Office Signs

Balanced office spaces can feel good while remaining functional for clients, visitors, and employees to use. Creating a balance between the right furniture, colors, lighting, and decor requires a skillful understanding of what makes people feel comfortable, productive, and inspired in their workspaces. Even simple changes can rebalance a workplace environment from a stagnating corporate space into an environment that encourages creativity and passion.

We created this guide for office owners, designers, and managers seeking this balance between functionality and style. Smart office layouts incorporate furniture, color, a custom office sign, and more to improve the space. However, the most important factor is personalization. No single solution can fix every office, but these tips can be utilized in any office space to create a better balance for modern clients, visitors, and employees to enjoy.

1. Start With a Strong Vision

Office designers, managers, and owners often make the mistake of skipping to colors, texture, and furniture before cementing their vision for the office. Instead, they should ask questions about their goals. What is the intended mood? What are the team’s daily needs? Will the space be used for client meetings, conferences, feedback sessions, or employee workspaces?

While making stylish decisions can help create more beautiful spaces, top-performing offices balance beauty with functionality. They do so by considering the intended purpose of each room before picking its style.

Consider the difference in tone between different layouts. For example, open plans may encourage collaboration while more segmented spaces may encourage individual focus. The layers of design elements, combined with the chosen layout, should complement the intended workflow.

2. Choose Functional and Ergonomic Furniture

Many office layouts have minimalistic furniture that looks better in corporate magazines than in day-to-day use by hard-working employees. Stylish furniture can contribute to a productive mood, but the best furniture strikes a better balance with functionality by focusing on ergonomics as well as style. Adjustability, lumbar support, weight limits, and headrests are all elements to consider when buying furniture for daily office use.

3. Strategically Incorporate Branded Decor

Branded elements can add style to an office layout without impacting its functionality. Branded decor can give office managers the ability to customize the mood of their offices, communicate brand values, and turn their logos and mottos into new focal points for their employees to enjoy.

For example, a custom office sign customized with the company’s mission statement can add a unique brand identity to the space without changing the layout. Brushed metal and other premium materials, colors, and textures can communicate professionalism and progressive thinking in a reception area or conference room. 

Alternatively, an office sign can be customized to be more rustic and inviting, depending on the brand’s intended message. Custom decor solutions with high standards of craftsmanship are like blank canvases for office managers to infuse their layouts with the distinct style of their brand.

4. Leave Space for Relaxing

Modern office managers can make the mistake of allocating every inch of their layout for workspace. Yet, relaxation space can be just as important in crafting a productive and engaging environment as a workspace.

For example, leaving room for employees to sit and relax, away from their insulated workspace, can promote collaboration, engagement, and positivity. This space is ideal for branded wall artwork since employees can sit and enjoy it. This allows managers to use artwork to encourage the intended mood, communicate a brand’s value, and create the most stylish and interesting space they can.

5. Utilize Feedback to Make Improvements

A balanced office layout successfully combines style and functionality while leaving room to be continuously improved based on employees’ needs. Teams can be consulted on how the layout could impact their productivity and comfort. They may even have preferences that could guide the design process toward more productive results!

Additionally, custom art designers can help in this process by meeting the needs of the office to create art that embodies the brand’s vision. An outside perspective can be invaluable in taking a brand’s unique vision for functionality and creating custom pieces that support its ideal workflow.

Professional Office Art Designers Balance Style and Functionality in Modern Workspaces

Style and functionality do not have to be a compromise in modern office layouts. By starting with a strong vision and making smart choices for the furniture, color, and decor, office managers can design a new layout that reflects their brand’s culture while maximizing productivity.

Our team of experienced artists at ShieldCo Art is dedicated to customizing decor to create more stylish office spaces without sacrificing functionality. We’ll create high-quality, artistic custom office sign that communicates your brand’s creative vision while matching the needs of each space. Contact our team today to learn how custom metal office signs can balance functionality and style in your modern office space.

Refreshing an office space can deliver many benefits, including increased productivity, client engagement, and employee morale. The work required to refresh a workspace can be proportional to these benefits, but it doesn’t have to be! Offices of any size can refresh their spaces without full redesigns, using subtle strategies to breathe new life into their lobbies, halls, conference rooms, and more.

When refreshing an office space, review these five simple ways to get the benefits of a full redesign without paying the full cost. Making a positive impact on an office environment can start with simple design decisions.

1. Update Colors to Craft the Mood

Color plays an essential role in setting the tone of the workspace, and it’s one of the easiest aspects to redesign. Repainting walls, adding accent walls, changing the colors of cushions, or commissioning a custom 3D office sign can dramatically change the energy of the office without a full redesign.

• To choose the right colors for the space, business owners should consider the simple but effective impact of color psychology. According to this theory, colors and hues impact human behavior in several ways:
  
  Blue and white: Can induce feelings of calmness
• Green: May produce feelings of balance and creativity
• Red and yellow: Can contribute to an atmosphere of energy, optimism, or passion

2. Create Custom Focal Points to Engage Visitors

Office spaces can be refreshed with new visual centerpieces that draw visitors’ eyes and communicate a message. A custom office sign can be customized to feature the company’s logo or mission statement, adding a personal, creative touch. They can also feature quotations or imagery that evokes the business’s unique brand identity.

Dimensional metal office signs can create more engaging lobbies, hallways, meeting spaces, and workspaces where visitors, employees, and clients form immediate relationships with the brand. By combining artistry, messaging, and branding, reception areas can become more inviting and structured. Conference rooms can become more engaging. These focal points bring people together without any structural changes, and they help office owners communicate with their guests, clients, and employees organically.

3. Incorporate Nature to Improve Well-Being

Natural elements like plants produce a well-known calming effect due to our long history of interacting with the natural world. This relationship can become a simple hack for office redesigners, who can utilize natural elements to boost productivity and well-being without major changes.

Low-maintenance plants like snake plants or pothos can be incorporated into the design, but less drastic choices can be just as effective. The simple addition of the color green in accent schemes can harness some of the same relaxing effect. Natural materials like wood and stone can be incorporated into the decor or mimicked in the pattern of a unique office sign.

Visually incorporating natural designs like floral, vine, and leaf patterns into engaging dimensional art can make spaces more calming, interesting, and unique. Office art or signs with natural tones, such as brushed metal, can create interesting focal points that designers can use to their advantage, even without incorporating real plants into their offices.

4. Refresh the Lighting to Increase Productivity and Comfort

Lighting significantly impacts the mood of an office space, providing an opportunity to refresh the environment without a costly redesign. Studies have shown that harsh, artificial lighting like fluorescent bulbs can feel mentally draining due to people’s natural instinct to be in outdoor lighting. Offices can utilize these mental instincts to their advantage by swapping out dated lighting fixtures for more natural alternatives.

These can include ambient, accent, and task lights, placed strategically to avoid feeling intrusive. Comfortable, dynamic lighting that is layered into the space and focused on functionality can help employees feel focused without becoming drained. Another option is to use real natural light by repositioning desks, opening the blinds, or changing the window coverings to take advantage of daylight.

5. Declutter to Create a More Inviting Workplace

Decluttering an office can create an effective refresh without any design changes at all. Rather than adding a new element, office owners can remove clutter from desks and storage areas or buy in-built storage solutions to reduce chaos and streamline their workflows.

The same effect can be achieved simply by rearranging furniture or investing in digital filing systems. This gets pen and paper clutter out of the way and helps employees move, think, and work in their space more easily. By using the same logic on the walls, office managers can replace cluttered wall decor with custom office signs for a cleaner, more controlled, more focused space.

Communicate Your Office Goals with Custom Design Solutions

ShieldCo Art’s team of artists knows that office redesigns are expensive endeavors with limited ROI. Our goal is to help office owners achieve the most positive impact on their offices with the least amount of expensive redesigning. Custom office signs provide opportunities to add multi-dimensional focal points with new materials and color schemes to take advantage of some of these simple redesign benefits.

At ShieldCo Art, we offer a personalized approach to communicating a brand’s values through simple office refreshes. Contact our team of artists to learn how quality craftsmanship can be used to refresh a workplace environment with less intrusion than a full redesign.

Start Designing Your Custom Office Sign Today

Office design is more than an aesthetic decision. It shapes the experience that employees, clients, and visitors will have with the brand. How the space is perceived directly impacts the perception of the business’s values and identity. Through tangible design choices, a modern office can reinforce an ideal customer perception. Custom office signs, creative color schemes, and carefully selected decor can tell a brand’s story in physical details that visitors can observe, experience, and remember.

When designing or renovating an office space, these benefits of branded office design impact its positive reception, from its first impressions to its long-term relationships.

First Impressions Matter

First impressions set the tone for visitors and employees and largely determine their opinions of the business. A permanent first impression can be formed in as little as a tenth of a second. For visitors, clear branded elements can immediately communicate a strong visual identity and reinforce values such as professionalism and credibility. For employees, these elements can define their devotion to their workplace by clarifying its mission.

Custom office signs, particularly when crafted from personalized designs and high-quality materials, convey an attention to detail that cannot be achieved with generic decor. Multi-dimensional decor such as metal signs and logos in a reception area or lobby provides a strong introduction, setting the tone that visitors will experience with the company.

Reinforces Company Culture

Design elements like branded office signs reflect the brand’s values and mission statement. For example, a business that prides itself on reflecting values of sustainability can opt for minimalistic, premium decor made from sustainable materials. Meanwhile, a business focused on cutting-edge services may lean toward modern, premium designs.

These elements are not just for show. They reinforce company culture by inspiring employees to feel a sense of belonging in their company and spread that feeling to new co-workers. When team members enter an environment that visually reinforces the business’s identity, they feel connected to that identity and motivated to contribute to it.

Enhances Client & Employee Experience

Cohesive designs build trust by creating an immersive experience for both employees and clients. When multiple visual elements, such as the architecture, furniture, and decor, contribute to a coherent company message, visitors are more likely to trust the business’s ability to pay attention to details. They begin to expect a more consistent experience from their services.

Consistent branding creates memorable experiences that foster a deeper connection to the brand’s identity. For clients, this results in a sense of trust and confidence. For employees, this can result in a sense of pride in their work, from which they build deeper connections and spread the company’s values in their interactions with clients and other employees.

Increases Employee Productivity & Engagement

Thoughtfully designed and clearly branded workspaces increase employee productivity. According to Corporate Wellness Magazine, “A well-designed workspace is now widely recognized as a driving force behind increased employee engagement, leading to improved business outcomes.” 

Enjoyable workspaces boost motivation and pride while aligning team members with the company’s goals and vision. Custom signage, motivational quotes, and other strategically placed branded elements serve as daily reminders to employees of the company’s values. By aligning daily experiences with the brand’s mission, employees are more likely to take ownership of their work, collaborate effectively with their co-workers, and maintain high productivity.

Key Branding Elements in Office Design

Many businesses understand the value of custom decor in engaging their employees and making a good first impression with their visitors. However, many wonder how to apply the principles of branded design elements to their office’s specific designs. Here are some essential elements of branded office design to consider:

Custom Metal Signage: 

High-quality custom metal signs create a standout mission statement in reception areas, lobbies, meeting spaces, and more. They can showcase the brand’s values with a professional, artistic touch. Multi-layered, three-dimensional metal signs can bring logos, quotes, and architectural designs to life, creating a strong first impression and a lasting impact.

Color & Material Choices: 

Color psychology can determine the impact of a first impression and the effectiveness of a branded element. Bold colors can convey a sense of exuberance and energy, while neutral or muted colors can communicate class and professionalism. Material choices can also communicate an intended style or message. Sleek metal materials, for example, can convey a sense of modern innovation and strength.

Branded Décor & Artwork: 

Combining material, color, and design choices into branded artwork, signage, and décor helps businesses align their aesthetic with their message. Bespoke metal artwork can elevate an office space using its own values and designs, reinforcing the branded image in an organic, intentional, and impressive way.

Contact ShieldCo to Elevate Office Designs with Custom Branding

An office that goes beyond a workplace can represent a brand’s message, style, and values in its core design. Each aesthetic choice, from the colors to the wall décor, can reinforce an identity that defines the experiences of both visitors and employees. By investing in branded office fixtures such as high-quality custom metal office signs, businesses can create professional, cohesive, and inspiring environments that reinforce their identity in a modern way.

At ShieldCo Art, we collaborate closely with our clients to provide custom office signs that create an outstanding first impression within the office. Contact our experienced artists to bring your office vision to life with creative, collaborative, and high-quality craftsmanship.

An inviting office lobby sets the tone for guests and clients. Even small changes can create a more inviting space that communicates a brand identity more clearly and creates a more comfortable lobby for both new and returning clients. Lighting changes, new seating arrangements, and even custom metal lobby signs represent some of the ways to maximize your lobby space by communicating company values and engaging visitors.

We’ve collected some easy design changes that office managers can make to create a more inviting lobby for their guests and clients to enjoy.

Create a Striking First Impression with Custom Lobby Signs

First impressions communicate the company’s values from the moment visitors walk through the door. A striking first impression, such as a custom metal office sign, can set a powerful, professional image that clients will remember.

Sophisticated 3D metal signage matches a brand’s identity, values, and style to the tone of the art. The right design can make any lobby space more inviting and professional without changing the good first impression felt by returning clients.

Optimize Lighting for Warmth & Comfort

Bright, welcoming lighting enhances the ambiance of an office lobby, promoting comfort and clarity. A mix of natural light, warm LEDs, and modern custom fixtures can create an engaging atmosphere that matches the energy your business hopes to project.

Natural light is another great way to enhance work areas. Office spaces that incorporate natural light have been shown to reduce headaches and stress while increasing energy and productivity.

Incorporate Comfortable & Stylish Seating

As guests and visitors wait in your office lobby, they will need comfortable and stylish seating to get the right first impression of your business. Depending on the available space and the intended tone, sofas, banquettes, club chairs, or other options might be the best fit.

For the best results, choose ergonomic designs from materials that match the tone and message of the room. Arrange the seating in spacious, open layouts to make guests feel welcome in your lobby.

Add Engaging Decor & Artwork

Handcrafted wall displays and other pieces of branded artwork offer a personalized touch to an office lobby that communicates a sense of continuity and identity to its visitors. Focal points such as artistic metal murals of company quotes, values, or creative designs can easily communicate your brand’s identity to guests as they wait to be seen.

Custom displays can be designed to honor company milestones, tribute current and past employees, or simply add flair to a blank wall space. The right decor can tell visitors that a business is modern, professional, and inviting at a glance.

Use Color & Materials to Evoke the Right Mood

The wrong choice of color or material can undermine excellent choices in custom artwork, lighting fixtures, furniture, and decor. The key is balancing brand-specific identity with accepted standards for how color and material communicate a mood in a modern space.

For example, branded artwork, displays, and fixtures can be customized with brand-aligned colors, but this should not come at the expense of the intended mood. Cool colors like blue and green evoke a calming energy, while vibrant colors like yellow and red communicate creativity and life. Choosing the right color scheme is vital to creating a welcoming atmosphere that also reads as a branded space.

High-quality materials like brushed metal, glass, and wood can help by adding elegance to the space. The right finish can transform metal decor into a relaxing, organic piece that complements the space, especially in natural light.

Keep the Space Organized & Clutter-Free

Clutter-free spaces feel more professional and inviting. Having a clean lobby communicates to visitors and potential clients that a business has an organized set of priorities, respects its visitors, and values appearances. A spacious seating arrangement combined with natural light can create an open, clean feel that clients and customers will respect.

However, office lobbies can still become cluttered with physical supplies, such as extra cards and pamphlets, cleaning supplies, and equipment. Sleek, modern storage solutions solve the problem by tidying the space without intruding on the mood. The goal of modern storage design is to create pieces that seamlessly blend into the backdrop so that visitors can enjoy a tidy lobby without being consciously aware of where things are stored.

ShieldCo Art Creates Custom Metal Art and Decor for an Inviting Modern Office Lobby Signs

An inviting office lobby combines decor, natural light, and spacious furniture to create a welcoming, clean space. 3D metal lobby signs, decor, and custom fixtures allow managers to customize their space with brand-specific choices. The right designs, colors, textures, and finishes can turn a drab office lobby into a professional space that perfectly communicates your brand’s identity.

At Shield Co Art, our team of artists provides businesses with metal art and decor, including 3D lobby signs and custom lighting fixtures that are tailored to their brand’s identity and specific atmosphere. Contact our team today to turn your office lobby into an inviting space that guests and clients will enjoy.