Considering environmental branding and wall graphics in your workspace?

Human resources manager looking to improve team collaboration?
Founder of a technology start-up, wondering about recruiting talent?
Or did your boss simply say we need to “add something” to the walls?

It’s not always easy to come up with interior ideas. We are excited to share insights from professionals shaping workplace environments. Our hope is they help guide your brainstorms and give your team some starting points.

One Goal Team All Smiles With Their Vinyl Cut Lettering

Insights below include customers and peers shaping workspaces.

We hope this resource:

Shapes your own team brainstorms.
Helps with new ideas for your office or workspace.
Provides a window into professional insights you can use.

Different approaches to ideation? Please share – this page will continue to evolve into a hub for environmental branding tips.
We’d love to include you.

Cody Tilson is a Creative Director at Leviathan.

He has over 15 years of experience and is an award-winning visual creative. He’s also a new dad and all-around awesome person. Before you start any design project, think about the intent. Remember: anytime a guest or client steps inside your space its an opportunity for impactful first impression. Also when they leave!

Why is intent important?

You’d wouldn’t just throw up a website.
Or create sales brochures without goals or thinking about your audience and problems you solve.
Intent helps shape your story. And gives purpose to your project graphics.

“When it comes to branded environments, story drives the experience. If people don't feel connected to the space around them, they tend to leave. And for a good reason—it's a hard sell to engage with a brand that doesn't go out of its way to make you feel like you belong.”

-Cody Tilson, Creative Director, Leviathan

More Insights From Cody Tilson

Belonging
“A successful branded environment embraces that feeling of belonging. It communicates what makes your brand unique, all while remaining flexible enough to move into the future seamlessly.”

Deep Connection
“Through unexpected and expert use of both static and digital branding elements, you create opportunities to create a deeper emotional connection to your audience. And perhaps more importantly, it keeps them around and hungry for what’s around the corner.”

Paul Woolf is the Director of Brand Marketing at History Factory.

Founded in 1979, the firm was founded with a simple philosophy: Use history as an informative communication tool. He shares more on why you may consider adding history to your environment.

“It is amazing how many people work for a company but have little knowledge of the stories that made the company what it is today. They may know the founder’s story, but do they know the major inflexion points of the business and how it responded? Or the backstory of particular innovations, or why certain decisions were made in the context of the internal/external environment the company was facing at the time?”

-Paul Woolf, Director of Brand Marketing, History Factory

Your history and origin are rich in content opportunity for interior graphics. It brings departments together and great way to extend your brand around the workspace.

Proud of your company roots? Add a timeline of accomplishments or share images of founders.
Haven’t been in business for 100, 50 or 10 years? Not a problem.
Share the story of your start up. Celebrate your open date. Talk about your goals. Install images of your first employees.

Additional Insights from Paul Woolf

Positively Impact Your Decisions
“It’s more than just education and a ‘nice to know’ feeling – decisions and activities that the company completed years ago can inform decision-making for tomorrow, providing a knowledge base for management as well as confidence for employees.

Sharing artifacts from the founder or the bygone era taps into a sense of nostalgia for both employees and customers. What’s more powerful are the stories the artifacts represent. In this way, exhibit wall graphics shouldn’t be just dates and items or images randomly thrown together, even if done sequentially.”

Showcase Values
Ask yourself, what organizational values or purpose are we trying to emphasize, and therefore what is the story we WANT to tell. Then how can we depict that story to bring to life the values or purpose of the organization in a compelling way. Wall graphics should act as true storyboards, giving pause for thought, delighting and intriguing the viewer.

Treating them as a dull historical exercise will result in just that – boredom and ineffective communications. Treat them like a good novel, with a true arc to the story, and you’ll have a far more powerful communication that links the past to today and tomorrow.

Bre Bush, is the Marketing Manager at Pareto Intelligence.

Pareto is a data analytics and technology company specializing in the healthcare industry. Bre received a Silver award for “Marketer of the Year” in the 2020 American Business Awards. Their office branding project is featured in the portfolio.

“We believe that the work we do goes deeper than the services we provide our clients. We embody this in “The Pareto Way,” which describes the core tenants of our culture. But simply talking about The Pareto Way and putting it on our website are not enough… We have to put it into practice.”

-Bre Bush, Marketing Manager, Pareto Intelligence

Additional Insights from Bre Bush

Weave it Into the Work Experience
“We want our people to live the Pareto Way. That’s why we put our values on the wall outside of our elevators with a line tracing to the front door. It’s as if to say, “These are our values, and before you walk into the front door, you must embrace them and make a commitment to them.” The hope is that this helps our employees feel proud of their work and excited to be a part of our culture.”

Josh Crankshaw is the marketing director at the McShane Companies.

He helped project manage their environmental branding project prior to the launch of their new corporate location.

Graphics are part of an overall employee experience.

Improve Your Employer Brand
Encourage Pride in the Workspace
Help People Feel Happy About Coming Work

Additional Insights from Josh Crankshaw

Recognize Your Teams
“McShane is a family company and environment – it reinforces that ideal. Our people are important to us. They are part of our brand we wanted to create a tasteful feature to recognize them.”

Welcoming Office Environment
“We are always thinking about employee well-being. For example, people may work late and get hungry. Stop by our kitchen and we’re going to have healthy snacks – graphics are part of the larger puzzle: creating a welcoming environment where people feel appreciated. It definitely makes an impact. McShane was honored as a 2019 Crain’s Best Place to Work in Chicago and things like office design matter.”

“McShane is a family company and environment – graphics reinforces that ideal. Our people are important to us. They are part of our brand we wanted to create a tasteful feature to recognize them.”

-Josh Crankshaw, McShane Marketing Manager on Environmental Branding,

Jay Byrnes is a Senior Designer Director at Pivot Design.

He is designer and artist with more than 15 years of experience. It spans a variety of industries, including healthcare, education, real estate, and fashion. His art and design work has been featured in books and publications internationally. Pivot Design is an agency of passionate people doing stellar work.

“Know your audience. Create an experience based on their needs and interests. Emotion and simplicity will help make it memorable.”

-Jay Byrnes, Design Director, Pivot Design

Flawless Execution.
“There are many ways to communicate with environmental branding. Your concept should be driven by how to best communicate your message and purpose, not by the latest trend in materials or technology. Wayfinding, event signage, interior design, advertising, video, VR/AR, social media. What materials are best? What tactic will yield the strongest results? Every detail matters.”

Location. Location. Location.
“Think about how your audience will see and interact with your environmental branding and how placement could impact the experience. Do you want the experience to be intimate or do you need to reach large groups of people? Unexpected but relevant location was integral to our environmental branding approach for Northwest Community Healthcare.”

Which elements should always be a part of your environmental branding?

Consider your messaging.
The location of graphics.
Don’t chase trends.

We hope these ideas make an impact on your workspace! Ready to get started on your project? Your Cushing team is a couple of clicks away.

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