Workspace plays an important role in the successful development and growth of any business. When it comes to designing or refitting your office, you need to create layout solutions that can adapt and transform easily to meet the changing needs of the business and future-proof your office.

Over the last few years, design trends have been about flexible, open, and collaborative spaces. Designers claim that these multi-use offices lead to better communication and diminish hierarchy within the office. The problem with this type of layout is that not enough thought has gone into issues that arise with noise, creating zones, visual aesthetics, and the impact on staff well-being.

Add Colour and Texture

A study done by the University of Massachusetts found that adding colour to your office can help employees, as it reduces stress, increases creativity, enhances morale, broadens their appreciation of diversity, and encourages discussions and expressions of opinions. What the eyes can see can either have a positive or negative effect on a person’s brain activity, so adding a bit of colour and texture to your office can benefit your employees.

A simple way to add colour to your space is through the use of decorative screens or wall tiles. With many different colours, textures, and designs available, these can have the effect of an office mini makeover, offering your staff something visually stimulating to look at instead of rows of desks and chairs.

Specific hues also improve certain brain functions that can help boost productivity at work, so perhaps choose screen colours based on the type of activity that is occurring in each space, e.g., yellow to enhance clarity and precision.

Create Office Zones

As office sizes expand, you may want to look at separating your open plan design into zones. Some designers have started referring to these organisational units as ‘neighbourhoods’ and advocate for decorating them distinctly, to help workers, or visiting clients, get a sense of where everyone is within the office. Using screens and partitions are a great way to section the office and bring order to chaos. They create spaces that make sense for specific tasks without blocking light or visually upsetting the open-plan feel.

Quiet zones are designed for tasks that demand heightened focus in an office. Acoustic screens or wall tiles are a flexible way of ensuring acoustic comfort and privacy in these zones. Created to mitigate the privacy and noise pollution concerns of open-planning, acoustic partitions provide improved speech clarity, maintain confidentiality, and help improve concentration levels.

Brand Perception

As a business, first impressions are important and your office design can have a big impact on how your clients and guests perceive your brand. As your reception is usually the first space your customers see, it is important that this area, in particular, makes a positive impact. Coloured and textured decorative screens are a great way to modernise your reception area and add a bit of character. Autex Cascade hanging screens are a stylish and forward-thinking solution to create privacy and can be a great way to screen off the reception area from the hustle and bustle of the main office.

Overall, your office communicates the nature of your business in both subtle and obvious ways. Much of the message your office sends can be refined through smart office design. Screens, partitions, and wall tiles are just one way you can modernise your space. Get in touch with one of our friendly team for some more ideas.