Success is so much more than just positive numbers in your financial report. In today’s world, success is determined by numerous factors, from how well you communicate your brand values, your employees’ satisfaction, to the quality of interactions and loyalty you have with your customers.

When it comes to brand success, one of the vital determining factors that is often overlooked is design. Putting this important visual part of your brand identity on the backburner is something that can seriously harm your business growth in the future. The way customers and employees physically experience your brand in a space is important. 

So, how can you make the most of design and ensure it becomes the bridge between your business and your customers? You should start crafting your design strategy which will successfully communicate all your key messages and pair the design with your brand. 

Why Design Matters:

You should take every opportunity you have and find an efficient way to captivate your audience’s attention through design. Most companies these days believe that “design” stops at digital and graphics but physical spaces are still the most impactful for both our internal teams and anywhere we meet face to face with customers. Would you believe a company that doesn’t present the brand they do online as they do in person? Probably not. 

Your business performance can be flawless but the design shows how you see your team perceives your business and how much you respect your brand. Businesses with thrown together physical spaces are perceived as a scam. Think of the design in terms of appearances and first impressions. Your visual impression is crucial for majority decisions you will make in your life, and it shouldn’t be any different when it comes to your business.

Design Strategy for Businesses

When you decide to work on the design of your office space, no matter how big it is, you should follow this six-step strategy to bring your brand to life: 

Step One: Determine Your Brand Values

When you’re working on the design of your office space, think about the feelings and beliefs your company wants to convey. Why is that important to you? What is important to your customers? If you still haven’t, determine your brand values as it will help you understand what you should do in terms of design. Some of the most common brand values are: 

• Reliability
• Passion
• Honesty
• Transparency
• Eco-friendly
• Expertise

After you’ve chosen your value or values, you should ask yourself how you see these values. Are they expressed in certain colors or shapes? For instance, if you want to demonstrate that passion and creativity are your core values, you will probably use vivid colors, different types of design, wall art from real artists, quotes to evoke thought, etc.

Each of these values can be expressed through design. Also, you should include research and information about the psychology of colors, shapes and interior design in general. There’s a lot that is affected subconsciously by design that could be very beneficial when you’re in the first phase of thinking about the right concept for your office space. 

Step Two: Find Your Own Philosophy

Now that you have your brand values and ideas you want to express through design, you should create your own design philosophy. It’s helpful to create a brand and philosophy mood board to encompass your vision. 

Your philosophy should be to make someone feel connected to your values through the details of your design. For example if your brand value is being eco-friendly, your philosophy is you want people to feel connected to the earth. You will ensure the office space has a sufficient amount of sunlight throughout the day and a lot of fresh air. You want to bring the outdoors in with natural features, materials, and plants. You want to use materials that are eco-friendly and are also obviously naturally inspired. You want people to feel your philosophy through the details. A corporate concrete block won’t support your efforts. The subliminal guides so much. 

Step Three: Map Out a Floor Plan and Render 

With your commercial designer, work through your work processes and the nature of your team to determine a plan that allows work to comfortably flow through your entire space. Office spaces are great when beautiful but best when functional. 

Floor plans tremendously help you to save time and money. You will know the right dimensions of the furniture you need to get and won’t spend money on something that simply doesn’t fit in your space. You will want to have your commercial designer render your spaces out so you can get feedback on the overall mood created and functionality from your team. There’s nothing worse that creating a space and putting the budget in for a lackluster result. 

Step Four: Start Big, Finish Small

Always purchase the biggest pieces of first. Focus on functionality and the most impactful pieces for your team. Make sure these pieces support your work and brand and are timeless in their design. There’s nothing worse than an outdated office space. Add in details and accessories that speak to the fun elements of the brand later. 

Additionally, let’s address online office shopping. A lot of offices throw together a look online and call it a day, leaving offices looking like a consignment store. Having a designer help you actually source quality furniture and piece it together in person is a much different experience and result. It is one thing to see how something looks in pictures, but it’s completely different when that piece of furniture is delivered to your office and you see it in person. Don’t rush into purchasing everything at once and get expert help.

Functional, adjustable standing desks from Room and Board. 

Step Five: Review your design 

Once everything is placed where you wanted it and every single detail is covered, it’s time to review the entire space. Ask your employees what they think about it and invite other people to share their opinion.

You really want to include all stakeholders, customers, employees, management, etc., in this process. A good idea would be to ask people who don’t know your brand values to name a value they think this space represents. Observe employees reactions to renderings and furniture choices. They are the soul of your company and how they react to a new space influences business performance and your brand strength. 

After all, all of you will spend your days here and it’s vital that you feel comfortable and connected to a greater mission for success in the future!

Go through our process with us for your office space revamp. Get in touch with Fathom’s commercial team.