If you want to make a good impression on your customers, clients, business associates, and employees, good branding is essential.
Unfortunately, many businesses fall short when it comes to branding their office. Instead of forcing your employees to work in a dull, uninspired space, try using these design ideas to create a branded space that encourages creativity and productivity.
1. Identify the values that are important to your brand.
Your brand is about more than just your logo or your company slogan. Although these factors are important, there is also a more profound identity that underlies your entire company, providing the foundation for your brand. A good way to think about it is as if your business were a person. What would its personality be like? What values are most meaningful to your business?
Think about the impact that your business has on its customers and on the world around you. If you need help identifying the key components of your brand, ask people who are familiar with your business to describe it using five words.
2. Create distinct spaces for your employees and for your clients.
One important part of designing an office is creating separate spaces for your employees and for the clients that visit your building. Both of these groups of people will have a different view of your company. Your office space should reflect this.
Branding that is geared toward customers may not resonate with employees, simply because they are already familiar with what happens behind the scenes at the business. You may need to come up with a different design for the employee-only spaces that is a better fit with their vision of your business.
3. Identify the most important areas of your office.
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they set out to create a branded space is going too far. Too much branding is almost as bad as not enough branding. One way to avoid this problem is by identifying the most important areas of your office. These touch points are ideal locations for branding. Things like custom roller blinds are fine, but a logo on the carpet is a bit too much.
For instance, one of the most easily identifiable touch points for clients is the reception area. It is one of the first parts of your building that they will see. Because of that, you need to make sure that it has clear branding that makes it easy for them to identify what your business is all about. You should also figure out which areas of your building are the most important to employees so that you can brand them appropriately.
4. Incorporate your products into your design.
Depending on the products or services that you offer, you may be able to incorporate them into the design of your office. Being able to show your own products in action is a great way to reinforce your brand.
A great example of this can be seen at the Liverpool headquarters of John West. At the heart of the headquarters is a test kitchen. This is the perfect way for a company that specializes in food to reinforce its message.
5. Use color to your advantage.
The colors that you choose for your office should be a good reflection of your brand. If possible, use your company colors. If your colors are too bright, you can use more muted shades that still are a good fit with the image that you are trying to portray.
Color is particularly important for your employees. Try to choose colors that promote creativity without being overly stimulating. Learn as much as you can about color psychology so that you can choose colors that are not only brand-appropriate but also well suited to the activities that take place in your space.
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