Progressive educators recognize that the learning process should not be limited to the classroom and the exchange between teachers and students. In fact, according to a 2013 Gallup State of America’s Schools Report, only 55% of K-12 students are engaged in the traditional learning process.

Introducing experiential graphics into built environments turns the building itself into an educator. Consider a simple example of  labeling a drinking fountain in multiple languages with engaging typography. Not only does this teach one how to say drinking fountain in other languages, it teaches a more subtle value of inclusiveness.

The value of ambient learning is not limited to the education industry. The truth is, every organization is in the business of educating. Businesses educate their employees and customers on their history, their processes, their products. Non-profit organizations educate their volunteers, donors and those they serve. Religious institutions educate their people as well. In fact, historically, churches have done a magnificent job through stained glass and art. Consider that Leonardo DaVinci’s famous “Last Supper” painting was commissioned for the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what pictures would make a difference in your building?  Schedule an appointment to explore what ambient learning could do for you.

See just a few of the examples of ambient learning we developed for Delta College below.

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Your building and office space is your chance to influence how people feel in your space and what they think about you and your company. Your name probably already exists on the outside of your building – and it should, to identify you. Do you really want to repeat the same thing inside your front doors? No. Let’s be honest, your guests already know your company name and so do your employees.

Your building should tell your story and your reception area is the first chapter.

Seize the opportunity to say something people don’t know about you, and don’t feel you must use words.  If your clients come in anxious or fearful, give them peace.  If it’s your staff that makes your company so special, show it. If you’re a non profit organization, show a picture that represents your mission. Please, just show or say something other than your company name.

Your goal is to create a conversation starter. No one is going to ask you about your name.

The picture above is a reception area we designed for an engineering firm. Not what you’d expect, right? Well neither is their innovative approach to what they do. We had the wall hand painted by a street artist. It’s a conversation starter with their guests…”Wow, tell me about that!”

Need help with this? Let’s talk.

The post What Not To Say In Your Reception Area appeared first on Ideation.

Our clients often call on us to help them re-imagine the exterior of their buildings. It could be a dentist that acquired an older practice. It could be a retailer or restaurant that is moving into a spot previously held by a similar business. It could be a manufacturer that wants to increase name and brand recognition. The reasons are nearly endless, but the goal is generally the same: to make people notice and express the brand.

While signage is part of the solution, something more is often needed. While the “more” could involve more expensive architectural changes or cladding, “more” can often be accomplished at a much lower cost with a well-designed exterior paint job. Usually, the client had budgeted to repaint the building anyway.

This is something we practice as we preach!  The above picture is of our new studio.  The incremental cost to paint the 3-color design shown was just 10% more than if we had painted it a single gray color!

Successful design doesn’t have to be expensive.  Schedule an appointment to re-imagine the exterior of your building or explore the Power of Paint.

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Street Level Work Environments

Exterior glass walls at the street level offer lots of natural light, but also expose workers to pedestrian eyes.  Sometimes rooms with exterior windows are exposed to too much sun, creating glare and temperature issues. Street level exterior windows can also be a concern at night when greater internal lighting relative to exterior ambient light allows everything to be visible to the outside world.  If you have team members working late into the evening, this can cause a security concern.  Here we applied a custom-designed window graphic to let the right amount of light in while addressing these concerns.  This solution also increased marketing exposure for the same price.

A Little Privacy, Please

With conference rooms and huddle rooms, our customers want to keep sensitive presentation content from being viewed by people walking by.  Other times they want to protect the identity of their clients or guests.  Blocking out distractions outside the meeting room is also a common request.  Determining the right level of opacity and translucency is unique to each environment.  Here a custom-designed window graphic maintained the nature theme used throughout the interior design.

More Focused Huddles

Huddle rooms and conference rooms are often used for focused collaboration.  A common request is to use custom window graphics to help block out distractions while maintaining a level of openness that allows natural light in and reveals whether or not a huddle room is in use.  Here we accomplished these objectives with a solution designed from three layers of graphic film and in consideration of flooring patterns.

Interior Design Integration

While our customers want to increase the privacy, they don’t want to just cover it all up.  One of our customer’s said it best – “I don’t want a shower curtain!”  Today, we have hundreds of films to get creative with. While frosted films are a popular look, translucent colors and a variety of textures are also available.  Even with frosted films, we have dozens to choose from with varying levels of opacity, coarseness and textures.  Designing the right solution to connect with the rest of your interior is important for creating the greatest impact with your space.

Keeping it Safe!

Finally, the same transparency that makes glass an attractive material to use, can also make it a danger for people to walk into!  Here we created a vertical translucent stripe using a brand color to enhance the interior design and keep people safe!

Ideation Orange is an industry leader in branding spaces using interior design, signs and environmental graphics.  If you would like more information on how your space can help you achieve your goals, contact Ideation Orange in Hazel Park, Michigan.

Photos © 2018 Gene Meadows

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The Power of the Tangible

Physical experiences are powerful and carry weight.  Words have become cheap – people can easily tell you what you want to hear.  When a business takes the time to think about how they want their guests to feel and invests money on a physical experience that expresses their company’s difference, value proposition, and culture, it builds credibility. Vestibules, lobbies, reception desks and waiting areas are all tangible experiences in your facilities that are shaping the first impression.

Who Are You Impressing?

Our clients often have their customers or prospective customers in mind when they come to us to help shape an entrance or threshold experience.  While these guests are important, the experience also influences the perception of current and prospective employees, members, business partners, vendors, and investors.

How Do You Want Your Guests to Feel?

When designing spaces, we ask our customers, “how do you want your guests to feel?”  The answers to this question will vary, reflecting the industry our customer is in and their unique offering in that industry.  Answers include safe, invigorated, comfortable, confident, peaceful, proud and many more.

Different Designs for The Same Feeling

It’s not uncommon for two businesses to want to create the same feeling – e.g. comfort.  The right creative solution for each business, however, will be different based on the nature of that building and the needs of their guests.  For example, what makes a guest comfortable walking into an estate planning law firm to discuss a recent death in the family is quite different than what makes a business owner comfortable walking into the office of a technology consulting firm to talk about how to use technology for a competitive advantage.

If you’d like help shaping the first impression made by your facility – whether a lobby, reception area, waiting room, or vestibule, contact Ideation Orange in Hazel Park, Michigan.  We exist to maximize the impact of built-environments using signage, environmental graphics, and interior design.  We create branded environments.

Photos © 2018 Gene Meadows

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According to Ideation’s Jon Moses, “the interior design had a rustic modern feel with reclaimed wood used throughout the space. We wanted the wayfinding and room identification signage to be an extension of the overall design rather than just a functional necessity. Our goal was for the custom signage to help brand the space.”

Room identification signs produced from reclaimed wood with direct-to-surface printed graphics and applied raised lettering and Grade 2 braille.

“Rather than fake the wood look with traditional sign laminates, our team wanted to use the same imperfect, reclaimed wood used for common area wall surfaces. After several prototypes, everyone was very pleased with the results!” Jon Moses, Ideation.

A second complementary style sign was designed and produced from frosted black acrylic for walls with wood background and for utility signs to help balance the overall sign program cost.

Nine foot tall floor numbers were hand painted to walls outside the elevator doors.

A view of the outfield lofts from behind home plate.

3’ tall steel numbers were fabricated to recognize the distance from home plate to the exterior of the lofts.

The exterior main entrance was branded with freestanding ½” thick aluminum letters above the canopy.

“Beyond the traditional value of making sure people know where to go when visiting and being an ADA compliant solution, our design added value to the environment by serving as an artistic element. Our goal was that the custom signage and environment would make residents proud to live there and visitors want to live there.” Jon Moses, Ideation Orange.

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