Being consistent with your branding and storytelling means ensuring that it is woven into every area of your business. From products to marketing and yes, even your headquarters, office, or place of work. Here are some pointers for how you can tell your story through your office’s interior design.
Consider the messages you want others to take away from the space
Remember when your company first began creating a brand narrative and story? Remember when you sat down and tried writing words that best evoked how you wanted to present your business to the world? Designing your office should begin in the same way. Before you can truly determine the type of design you want for your office, you first need to decide on your messaging priorities and how you want others to feel around the space.
What are the feelings and messages you want to express about your brand through your office design? If your business’s branding, storytelling, and narrative are already established and solid, then the design of your office or workplace should echo and reflect that same representation. Your customers, employees, guests, and partners need to feel that exact same sentiment and message every time they walk through your headquarters. If your brand aims to evoke warmth and intimacy, then the office design should be influenced by that goal.
If your brand narrative is centered around modernity and progress, then the design elements of your workplace must exude that same atmosphere. Take the time to write down and remember the centerpiece of your brand’s storytelling and use those same words to describe to your architect or interior designer how you want your office to look and feel.
Consider the layout and pathway
When we think of incorporating our branding into our office, the first thing we think of is visuals—logo, slogan or tagline, colors, and even words. But did you know that you can also weave your branding into your office’s layout as well? It’s all about mapping the pathway through your office in such a way that it matches your brand’s natural journey. Incorporating your brand and its narrative into your headquarters begins at the blueprint level.
Use the layout of your office to help frame your brand’s story so that your employees and guests always feel the atmosphere that the branding and design elements are trying to convey. Lay everything out in such a way that doing a tour of the office will be satisfying for everybody—whether guests or employees.
Add features that are in line with your branding
If you are a sportswear or sports equipment company, consider adding a fitness area where guests and employees can sweat it out. You can consider hiring a reliable contractor for basketball courts, or a company that specializes in tennis courts and other sports. If your business is all about nutrition, wellness, and health, consider adding a salad bar or an organic shakes station where your employees and visitors can enjoy your best products.
Another idea is a game room for a company that specializes in video games, board games, and other types of leisure activities. If you truly want to weave your brand into your place of work, set aside a space where people can enjoy the best of your products.
Emphasize your brand’s core values through the design
Your brand’s core values exist as the foundation through which every single person in your company makes decisions on a day-to-day basis. Your core values are your company’s North Star—the compass that helps guide every action, behavior, brand narrative, and business-related choice. For this reason, your brand’s core values need to be front and center in your design choices, like an internal mantra you and your team can always look to every time you feel tired, frustrated, and lost.
Here are some ways you can weave your core values into your office design:
- It may sound cheesy, but the most straightforward way to motivate and encourage your team throughout the day is by adding a quote on the walls. If you, as a business owner, boss, or manager are known for certain platitudes, don’t hesitate to have it painted in your office common room.
- Artwork or murals are the second easiest way to incorporate your core values. For example, if you have plans of reaching the world, add a world map into your biggest wall.
Do not underestimate your office’s power to enforce your branding. Make everything consistent by letting your brand narrative and storytelling influence your headquarters’ layout and design.
