Bringing Your Brand Into Your Properties
Branding is such a powerful tool when building your business, and depending on how you are structuring your property portfolio, your brand may be a massive part of who you are as a company.
So, why does that matter to us as your interior designer?
Branding doesn’t need to stop at your business cards, website, and social media profile. You can incorporate branding into your properties too! It can be a great way to show who you are as a business and attract the right tenants or buyers.
However, it’s not as simple as plastering your company colours on every wall. There is a process to finding out how your brand can be represented through your interiors, and we’re here to walk you through that process.
Here at Åben, we work with our clients to find out what best represents them as a business and which style of interiors and colours will compliment their brand. All this is done to create a brand identity for our client’s properties.
Let’s dive in.
Obvious themes
Some brands will lend themselves to interior themes better than others. Take our brand, for instance. We love Scandinavian design, so our brand is built around that. It informed our name, brand image, website, and social media channels. As a result, Scandinavian design features also feature in our properties.
Are there any obvious themes in your brand that relate directly to a theme for your interior design?
Company values
The values you hold as a company are vital for us when creating your interior brand identity. We will try to reflect who you are as a company through any design, so it’s important to have your company values mapped out.
Think about what values you hold as a company. Here are a few examples of how we can use values to inform the design identity:
- Environmental consciousness: We could use reclaimed materials, upcycled furniture or materials with less environmental impact. We might also choose to show this through the use of greenery.
- Caring about your customers: We should all have this one listed, but that might mean we place more emphasis on creating the best experience for your tenants. This can be achieved by adding little touches such as coffee machines, cinema/games rooms etc.
- Uniqueness: We can do lots with this one! We could use this to design a different space for each bedroom rather than using the same design. We might add many unique features throughout the house and shop at more independent or bespoke furniture stores.
Brand colours
Brand colours are one of the first things people start with, so I want to give a little warning here. Just because you have chosen some lovely, bright colours for your brand, it doesn’t mean your properties must incorporate those exact colours! It certainly doesn’t have to be the central theme to represent your brand in your properties.
We can use the colours in your brand as they are; we can use more subtle versions of them (or only some) or even use them to inspire the rest of the property.
For example, if you have a bright blue in your logo, we might choose to use a shade of blue as a feature colour for some of the designs. However, we don’t have to use your logo’s shade to feel your identity.
You might have an overall very colourful logo which would look hectic if used as it is in the property. So instead, we could choose either a selection of colours or take the colourful nature of your logo as our inspiration for the design identity.
What colours do you have in your brand that you could use?
Tell your story
Our final focus is on your brand’s story. Does your brand have a story of how you started or how the idea came about? What can we take from this to illustrate your story throughout your property?
A great example of this is Virgin’s cruise line, Virgin Voyages. They ‘nod’ back to their beginnings as record stores by providing a record player in each guest cabin. A simple element they’ve added into their design which tells their story!
Final thoughts
Never be afraid to be a bit quirky and different. We want to stand out in a crowded market, so using our brand, story, and values to tell people who we are can help inform quirky and brilliant spaces.
We are trying to tell a story with our interiors that should sell the space to your buyer or tenant. So, if it aligns with you and your brand, go for it!
