1 Key Design Secret for Great Commercial Interiors

What makes a brand familiar? It’s usually that it looks the same everywhere. Not only does visual consistency help us identify a brand, it is also a promise of the service, product quality and overall brand experience.

Consistency and repetition help to cultivate trust, familiarity, and efficient customer journeys. If our favourite chain restaurant looked totally different and operated differently in every branch, we would feel pretty disoriented.

When it comes to interiors, they need to have a set of features which makes them instantly recognisable and signal a brand experience a customer can expect anywhere in the world. This strategy also allows for local variance – you don’t want branches to feel like cookie cutter copies of one another, but rather as individual locations with their own unique touches.

This is what we call our blueprint design, a popular service we offer particularly for brands wanting to elevate to a national or global level. A blueprint consists of a unique set of design features, layout and corresponding service system that can be rolled out and scaled up or down depending on the site without the need for a design process from scratch for each new site.

The good news for businesses is that as well as being the most beneficial to a strong brand, this approach is also the most economical. As the defining features are already specified, it cuts project time down massively too. Investment in a blueprint design is a no-brainer for businesses with the ambition to roll out to new locations in the future, or for existing brands looking to standardise and amplify the impact of existing venues

“Investment in a blueprint design is a no-brainer for businesses with the ambition to roll out to new locations in the future, or for existing brands looking to standardise and amplify the impact of existing venues.”

We only need to look to our blueprint design for ultra-luxury nail salon Townhouse, rapidly expanding across London and beyond to demonstrate how the blueprint design principle can work without compromising on a feeling of luxury or compromising the individuality of each location.

Another beauty concept with a totally opposing aesthetic, our design for The Cavendish Clinic is minimal but just as distinctive. Transforming practical features, like lights and service counters, into key design features hits two birds with one stone and is perfect for small spaces that want to make an impact. Variations of this blueprint have been applied across various John Lewis stores and private treatment rooms.

Beyond beauty locations, this strategy is applicable to all kinds of industries. Natural Vitality, a new wellness destination concept, wanted a blueprint for their health food and café concept. As a consequence of our work together, the distinctive design choice of incorporating waves and curves in locally sourced, light wood is now synonymous with the brand across Ecuador and has expanded the brand language into new mediums.