When you talk about the ‘design’ of your company you should be thinking about your company aesthetic. Every company needs and identifiable aesthetic that sets them apart from the others. This is an important part of brand identity. A good design will instruct you on how to design your spaces, your products, your business cards, and everything down to the font your use on your website. Company ‘design’ might be an abstract concept, but it is important nonetheless and needs to be considered carefully. The first step to designing your company is clearly identifying your mission statement and company ethos. Once you have that, you have inspiration for your design.
Collaborative decision making
In a lot of companies there is a clear separation between boss and employee, especially during the design process. Usually it is a superior that is in charge of making all of the final design decisions while the creatives are the ones to put together the ideas. But, tastes and opinions differ, and the one in charge isn’t always the person with the best ideas. Any freelance creative knows how difficult it is to please someone that doesn’t understand the design process. So, consider using a peer network to make design decisions. Even if ideas are pitched independently, it should be teams that give feedback and decide on the best design decisions. Ideas can be had and decisions can be made a lot faster when collaboration is involved and there is a good chance that teamwork will lead to overall better design.
Give creativity space to breath
Creativity in the workplace is quite delicate and it can’t be developed in a hurry. Designing takes a lot of thought and in order to get the best possible ideas out of your team you need to give them the time and freedom to think. So, rather than sitting an employee down at a desk and forcing them to churn out ideas, give creatives regular breaks to do other things and give their brain a rest. Concentrating on one thing for long periods of time without breaks won’t produce much in terms of results. Instead, creatives should be focused on their design challenges in short burst. Rather than working on something for a few hours, for example, work in 20 minute intervals and allow them to go back and forth between tasks to allow them to digest ideas and return to difficult tasks with fresh perspectives.
Bring in help from outside
When you use creatives within your own company to design it, you might not be able to find the daring creativity needed to design something outstanding. This is because they might feel uncomfortable pitching risky ideas and because they can only see the company from an inside perspective. Sometimes you need someone that’s on the outside looking in to see what you can’t and give your design the direction it needs. In which case, you could use some of your clients to get some feedback or hire a creative company. An agency that provides expert retail design for the US companies can give you great ideas for the direction of your brand and the general aesthetic of your company. Just make sure to get your employees involved in the decision making to ensure that your design suits more than just your personal taste.