No matter which office you’ve worked in, or maybe even a retail outlet or a restaurant, there’s always some sort of branding around to let you know which team you belong to and which company you work for.
Branding an office might seem like an easy and fun task, but there’s a lot of strategic planning and creative attachment to the positioning of each and every logo, office quote, merchandise section and so on. This of course is all relative to the size of the company you are working for, the niche to which it belongs and the experience you’re hoping to achieve with your internal branding efforts.
Let’s kick it off with the first question: what is a branded space?
A branded space is pretty much signified by the experience that your staff and visiting clients will encounter once they step into your office and call it their work space.
Whether it’s a first-hand working experience where creatives like designers, copywriters, brand executives and strategists are inspired by their environment or a retail outlet that evokes a customer-centred journey to help boost sales and drive more traffic into the store – it’s all about the hype.
Hype is such a major part of branding. It might seem silly to gift someone a branded reusable bottle or phone cover; but if they’re followers of your brand or involved in the brand in any way, they’ll show it off with pride. And no matter how powerful digital marketing is, word of mouth is always the strongest contestor.
Let’s go back to the office: what makes a good branded office space?
A good office space is defined by the proper use of space, the adequate storage room and the privacy that you can achieve for each department or employee within your office. A properly branded office space incorporates all these factors and also infuses a sense of individuality into the mix. While office spaces can seem sterile and cold, branding can easily liven up the palace with a pop of colour, a cheery quote and even a bookcase or display closet packed with merchandise.
Making sure your office is set up to impress, always make sure you:
- Create open spaces with enough room to flow around the area.
- Introduce more light into a space with lamps and other fixtures.
- Use glass as a partition to separate areas.
- Create sitting and standing sections in the office.
- Choose quality furnishings.
- Keep the energy up with plants, textures and colours.
- Brand your office with these 3 key take-home points.
Logos and Slogans
Logos and slogans are instantly defined. While there is such a thing as too much logo use in a space, you also do not want to leave any room without coverage. In today’s fast-paced world where social media is the leading driver of sales and conversation, your staff, clients and even guests to the office might be inspired to snap some shots of an area and share it to their feed or stories.
While your logo defines company pride to your staff, it also inspires fun, action and boldness to the clients that work with you and the guests that enter your working space – never undermine your logo, it’s your ultimate branding tool.
Slogans work in the same way, inspiring quotes scattered around the office will brighten up a space and give accents to otherwise bland walls. You can also adopt this feature on glass for separating rooms and window features. Inspire brand identity in fun and creative ways.
Colour
This is the easiest way to pour heaps of branding awareness into a space. Colours speak a thousand words, while you want to make sure that your branding colours are calming and inspiring for a hectic office, you also want to make sure that they stand out as your signature colours. The psychology of colour comes in handy when thinking of the environment you want to evoke in your office space.
Colours are mood-changing. If you’re looking for a fast-paced office environment where employees churn out content, designs, proposals and plans by the hour, colours like red or yellow will heighten their approach. Finding soothing colours like pinks, greens and blues will give your office the serenity they need to keep calm as they meet deadlines and find inspiration from the natural colours that surround them.
Choosing your colour pallette is the easiest thing to fix should it not fit with the flow and energy of your space. Wall colours are easily replaced, textiles can be changed and even furniture can be revamped. A little bit of forward planning might help you avoid these costly changes though.
Corporate Values
Your core principles and company ethics play such a major role in the way you function as an office. There are so many factors that can contribute to the way in which your team works, the attitudes they adopt and the mentalities they nurture. Taking them back to the company values will allow them to remember why they joined the team, that they can achieve great things through the company and also give them a sense of belonging.
We all know that horrible moment when a colleague or client takes you to your last limits with something they say or do, we’ve all had those days where we thought, ‘I’m out’ – only to return to the office the next day with a hopeful new vision. Giving your team members a safe or quiet zone where they can return to the company’s corporate values and centre their thoughts. Branding has the power to do that. Creating a sense of belonging and realisation perhaps.
Whenever you are branding a space you firstly want to make sure that you and your team is as comfortable as possible. There’s no holding back with the fun and crazy ideas that you can inject into a space – just remember that you will need to be productive in this excellently branded office space too.
Learn more about our Branding services.