A great marketing strategy encompasses a variety of digital and physical touchpoints. As marketers, we often forget the power of leveraging one of our greatest opportunities, which is the experience we create within our own walls. Framed against a backdrop of conversations surrounding return-to-office policies, the discussion of thoughtfully designed workplace environments is one area where this application is relevant.
The Great Rethink: How Workplace Challenges Sparked a New Era of Office Design* highlights that what hasn’t worked is “offices that feel more like obligations than destinations,” and that “by shifting focus from requiring presence to creating a compelling experience, organisations can build offices that inspire connection, creativity and a renewed sense of belonging.”
One way to do that is through strategic workplace branding visuals and large-format wall graphics. Custom graphics aren't just something incorporated into a space to be pleasing to the eyes. According to The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health*; mood, decision-making and productivity are impacted by our physical surroundings, so the visuals inside your space can truly have a significant impact on the experience your employees and visitors have inside. Visuals can also support your company culture and reinforce your brand identity. Read further to learn how custom signs are the perfect catalyst to “inspire connection, creativity and a renewed sense of belonging.”
What are office wall graphics?
Every physical space tells a story. The choice of materials dictates whether that story feels flat and transactional, or engaging and confident.
“Office wall graphics and wall murals are large-format adhesive vinyl applications, designed to transform interior spaces, by reinforcing brand identity, enhancing office culture, or providing environmental wayfinding,” shared Lance Tucker, Manager of Technical Services and Exterior Electrical with FASTSIGNS International, Inc. “They are typically printed on durable, pressure-sensitive vinyl materials, often with a matte or satin laminate to reduce glare. They are applied directly to smooth surfaces like drywall, or even textured surfaces like brick in some cases. Essentially, they turn a functional wall into a visual asset that communicates a company's story or core values.”
Photo caption: Custom wall graphics can create an atmospheric office environment.
Dimensional typography, custom acrylic overlays, routed metal logos, and high-definition wall wraps inject dynamic energy into static architecture. You can even place high-contrast, large-scale graphics against warm wood slatted walls or finished hardwood panels to create a focal point that commands attention. By incorporating biophilic design principles within a space, you create warmth and texture while simultaneously helping increase dwell time and lower stress.
Photo caption: Incorporate biophilic design into large-format wall graphics for a calming effect.
How Do Custom Wall Graphics Transform Office Spaces?
Inspiring Creativity in Employees
For companies that want to infuse more creativity within a space, custom wall graphics provide a great method to make that happen. Workplace branding, when done well, can bring the brand to life within your walls. Whether fun and playful, or calming and peaceful, large-format wall graphics immerse employees in the brand and help them get in the right headspace, to better write, design or speak to their customer base.
Creating Spaces for Connection
Corporate interior signage can also be used as a catalyst for creating meaningful moments of connection, through engaging spaces. When a space looks good, it makes people feel good, increasing dwell time and communication time. Well-planned interiors are an extension of your brand and can bring a lift to both your mood and your senses. Whether it’s spending a few extra minutes brainstorming in a room with natural elements, or suddenly feeling joy, by being surrounded by vibrant, warm brand colours and patterns, interior wall graphics have the power to create stronger connections within your workplace.
Photo caption: You can increase dwell time with the help of corporate interior signage.
Instilling a Sense of Belonging
Finally, wall murals for offices can instill a sense of belonging for employees and visitors. These types of workplace branding might feature a timeline, or a history of the company, signifying brand permanence to employees and also potential clients.
Sign creators can also be intentional about the people experiencing the wall mural on a regular basis and what cultural, or local icons, might resonate with them. Infusing a sense of local culture, city or region, that this brand exists within, enlivens a wall and helps people feel more emotionally connected to your brand, thereby creating impact.
Photo caption: Highlight your brand story with interior wall graphics so employees can picture how they’re a part of the story too.
Where businesses should install interior wall graphics:
Lobby or Reception Areas: These areas are your first point of contact where you can put your best foot forward and make a lasting impression of your brand.
Main Hallways or Concierge Areas: Custom wall graphics are ideally suited in well-trafficked areas, or places where people might stop with questions.
Community Areas: In areas where all employees, suppliers, or visitors come together, eat or converge, these are the perfect locations to highlight your brand ethos and values.
Meeting Areas: Carry your brand a step further into the boardrooms and smaller meeting rooms, showing that you’ve fully immersed your space in who you are.
How can wall graphics strengthen your company's brand?
Brand Exposure and Awareness
Branded office interiors that incorporate aspects of the brand through spatial pieces, take brand awareness and engagement even further, including hints and highlights of the logo and patterns to build spaces that walk your brand values, off the page. This might include a strong brand statement, or values displayed in a creative wall graphic. It can also go deeper to include weaving natural, or wooden elements into your visuals, if you’re a brand focused on sustainability, or injecting humour into your signage, if you’re a brand that’s lighthearted and jovial.
Wayfinding
Wayfinding is how you help people navigate effectively throughout your space. It also helps with orientation and placement. Instead of viewing wayfinding signage as a separate entity, artfully blend visuals into the branded atmosphere of your corporate interior signage, for brand identity reinforcement. This also helps create cohesion, so visitors and employees aren’t jarred out of the brand experience during wayfinding signage touchpoints. As a result, a well-designed system can instill confidence and enhance the level of comfort anyone has within your space.
Elevating Office Culture
In addition to awareness and wayfinding, your customised workplace branding can elevate the office culture. Revamp a blank canvas to create statement walls as the backdrop for press visits, social posts and high-profile client meetings. Having an environment that keeps impactful company values top-of-mind, can also inspire productivity and further solidify a culture of positivity. When your workplace is the location for those experiences, employees are inspired to return.
Photo caption: Office branding connects employees with a sense of place.
Branded Office Interior Reflects Local Pride and Brand Growth for Clear Answer
When Clear Answer secured a major contract with telecoms provider EE, they needed a workspace that reflected their business growth, by blending their professional brand identity with the cultural essence of Hull. Facing the challenge of a single-day installation deadline, before a high-stakes meeting, the design team created custom wall graphics featuring Hull's landmarks and cultural references. Utilising high-tack polymer air release wall vinyl, for durability in high-traffic areas, the seamless overnight installation successfully transformed the office into a dynamic, client-ready space, that celebrates local heritage while reinforcing brand ethos.
Photo caption: Custom workplace branding transforms the Royal Canin headquarters into a cohesive, engaging environment.
“On the Clear Answer project, I got to see that transformation firsthand. The visuals helped bring the brand into the physical environment, in a way that felt intentional and cohesive. What might have otherwise been a standard interior, became a space that reflects the local pride of the Clear Answer offices. Seeing the finished project come together, from the initial concepts and graphics to the final installation, really showed me how impactful thoughtful interior graphics can be. It was exciting to see how the right combination of colour, imagery, branding and placement could completely change the feel of the space,” shared Andy Dearman, Franchisee, FASTSIGNS Hull
Transform Your Workplace with Branded Office Interiors
Ultimately, “the modern office must be more than a container for work; it should provide a compelling reason to be there.” When a prospective recruit, client or partner enters your workplace, your physical environment immediately communicates your brand’s culture and values. Custom wall graphics, dimensional signage and even architectural wood visuals transform spaces into high-converting, immersive brand experiences, allowing you to combine your brand identity with your physical interior. Contact FASTSIGNS to begin planning your visual communication strategy today.
*References:
The Great Rethink: How Workplace Challenges Sparked a New Era of Office Design
The Science Behind Today’s Branded Interiors
Mental Health and Environment Exposures: An Editorial
