Entro Taps Star Designer to Redefine Brand Experience in Digital Age

NEW YORK and TORONTO – April 07, 2026 – Entro Communications, a global firm long recognized for its mastery of wayfinding and branded environments, has signaled a major strategic pivot with the appointment of Fred Thwainy as its first Global Director, Brand Experience. The move positions the design firm to aggressively expand beyond its foundational expertise and compete in the burgeoning, high-stakes arena of holistic, digitally-infused experiential design.

Thwainy, an award-winning leader with a portfolio featuring titans like Google, Formula 1, and Samsung, will report to Chief Creative Officer Hunter Tura. His mandate is to guide the evolution of Entro's brand and capabilities, transforming it into a broader multidisciplinary practice. The appointment is a clear declaration of intent for the firm, which was acquired by growth-focused Astria Elevate in July 2025 with the explicit goal of shaping the "new experiential age."

"Our mission is to author the new experiential age, and Fred brings a rare combination of strategic brand thinking and deep spatial design expertise," said John Campanella, CEO of Entro. He emphasized that Thwainy’s background is critical for the company's future, stating, "His talent, instinct, and expertise are exactly what we need to advance our data-led, results-driven, and design-forward solutions."

A Strategic Pivot in the Experiential Age

The term "experiential age" represents a fundamental shift in how brands and audiences connect. It moves beyond passive advertising and static environments toward multi-sensory, immersive, and highly personalized encounters. This new frontier, often described as "phygital," seamlessly merges physical spaces with digital interactivity, leveraging data to create dynamic and memorable moments.

For Entro, a firm built on guiding people through complex physical spaces like airports, hospitals, and cultural centers, this evolution is a natural, albeit ambitious, next step. The company has already been using proprietary technologies like eye-tracking and behavioral analytics to inform its wayfinding designs. Thwainy’s appointment accelerates this trajectory, aiming to apply a similar data-led ethos to the entire brand journey within a physical or digital space.

The strategic shift comes at a time when the design industry itself is in flux. The lines between architecture, interior design, digital UX, and brand strategy are dissolving. Firms like Entro are positioning themselves to compete with global experiential agencies such as George P. Johnson and Imagination by offering integrated, multidisciplinary solutions that address the complex needs of modern brands. Thwainy's hire is the firm's most significant move yet to claim a leadership role in this converged landscape.

The Architect of Immersive Worlds

Fred Thwainy is not a conventional designer. With a Master's in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, cross-disciplinary studies at Harvard Business School, and a portfolio that reads like a who's who of innovation, he embodies the multidisciplinary approach Entro is championing.

Prior to joining Entro, he was Head of Design at ASTOUND Group, where he led the creative direction for complex global projects. His work included crafting experiential activations for Google and developing immersive brand experiences for Formula 1 and PayPal. At ASTOUND, he championed a philosophy of "Analog Hearts, Digital Hands," which prioritizes human-centric technology that enhances, rather than replaces, physical engagement through materiality and spatial storytelling. This approach is evident in projects like an AI art wall that transformed guest gestures into evolving art for Red Hat Summit.

Earlier in his career, as a Senior Designer at the influential Bruce Mau Design, Thwainy contributed to high-profile initiatives like the experience and environmental design for Samsung 837, the technology giant's flagship experiential hub in New York City.

The appointment also marks a reunion for Thwainy and Entro's Chief Creative Officer, Hunter Tura. "I am so excited to be reunited with Fred and to build our long-term creative partnership," Tura stated. "His unique interdisciplinary approach, combined with depth of talent and intelligence, is going to help advance the Entro mission, and help create innovative design solutions for leading global organizations."

Redefining Space in a Data-Driven Landscape

Thwainy’s mandate extends beyond creative direction; it involves fundamentally reshaping how Entro conceptualizes and executes projects. The firm aims to build on its foundation in branded environments by integrating emerging technologies and data analytics more deeply into its process. This means moving from creating spaces that simply contain a brand to designing environments that are the experience.

This approach aligns with key industry trends like hyper-personalization, where AI and user data are used to tailor experiences in real-time. It also embraces the rise of spatial computing, which blurs the lines between the digital and physical worlds, allowing for new forms of interaction. Thwainy's experience with projects like custom QR code scavenger hunts for Twilio demonstrates a practical understanding of how to gamify and digitize physical spaces to drive engagement.

By combining Thwainy's expertise in large-scale brand activations with Entro's deep knowledge of user behavior in complex environments, the firm is poised to offer sophisticated solutions that are both creatively provocative and commercially effective. The goal is to deliver measurable impact for clients by designing experiences that are not only aesthetically compelling but also optimized for user engagement and connection.

Charting the Course for a Multidisciplinary Future

Ultimately, Thwainy's role is to serve as the connective tissue for Entro's global ambitions. He is tasked with unifying the firm's studios in New York, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver under a cohesive brand vision while elevating the experiential caliber of the work worldwide.

In his own words, Thwainy sees the opportunity clearly. "Entro occupies a unique space at the intersection of brand experience, architecture, and design strategy," he said. "I'm excited to work alongside Hunter, John, and the team to help lead Entro's global brand evolution, shaping how the firm expresses its ideas in space, storytelling, and design."

This appointment is more than just adding a new name to the leadership team. It is a calculated, strategic investment in a future where the most successful brands will be those that create the most meaningful experiences. With Fred Thwainy helping to draw the map, Entro is charting a bold course to become a primary architect of that future.