169. How do you brand your space?
Wish you could experience your brand beyond a screen? 👀 You're about to learn how! This fun episode teaches you how to translate your brand from a concept to a living space. Brand strategists and hosts Phil and Lauren share their recommendations for making a branded space that also works on camera. From selecting paint colors to considering lighting, you'll be inspired to do some spring refreshing in your home or office!
Episode transcription
Phil
Well, hello there. Welcome to Brand Therapy. I'm Phil.
Lauren
And I'm Lauren.
And this is the podcast where we help you position, build and promote your brand. Welcome to a fun episode, where we talk about a topic that we have not talked about yet, but it's one that is near and dear to both of our hearts. When we talk about branding, obviously, there's visuals and design that are packaged in a part of this exciting process. We talk about our inspiration, but I don't think we've talked about this specific source of inspiration not happens to be interiors, interior design, Lauren, I think if you and I did a little brainstorm on our ideal dream projects that we could tackle or businesses or brands, we could actually brand ourselves. I bet you we should do that brainstorming this hacker. By the way, let's do that in a second. I bet you aren't answers are going to be hugely influenced by brands that have physical spaces that we could create as part of that project. You know, being remote and doing work remote, that's great. But there's just something about branding a physical space that's really exciting. And something even I'm in the process of doing for myself right now.
Yeah, I've always, always wanted to brand a spa always sound like
I've always wanted to bring in a barber shop, a barber shop.
I know. So fun to feel a brand physically come to life. And we do Lean on interiors a lot to inspire the mood board. So we put together for clients initially, because there's something about imagining how you will emotionally feel in a space that can influence the digital manifestation of a brand. But part of why we wanted to talk about your space or your environment today is actually inspired by what's going on and Phil's life. So just to kind of kick into some examples here. Phil has a rental property PPH Phil Pallen. House, you just bought another rental property across the street? And
is this does this podcast episode serve as the formal announcement?
Yeah, why not? Why not. And then beyond that, you've also rented a townhouse in the Orlando area. And that needed that needed a whole vibe that needed a whole decor. And we wanted that decor. I'm saying we because I was heavily invested in the process. We wanted it to feel like a real life kind of space of the Phil Pallen collective brand.
I can take it even a step further. I'm working on two international properties. They're International. So it's a little bit more complicated. But I want to brand spaces in places that I enjoy spending time I also selfishly want to be able to go there myself. But that's also a part of this is designing an interior or a space that lends itself to a lifestyle or an experience that I want to offer people and some of my favorite cities. Those right now are in Mexico, one in Toulouse, one in La Paz Mexico. So yes, branding spaces is literally where my head is at right now. Because I'm simultaneously working on for
yes, so those are some great examples. We also have a lot of clients who want to bring their brand to life in their actual office space. So I think about Javier I think about custom design and construction. They all think about a diamond physiotherapy who we worked with all of these clients are in very, very different industries, and all of them needed to recreate that in person experience of the brand. So I would say that,
Allison from accurate, who Yeah, you worked with us to create this amazing physical space, even though they work remotely. So we created a bit of an aspiring kind of allusion to them working together in a space that we actually rented for a photoshoot. But Alison has done some work in her own office after relocating to make it feel branded. Yes, this is certainly something that affects everyone right, now that we're on camera, we're on Zoom calls. It's a part of it.
Yep. So I would say the first thing to consider when branding your space is the feeling of it, What feeling do you want people or yourself to have when you're existing in that space, even if it's your personal office, I feel like there's just so much opportunity to really be reminded of your brand of the vibe of your aspirations by updating what's around you physically. And I know that seems kind of woowoo and a little intangible, but I think there are some spaces that you walk into when you think of a restaurant or a hotel lobby where you feel instantly energized and there are others where you feel a bit more calm. So I think first think how do I want people or myself to feel Feel energetically when I walk into a space. Great. The next thing I would recommend is to consider paint color. Now, there are really really cool tools online that actually allow you to convert hex codes into different paint colors, which is wild. We did this with our client custom design and construction, who wanted to paint an accent wall at their flagship or headquarters that people could see. And they painted that wall in time for their brand photos, which was amazing. So if you just Google hex code to paint color converter online, you'll be amazed at the different results that come up. And you can even specify the type of brand of paint that you want to use, from bear to I don't know, pretty much any any paint manufacturer that you can think of. And you can take those color matches for paints to your local Home Hardware home, I guess it would be Home Depot that does paint, whatever, a paint store, paint store and get samples, get get samples and test out swatches on the wall to see what's the closest match to your actual brand color.
Yeah, and I would say that it doesn't have to be a perfect match. No one's keeping super close track to make sure I mean, we jokingly call ourselves a branding police. But even I've gotten lighter on wall colors from a brand color in particular cases just based on the natural light and the other considerations.
I say the next thing to consider is what's going to look good on camera. So ideally, your space is something that can photograph well or be great on video, it could be used as a backdrop in the future. If you ever thinking about tackling videos, or if you never need to do an interview, whatever it is, and fill out your I should ask you how you build and judge what a space should look like, based on camera, like what do you think about
really hard to do. I also think it takes some patience, which I don't have and some experimenting, which I typically don't love to do. But the best thing is when you're buying things on Amazon, if whatever you buy doesn't work, as long as you return it within the time allowance. Amazon is amazing about real returns. So I'm using a different microphone today than you would have seen when we podcasted a week ago, because I thought the mic was great. But I didn't like how the gold casing looked on it. Lauren's look me using a microphone that's completely black. But a week ago, I bought another microphone and I thought the mic was okay. But the goal on the mic, it was gold casing, it was too distracting on camera. And I hated the stand that it came with. It was loose and it wasn't functional for me. So I sent that shit back by Amazon sent it back and bought a new one that was better for MySpace sometimes not necessarily good for the environment, if you're sending boxes back and forth. But you know what, sometimes you got to test things before you really know it's taken a lot of time and a lot of experimenting to get my setup, right? Given that I'm doing presentations, and I'm doing a fair number of things on a camera, YouTube videos, etc. It takes experimenting, and it takes patience and it takes testing things out that you can normally order from Amazon. If it doesn't work, then send it back.
Now do you have any recommendations with where objects or artwork is positioned with regards to your face or your head on the camera.
I would say if you turn your computer on and you open up a basic camera software program, or you could even open up your own zoom call. Start by looking at the frame that you have to work with before you make any big decisions even before choosing paint color or furniture actually look based on where your desk is sitting and where your camera is where the frame actually exists. Look at the space you have. Okay, you might want to change the location of your computer or lights or things based on your desk. I've been doing that in the last few weeks, you've seen a slow evolution of NumPy my Zoom frame, it's really important to understand the space you have to work with. And then it's small changes here and there small changes here and there. And eventually those compounded it will end up looking awesome. But I think no at least to start the space that you have to work with. Then you can decide your paint color if it's going on one wall or it's going on a whole office. If you're going to put your logo up behind you, that's an option just make sure you get the right size and don't be like me in order and accidentally twice the size. This ginormous logo showed up at my house and we just blew my guess humongous going to try and integrate it into one of the rental houses by the bar. We're going to go with that but I don't know where else it's gonna go. Anyway, please. Yeah, I would say just kind of fill out the space you're working with.
Yeah, you did bring up a good point about having your logo behind you somewhere. Now it doesn't necessarily need to be a no a logo but I do think it's good to have some sort of visual cue or reminder of who you are or what your brand is all about in the background, think about our client, Dr. Laura Shaheen, she always has her white medical coat hanging in the background, which I love. I love you always generally have your Phil Pallen collective logo somewhere in the background. If you're a writer, I think you could have maybe a photo of like a typewriter or something. There's so many different opportunities to just just visually remind people what you're all about.
Definitely, definitely have fun with it, have fun with it and try different things. Do a little setup. If you got a bookshelf back there, do a little setup today. And then you might decide to change a few things around or move some things and just see what works you also have to give consideration to lighting is really important. At the time of recording this solo episode. The night before I delivered a keynote in Lithuania for digital marketing Europe at 3am. Three to 4am. Eastern, which meant men, I was virtually participating in a conference where 95 Or maybe it was 98% of the participants were in daylight. Here I am presenting in literal darkness. So it actually took some preparation to make sure I had the right lighting to at least be able to vibe with these attendees. Given that I was it was the middle of the night. For me. These are things you have to think about, you know, do you have to film videos? Or do you have to participate in things in the middle of the night in which case you're going to need better lighting, there's just some considerations, I would say base everything around what's the frame the space you have to work with. And the one thing I would add to that that I mentioned earlier, natural light, natural light, the desk for example, if you watch my YouTube videos, you won't see a Yep, you'll start to see it soon. My desk is positioned right beside a window because it gives a nice natural light through the day. And I don't have to worry about having all kinds of fancy glitzy lights, I've got them if I need them for this space, but nothing is ever better than natural light.
Now, if you've got an office that has multiple rooms, or a space where you're seeing patients, even if you've got a rental property like Phil, I think it's very important that there's consistency from room to room. Now, that doesn't mean that every room needs to be identical. But I would say that routing your design decisions off of a color scheme is going to make your life a lot easier. You don't have to be matchy matchy. But if you're gonna go for more earth tones, for example, or pull colors from your brand board. I don't think this is the time to incorporate new colors. If anything, you can work with what you already have. Yeah. And if anything, if you're you are feeling inspired to go a little off brand, I would say to just do that with artwork, so that way you can easily swap it out in the future.
Yes, yes. Artwork doesn't have to follow brand colors to a tee but it should. There should be some kind of cohesion and everything.
Yeah. Now in terms of tools and how to actually make this happen. There's a service I wish they were sponsoring this episode because we both love them. But no, but we
have an affiliate link. And if people use the affiliate link, they get a discount, they get a discount.
Yep. Could you say what the affiliate link is filled? p.al/havenly
is the name of the service. So fill p.al/havenly Oh man, am I a fan of this
havenly is absolutely amazing. We heard about havenly through our client, Julie who had them design her entire house. Essentially, it's a network of remote interior designers who will so wild, take the dimensions of whatever room or rooms you want to design, take whatever images of designs that you like and spit out a few different mood board directions. And then from there, once you choose your mood board of choice, they actually will do a 3d rendering of the space they will tell you exactly what you need to buy and what size of everything that you need to buy. And if you want to incorporate paint colors, they'll also tell you and show you what the paint colors would look like in your space saves so much time. It's just amazing,
ridiculously affordable as well. They have promos and stuff so the price does fluctuate. It's typically not more than 130 or $150 for their full service for a room. I cannot stress how worth it it is just to have someone make decisions for you. It's like such a time saver and great to have another perspective on design.
Definitely Another tool I would say to help is actually Etsy so there are a lot of vendors on Etsy who can create cool I have physical versions of your logo whether they're using it using metal pieces and they're actual metal workers who are I don't know the terminology fellow you do but the when they're when they trace your logo into metal. What's that called? You other guys who hire on Etsy,
like etching, or just just yeah, they would just, I don't know, they just cut logo out of metal, and I'll put a seal on it. So it doesn't rust, that kind of thing. Yeah,
so that is a really cool way to easily and inexpensively get your logo in the background as well. As Phil mentioned, you can get neon signs made if your logo or whatever you're trying to say is relatively simple in nature, which is another cool way to add a little extra something to your environment to make you feel like you're you're seeing your brand everywhere you go. And then lastly, I know I feel it's kind of silly to be saying this, but society six online in case you haven't heard of it, or it gives you haven't used for a long time is a really great collection of images that and artwork like print artwork, where you could compile a fairly inexpensive grouping of images that are related to your brand that can actually be framed and sent to you. And I believe that you can actually put those images on like, mugs and pillows and things like that. So there's some pretty, pretty cool options to add a little extra something to your environment on there without it, you know, draining your bank account.
Exactly. Those are great tools. Those are great tools. So I've used all of those and all the spaces that I'm working on. I love it.
Yeah. So I would say that for next steps. Something that's might feel a little ridiculous. But hear me out, I think get your camera and objectively take photos of your space without looking fancy. And just really, really drill down and think about what can be improved, what doesn't look beautiful, or what potentially brings you stress. For example, to my side, I have a big like box that's full of junk that I need to organize, that's not really camera friendly. If I was seeing clients in my office, that doesn't really create a good brand experience. So that's something I should deal with. If my landlord were a little more flexible, I would probably choose a pink color in here. But if not, I should probably at least swap out the artwork to have some of the brand colors. So just be really objective. If you're working from home, or if you're working from an office that plays should be making you inspired making you energize making you feel good about the work that you do. And I just feel like it's we're all too busy trying to cater to our customers and clients. Whereas you should really treat yourself and make sure that your environment is one that's bringing out the very best out of you and your brand.
It also is a physical and doubles as a digital existence of your brand. You have to think about that. So when it comes to investing, I know that sometimes doing home redecorating projects can add up quickly or investing in new gear to make your camera better or your sound better. But listen, it doubles. A lot of times for both right if you're meeting people in person, fantastic, maybe not at home, but maybe in an office space. But if you're showing up online, how you show up the quality of your camera, the quality of your sound, the experience of the physical space that you create is a direct representation of your brand and the quality associated with that brand. So don't be afraid to invest in this is my advice because I think you'll see a return on that investment.
Totally. That's all I have to say.
Well, that's a fun topic for us. This is very much what my mind is all in on now. We'd love to hear from you. I'm at Phil Pallen. I'm at the Lauren Moore hashtag brand therapy to continue the conversation we really would love to hear from you. Stay tuned also on my YouTube channel, you'll start to see a peek of my new physical space here in Florida where I am now more permanently located. By the way if you liked this episode, or you'd like some recent episodes that we've created, we want to hear from you. We'd also love for you to take the time to review our podcast on the iTunes Store five star five star that helps other people discover this podcast that we worked very hard to create for you. You know how it works. We'll be back with a new episode next time. We'll see you then right here on brand therapy. Bye byeBye Bye
