When it comes to your reception area, you can either show you are cut from the same cloth as everyone else, or you show your creative abilities. Either way, it’s a reflection of your brand.
Stupid design ideas inspires communication
The best way to create a really innovative and unique business reception area at your workplace is to have brainstorming sessions whereby everyone can participate by throwing ideas into the proverbial hat, irrespective of whether or not they make good sense. It really doesn’t matter if the idea is off the wall or not. Everyone needs to be okay with hearing what they hear, having fun, without judgement or criticism.
According to a study on psycnet.apa.org workers can be fearful about liberally giving ideas when superiors are in the room. However, without freedom of expression, all your brainstorming ideas will crash and burn.
You can start out by making a game of who can come up with the stupidest ideas. This can be a really fun way to get everyone participating. This approach will have everyone feeling comfortable and get them participating. That’s because the whole idea of the first few minutes will be about silly ideas and everyone has one. You can get things rolling by being first, just to show everyone what you mean.
After you've expended a little time sharing fun, crazy office design ideas and laughing a lot, you can transfer attention back to brainstorming ideas that might be workable. And you never know: An idea that isn't so great on the surface could ignite some really ingenious ones, ones that could alter thedirection of the rest of the meeting.
Divide and conquer reception design ideas.
A great idea multiplier is to try a small number of ideas and reduce them into many smaller parts then you can extrapolate on those ones. If you have a really general idea to start with, use that, break it down and mix and match smaller parts.
One way to create some really cool office reception design ideas is to divide and conquer, to divide ideas into sub ideas and to have each person in the room write a few ideas on paper. Then, you can have them exchange notes with other participants in the group and restructure off each other’s design ideas. You can exchange notes several times, and build a dialogue around the new ideas that come to the forefront.
Play material games.
Material games can be an exceptional way to help remove you from ordinary ways of thinking which tends to produce average, imitative design ideas. If you're trying to get out of a design rut for your new reception area, try adding a few games at a design meeting to conjure up some out-of-the-box thinking.
How may ingenious way can you come up with to use a sheet of plastic or a brick?
Here’s an example; pick a material, any material such as PVC, then brainstorm a whole slew of applications that come to mind from that material. Try thinking about the function of that material, its aesthetics, how it's used, what can be associated with it, and so on. Let the ideas flow naturally, and don't over think it -- this is meant to be a creative office design exercise.
Once you've come up with a plethora of ways to use the material, group them together in a manner of how they relate to one another. The idea behind this? To come up with those less obvious applications or ways your spectators might associate with being creative and brand relevant.
Using mind mapping is another fun and powerful brainstorming device to help visualize related feelings and ideas. Remember the purpose is to conjure up creative ways to build a functional, inspiring environment that speaks to brand identity.
Create a diagram starting with one essential design idea, and then branch out into major sub-ideas and then sub-sub-ideas. You can create mind maps either on paper or a whiteboard or by using something like Delightful Mind Mapping.
There is another fun exercise you can try by visiting 11 Best Ways to Brainstorm Creative Ideas "essence words". When you find words that capture the spirit, personality, and message you want to get across to your visitors about your brand, the design elements will fall into place around the adjectives. You may very well find that it helps incentivize other even cooler ideas down the road.
Your office reception area is the window to the soul of your brand. The thought, effort and process you put into defining what your brand message should say will pay off in the way your brand is perceived.
