challenges because our team has the depth and breadth to do so. The combination of CMF expertise, industrial design, spatial design and in-house graphics means we can address every dimension of the brief with equal care and precision.

Which products/services could you not live without when completing projects?:
Collaboration is not a support mechanism for us, it is a core part of the design process itself. The relationships we have built with artisan studios and specialist suppliers are integral to the quality of what we deliver.

Our work with material innovators such as F/Lab, Atelier Midavaine, Nature Squared and the London Embroidery Studio as explored in Private Sanctuary demonstrates how these partnerships generate entirely new possibilities that would not emerge from within a single studio.

Strong working relationships with completion centres are equally essential. In private aviation, the gap between a design resolved on paper and a design resolved in reality is closed through deep mutual trust and technical collaboration with those who will bring it to life.

Finally, VR technology has become an invaluable part of how we work. The ability to place ourselves and our clients inside a space before it is built to feel its scale, its light, its proportions is transformative. It allows us to make better decisions earlier, and to take clients on a far more vivid and immersive journey through their own project.

What are your company’s aims and goals for the next twelve months?:
The ambitions within the Private Studio at PriestmanGoode for the year ahead are centred on three areas.

First, we want to continue growing our presence in the private market deepening existing client relationships and extending our reach across aviation, yacht and private rail. The breadth of our capability across modes of transport is a genuine differentiator, and we intend to build on it.

Second, we are committed to advancing responsible luxury as a design discipline. We believe that the most responsible material choices and the most beautiful environments are increasingly the same choices, and we want to demonstrate that more widely both in our private commissions and in how we inspire the wider aviation design community.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, we want to protect and advance craftsmanship. Private Studio has a role to play in keeping important craft traditions alive by commissioning them, collaborating with their practitioners, and elevating them to a new context. The finest private interiors in the world should be places where extraordinary craft is celebrated.