At the intersection of architecture and interior design you’ll find environmental branding. This is where your brand is expressed in real space. It is an experiential component of your brand that your customers, vendors and employees interact with when they enter your business. Often, it is as simple as a logo on the wall behind a reception desk. However, it can go much further in reinforcing your company’s identity through the colors, materials and graphics used to develop the visual style of an office, retail or hospitality space. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses miss this opportunity.
Employees and customers will have an emotional response to your business spaces whether you choose to influence that connection through design or not. The architect’s intentions in terms of lighting and structural design will always combine with an interior designer’s decisions regarding color, furnishings and decorative elements to make an impression. Space branding is the connective tissue that brings your company’s visual aesthetic and story into that experience. The values, vision and voice of your company is communicated through effective environmental branding.
What are some examples of environmental branding?
- Logo placements
- Company values
- Historic company photos
- Large format wall graphics
- Stylized window privacy film
- Multimedia displays
- Interactive kiosks
- Wayfinding signage
- Artwork
- 3D Features
Environmental Branding sparks recognition as online interactions convert to in-person relationships.
The use of color, fonts, patterns, materials and visual storytelling techniques in your buildings should be consistent with your existing identity guidelines. This insures that the in-person experience feels like a natural progression from the earlier stages of your marketing funnel. A customer should feel a familiarity as they move from your social media interactions to a retail, food service or hospitality environment.
Office spaces also benefit from thoughtful spatial branding. It strengthens employee’s sense of place in relationship to the company’s purpose. It reminds them of how the company presents itself, so they can stage it similarly in their sales and support interactions with customers.
Casco Signs is uniquely equipped to help companies extend their brand into their physical spaces. Obviously, we’re well experienced in all types of signage. However, our capabilities are much broader. Our large-format printers can put graphics on a variety of materials including metals, vinyl and canvas. Whatever you can imagine for statement design elements can be created in our full-service fabrication department. And, if you don’t know what you want, our designers are ready help you craft a look for your business that will wow your customers.