Enriching environmental experience, Part one: Integrating brand across your physical spaces

The importance of building brand into physical space

Physical space can create an impactful experience and strong impression for every one of your visitors, customers, and employees. It’s a unique touchpoint in your ecosystem that brings your business to life—ultimately serving as an extension of who you are as an organization. The bottom line? Space has the power to profoundly influence how people perceive your brand—and how connected they feel to it.

 Learn more: Bringing brand to life in physical spaces

What it takes

But incorporating your brand into your space is about more than just putting your logo on a building or your mission statement on a wall. This integration can only truly happen when you use brand as a strategic tool to embed your core values and culture throughout your locations—whether they’re stores, restaurants, corporate offices or healthcare facilities. Utilizing brand as lens for decision-making provides solutions that are both appropriate and unique for your company and environment—and resolves existing pain-points in a way that’s aligned with your organization’s personality and values. These solutions harness elements of architecture and interior, industrial, and graphic design, and include:

• Environmental communications
• Signage and wayfinding
• Materials and finishes
• Furniture
• Lighting
• Decorative components

On a “quest” to transform an ecosystem of spaces for a major clinical lab

At Monigle, we worked across many of Quest Diagnostics’ categories of spaces to deliver low-touch, high-impact environmental solutions that not only consider brand, but also take into account space, program, existing architecture, and, ultimately, the end user.

Quest Diagnostics’ brand is focused on powering affordable care—seamlessly and transparently. The brand’s primary graphic elements are its signature green color and ‘dot patterns,’ which create a dynamic sense of optimism and movement across everything from motion graphics and campaigns to environmental settings. Throughout our engagement, the Monigle team used the Quest brand as a filter for all the recommendations we developed—applying these visual elements in distinctive and striking ways that fit the context of each space.

Translating Quest Diagnostics’ visual system across different scenarios

Elevating the Quest brand at its corporate headquarters

When Quest decided to relocate and completely redesign its headquarters, Monigle partnered with its team and the project architects to infuse Quest’s brand expression effortlessly into the space. Our objective was to craft a sophisticated experience that would still engage employees. By layering materials, dimensionalizing the ‘dots,’ employing subdued colors and natural palettes, and incorporating motivational messaging—we used brand to elevate all aspects of the physical office experience.

Quest Diagnostics’ new Secaucus headquarters

Leveraging the Quest brand at their Clifton Laboratory

Featuring automated, first-of-its kind technologies, Quest’s Clifton Laboratory is transforming the future of laboratory diagnostics. This 24/7 space welcomes global stakeholders, scientists, and visitors, while also serving as a home base for many of Quest’s employees. Here, we identified key areas along the physical employee and visitor journey where Quest’s brand could be leveraged to inform and empower these individuals. We paired a green, large-scale graphic with brand-inspired messaging and select interior design vignettes to make the space feel warm and inviting. To top it off, the custom ‘Q’ sign is made of 7,026 test tubes that cue the company’s signature dot pattern in an exciting new way—symbolizing Quest’s own role as an expert and innovator in its field. “Clifton Is a clean, modern, and beautiful facility. However, in order to be reflective of who Quest is, what we do, and why it matters, Monigle helped bring the facility to life with strong and engaging environmental branding,” shared Kristin Givone, Sr. Director Brand Strategy. “We want all of our locations to reflect both the people who work here, and the great work they do.”

Before and after: Quest Diagnostics’ Clifton Laboratory

Custom sign detail at Quest Diagnostics’ Clifton Laboratory

Humanizing Quest’s patient service centers through brand

Across its existing service centers, Quest was struggling to clearly convey the critical role that its innovative and accessible testing plays in patients’ healthcare.  To help Quest cultivate a deeper appreciation for these services among patients, we designed a new kit of parts that enabled a more intuitive, informative, and approachable experience at these centers. By implementing simple digital kiosks, we ensured the technology that users interact with is as streamlined as possible. And by placing short, digestible quotes from the people of Quest on the walls, we made their testing services easier to understand, while simultaneously helping the modern space seem more human. Both touchpoints harness different aspects of the Quest brand to create a stronger environmental solution that allows patients to feel more connected to the company. “Not only did we need to bring consistency to the environmental experience across our locations, but we also needed to help our patients better navigate the space,” said Givone.  “Monigle designed a space that was warm and welcoming to help alleviate stress that may accompany lab testing.”

Learn more: The chain reaction that starts with employee happiness in healthcare

New touchpoints at Quest Diagnostics’ Patient Service Centers

The upshot

When brand is strategically translated into physical environments, it can positively affect people’s perceptions of your business—building awareness and passion around your mission, vision, and values. This encourages people to invest emotionally in your organization—allowing all your audiences to see, understand, and live your brand in a way that they may not be able to otherwise.

Want to explore ways to bring your brand to life through your environments? We’d love to help. Reach out to us to learn more about how we can translate your brand into a well-considered—and human—experience.

Check out part two in this two part-series where we walk through how to use brand as a filter to localize your spaces and include examples from top brands on how it comes to life.