Multi-location companies are faced with the unique challenge of developing an interior design that can easily transfer to other locations and buildings. Often times different locations will be working with various floor plans, square footage, and need a solution that can uphold the organization’s business strategies while maintaining brand image.
When designing for a repeatable and scalable workspace, focus should be placed on culture, strategy, and workers in order to retain performance. Here, we discuss some of the best strategies for designing a repeatable office interior for multi-location companies.
Focus Design Around Business Strategy
One of the first things to survey when coming up with a design solution are the businesses best practices and procedures. By prioritizing design that supports the systems or strategies the company uses, each location can provide the same level of service that clients have grown accustomed to.
A workspace that is designed to complement the systems in place create a high-performance environment that make it easier to attract talent. It also makes a more seamless experience for transferring employees, or bringing in managers or training staff from other locations.
Achieve Familiarity with Signature Colours and Materials
Though each of your locations will likely be dealing with different spatial requirements and floorplans, it’s possibly to maintain brand recognition by repeating design elements. By creating a offices that echo each other, it reinforces brand identity and maintains the trust your clients place in your business. Some examples include:
- Logo placement
- Flooring materials
- Patterns and colour signatures
- Textiles such as wood, metal, glass, etc.
As an established office design firm in Toronto, we understand that each location should tell the story of the company. We work closely to understand the essence of your company’s brand and work it into the design. Great office design should visually express your company’s unique identity and create a lasting impression for all those who walk through the door.
Maintain Office Space Flexibility
In some cases, multi-location companies may find it helpful to create a flexible workspace design, especially when going into new territory. This makes it easier for your office to accommodate growth, and adapt if departments or workload changes based on location.
If you’re unsure how branches might evolve over time to meet the demands of their locations, creating hybrid office spaces that can accommodate different work styles, or easily moveable workstations can offer more flexibility. If you ever need to introduce new departments, separate work stations, or designate a collaborative space, a flexible design makes it much more manageable.
Keep it Simple and Recognizable
For an office design that is easy to replicate in multiple branch locations, opt for something that is simple yet recognizable. Simple doesn’t mean dull or common — it can still be impactful, stunning, and original, but not so complex that it can’t be executed in a variety of locations. Modern and minimalistic interiors are a great example of spaces that evoke delight due to their attractive simplicity.
An experienced office fit-out team can customize a simple, yet highly functional design that will improve productivity and stay operative across different sized buildings and floor plans. We can help make your workspace distinct enough that your clients still recognize your brand and culture, no matter what location they visit.
With these design concepts in mind, we help multi-location companies develop workplaces that help carry their brand identity and core business strategies to any location they move to. Your flagship location doesn’t have to be the only one built to impress — each of your locations should be representing the essence of your company to its best ability.
