Commercial design is so much more than just making an office, a store, a restaurant or a hotel look beautiful. One of the primary goals is to create a space that communicates the company's brand so clearly that there is no question about which company is occupying that space.

I'm not talking about plastering your logo all over the place. Inside the company's premises, the brand is built through the way people feel in the space, the level of customer service, the overall atmosphere, as well as the colours, textures, patterns, lighting and materials that create the design. 

That's why when I initially meet with a commercial client, the first part of the meeting is not about design. It's about the company brand.  

These are just some of things I go through in our first meeting:

• Your core values. This sets the stage for the basis of the design because at the end of the day, this space needs to very clearly identify what your company is and what you stand for.
• Your logo and marketing materials. The colours, the fonts, the feeling; they all anchor the palette for the design.
• Your company history and its story. This is key because the design needs to represent your company, its strengths and uniqueness at every touchpoint.
• Your customers - who they are, what they buy most, what they love about your company, why they keep coming back, and what they'd like to see improved.
• Your business goals. When I'm designing a space I want to make sure that it's going to work for you in 5 or 10 years time as your business grows, expands or evolves into a new version of what it is now.
• The roles of everyone in the company. What would make their jobs easier and more comfortable? How can we create a space that they absolutely love coming into every day? Having a strong company culture is vital to your long-term brand identity.
• The flow of traffic so I can identify where bottlenecks happen throughout the day. Knowing this information helps me come up with a floor plan that works for everyone, including your customers. If customers can't find what they need or feel claustrophobic in your space, that can weaken your brand. So, we want to plan out the space in a way that feels easy to navigate and people actually enjoy being in.

Only after I understand all of that do I start on the design details. After doing thousands of floorsets in stores all over the province and helping businesses with marketing strategies, I have a pretty good understanding of why a designer needs to know this information to get your design right before we start selecting any colours or furnishings. Your brand is the one thing that identifies you as the go-to business in your industry and you want to make sure that anyone who sees your business from the street or walks in the door of your business, leave them with a positive, memorable experience. 

The ideal time to hire a designer is right at the beginning of the project, before the drawings are done and before any of the contractors are hired. That's because we have the expertise to make sure the design is perfectly on brand right from the beginning. I love collaborating with talented architects, engineers and GC's to bring the vision to life for my clients. 
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If you've been thinking it's time for an update of your space, if you're moving to a new location or thinking it's time for a brand new building of your own, I'm happy to discuss how my design services can help you elevate your company brand.

Your business is compliant with the building codes in Ontario and you've installed everything you need to in order to comply with AODA regulations. Your building is safe, accessible and built to code. Awesome! But guess what? When it comes to your employees health and well-being, code compliance is not enough.

Why is it important to design for employee well-being? First off, designing for well-being is just good ethics. It's also good business too, especially when you think of interior design as a strategic business decision. When your business is focused on employee health, you'll experience increased workplace productivity and creativity in your staff, improved customer experiences, decreases in employees absences, and an improvement in staff turnover.

Now that you understand why it's important, let's talk about to implement it. Your business could be an office, a retail shop, a garage, a sales office, a lunch room, a gym, a waiting room, or a warehouse. It could be an industrial facility, a healthcare facility or a restaurant. Every business is different and every location has it's pros and cons. So how do you adjust for your unique situation?

First, you have to get clear on the purpose of the space. Designing the CEO's office is going to being different than designing a bathroom or a lunch room.

Then you need to understand mental health needs from an employee's perspective - connection to nature, connection to people, having a sense of purpose, being treated with dignity and respect, good nutrition, physical safety and security. These are universal and can be solved in any workplace regardless of what industry you're in.

When we're designing commercial projects, we're looking at the best ways to do that within that particular space. Our primary focus is on the people who work in the space every single day. so we look at traffic flow in different areas of the building, efficient use of space, ergonomics, lighting and electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs) that could be impacting how people think, create and work.

Some of the other things to consider when designing your business for well-being are:

• colour choices for different spaces, knowing how different colours and tones affect mood
• textures and how they impact the way a space feels
• the position of the desks and workstations so everyone is set up for maximum productivity
• connection to nature, either through the way the windows are positioned, or by bringing in plants and greenery into the space

Here's a quick 60 second challenge for you. Take a look around your physical business location and see if you can identify what's going on in there that could be impacting your employees' health and well-being. Look at the layout, the lighting, the efficiency and flow of day to day work, as well as the look and feel of the space. Do these things make your space feel like a great place to be in every day? Do they foster a strong company culture, a sense of belonging for everyone? How do these things impact your own physical and mental well-being?

Our goal at Mindful Living Interiors is always going to be about designing spaces that improve the health and well-being of everyone living and working in them. Think about your own business and how your space could be impacting your employees and when you're ready to set your business up to support everyone in it, we're here to help.