How To Design a Building Lobby With Your Brand in Mind

How To Design a Building Lobby With Your Brand in Mind

When designing a building, developers tend to pay too much attention to areas like the offices, apartments, or specific spaces such as kitchens or meeting rooms, but often end up overlooking far more critical areas such as the building lobby. 

The reason why this should take precedence over most other parts of the building is due to something called the serial-position effect. This is the tendency for people to remember the first and last thing they experience far better than anything in-between. And when it comes to visiting your building, the first and last thing they are going to experience is the lobby. So if it is an absolute disaster, then it doesn’t matter how nice your office was.

In this article, I am going to consider a building like a brand because developers might take advantage of tools that are not commonly used in this environment. I am a firm believer in cross specialization as it is only by bringing knowledge from different areas that you spark real innovation and achieve success.

Take an in-Depth Look at Your Building

To create a lobby that accurately reflects your building concept, you need to take the time to reflect deeply on what your building represents and how it relates to its image.

This goes far beyond just picking the right color tone or material. Try to go deeper with this exercise. What makes your building unique? Come up with a few adjectives or a short sentence that explains the core of your building. Is it green and sustainable? Traditional? High-tech? Young and exciting? Who is your ideal customer? What are they looking for and how do they live? 

Once you have these descriptors picked out, try to figure out if they can become some sort of material, color, or piece of furniture. High-quality interiors function as a language and tell a story with a perfectly curated aesthetic. But make sure this story aligns with your building image in its entirety. Every aspect of the building should speak the same language and correctly convey the ideas behind your concept.

Despite what many people think, a brand is not a logo. It’s what people perceive about your company. You can have the most beautiful logo, colors, and graphics, but your company will fail if you are not conveying the right message. The same goes for a building. If people are not grasping the concept behind it, then the project will not be as successful as you would otherwise expect.

It’s About More Than Just What You Can See

When someone enters a lobby, they are going to be engaging more than just their sight, whether they realize it or not. The smells, sounds, and textures are all part of the lobby experience. So while the visuals of your building lobby are obviously the most critical element, it shouldn’t be the only thing you think about. 

After spending only a few seconds in the lobby, a customer should know exactly what your business (or concept) is all about, but you’re only going to be able to achieve this if you properly coordinate all of the senses. 

I often tell my clients that customers need to “feel” the space like they are feeling a jacket on their body. A well-designed space will transmit all the right values without having to explain anything in words. You should be able to identify exactly what your building (i.e. store, office, or apartment) is about right from the moment you walk in. This first impression of your company will be a lasting one in the eyes of your clientele. 

Design the whole building, not just the visible portions

While a building lobby design is obviously crucial to the success of a business, it should not be your sole focus. The last thing you want is to have a gorgeous marble lobby with expensive finishes and furniture, but leave the rest of the building with the cheapest materials possible. That would be like putting on a beautiful suit while wearing dirty or damaged shoes.

So don’t go wasting all of your time or money on designing your lobby if your elevator, stairwells (even emergency stairs), or other areas of your building are very outdated or do not match your brand image and concept. One area of your building should seamlessly blend into the next and take the customer on an enjoyable journey.

Focus on Durability and Lighting

When you’re completely redesigning a lobby or building one from scratch, it can be hard to know where to begin. It becomes even tougher to navigate when you’re on a budget and have to choose only a few key areas to focus on. If this is the case, then you should give priority to the durability and lighting within your lobby. 

Without durable materials in your lobby, it's liable to become damaged or scuffed up quite quickly. Then you’d essentially be flushing all of the renovation money down the drain. 

Lighting is also crucial because it determines how well every aspect of your lobby is displayed. You can have a gorgeous color palette throughout the lobby, but if your light is dim, inconsistent, or the wrong color temperature, then no one is going to be able to properly appreciate it. 

Lighting also has the ability to affect the vibe of the entire space. For example, more soft lighting will give the lobby a warm feeling that is comforting and welcoming. But you will want to make sure that the lighting is not too intense or too warm/cold in the lobby. Otherwise, it will be uncomfortable when guests come into your building from the other areas.

Always Aim for Being Unique

Above all else, you want to have a lobby that is unique. When you set out to create your brand, you made sure it wasn’t like any other brand already out there. Well, the same should apply to your building lobby. If you make the space too much like another building’s then it loses some of the magic behind it, which customers are sure to notice, and they will quickly forget about your space. 

We are living in a cluttered world where everything tends to look the same. If you don’t want to compete in an environment where everyone is offering the same product as yours, you have to innovate. People want to spend time in places that are different from the norm, so make your lobby one of these places, and make sure it looks stunning. You have just a few seconds to give the best impression; everything else you have built behind it will significantly benefit from it. Guaranteed.