Marketing by design

Noble Bank, which specializes in private banking and wealth management for high-income clients, opened a new branch in Warsaw last month. The company wanted to present an image of prestige and high class, and hired the Robert Majkut Design (RMD) studio to create an office that lived up to the expectations of the bank's clientele.

"Just like our previous projects designed by Robert Majkut, such as Open Finance and Expander, we wanted to create something that would intrigue and interest our clients," says Jarosław Augustyniak, the vice president of Noble Bank. "We asked Robert to come up with something conservative - English club style, retro and maybe snobbish, the way we want to be seen by our customers."

Among other things, RMD designed the offices, conference-room furniture and wallpaper. The reception halls, conference rooms and corridors are designed in dark colors, such as mahogany and chocolate. There are four meeting rooms, each of which is decorated in a different hue. All are furnished with round, black, polished tables and armchairs.

Noble Bank plans to open 20 more branches in Poland's largest cities in addition to its two in Warsaw by the end of 2007. All the branches will be designed by RMD, and have a similar style. Additionally, the company is looking into the possibility of putting new offices in old, stylish tenements.

A deeper level

Design does more than present a specific image. "Nowadays, design is an integral part of business. It has to recognize needs and problems, then find the right solution for them," said Robert Majkut, owner of RMD. "This design concept requires recognizing clients' needs on a deeper level and understanding what the company's products mean for its clients, not only on a functional level but also in the psychological and emotional sense."

Augustyniak says that planning and designing a new branch wasn't an attempt to chase his market rivals. Rather, he says it was a way to set "new standards" in the private-banking sector. He sees the high-class design as an investment that will bring his company more customers.

"I was examining solutions that are used in these types of institutions in London, New York, Zurich and Monaco," Majkut added. "Wealthy people are always conscious of this type of comfort." 

Location, location,location

Creating the right design for a company first depends on choosing the right location.

"The work on the interior design begins the moment when the decision about the office location is made," says Tomasz Buras, an associate director and head of the office agency at King Sturge.

There are various design-linked reasons that lead companies to choose a specific location. Some prefer to be the only tenant in the building, since it gives them wider freedom when designing the interior, while others choose a location that will enhance their image as a top market player.

CB Richard Ellis Polska (CBRE) recently decided to up sticks to a a newly designed office at Warsaw's Rondo 1 building. "It was the prestigious building and location that attracted us, as well as the top companies in the market being our neighbors," said Paulina Górska, marketing and PR director at CBRE.

"The design budget depends on the length of the tenancy agreement. In other words, when a company signs a contract for two to four years, the budget allocated for design is always limited," states Przemysław Stopa, chief architect and designer at Massive Design, which has designed Polish headquarters for companies such as Eli Lilly, Żywiec Group and Ernst & Young. "When companies have a long-term tenancy agreement, they tend to put more money into design and architecture."

In fashion

Just as with the fashion industry, design continuously evolves through various trends - the 'in' colors, shapes and textures change over time, but office design also sees trends in terms of use of space, which focus on making the company operate more efficiently. A designer must make the best use of the space provided, and tailor it to each customer's needs. The current trend is for offices with larger open spaces, sometimes despite complaints from employees.

"Recently we have been seeing more open spaces designed, while offices are disappearing. The time has passed for the most part when CEOs and directors have offices with over 30-sqm," Stopa points out. "They are now likely to be among other staff members. However, if they have their own offices, typically they won't be larger than 15 sqm."

Stopa gives an example of two Ernst & Young offices in London that evidence the changing trends. One office was built 10 years ago and is packed with various rooms, while the second - constructed just two years ago - has been designed with 100-percent open space.

Regulation and standardization

However, many global offices for companies look the same worldwide due to standardization guidelines. "Big international corporations very often have lots of internal requirements and restrictions concerning their design that are implemented in their branches all over the world," Tomasz Buras adds.

But some international companies give some of their branches the freedom to make decisions without having to hold fast to regulations. "Our HQ didn't give us any particular requirements while we were designing our new office," says Paulina Górska. "The only thing was that the company's logo needs to be placed in a visible spot."

Przemysław Stopa challenges those who say that Polish companies don't opt for high quality and well designed offices. "Some Polish companies pay greater attention to the design of their offices than international ones. Let's say that a Polish company sets up a HQ office in Warsaw - for this particular company that would be the most important office in the world. At the same time, a well-known international company also sets up its office in Warsaw, but in this case it will be their one office among, for example, 150 others that are located in different cities around the world and the idea of having extraordinary design would not be promoted so much," Stopa explains.

It seems that Polish companies are now investing more in office design to get the most out of their employees and their clients.