Shifting Design Approach
As 2020 began to sink in, our team connected with our clients to get a deeper understanding of how they were adjusting.
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We knew we needed to meet them where they stood, adjusting existing scopes to provide only what they needed in the moment. Reassembling a complex puzzle to focus only on the next piece allowed us to refocus and keep going.
Stephen Wright
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Design Director
Faced with the challenge to make work feel safer for companies returning to the physical office, we put our heads together to create a catalog of Property Readiness Solutions to support our property management teams in providing safety communications, well branded and consistently placed at key interaction points. In all, we supported the roll-out of readiness graphics at over 70 properties.
As the realization of long-term pandemic set in, we navigated capital planning with our teams. This conversation varied, with some opting to take full advantage of this time to get ahead (while daily headcount and foot traffic was low), and others postponing 2020 plans indefinitely. For those who pioneered forward, we supported through active research and advisory, responding to design change through the lens of a 'post-pandemic lens'. This began to look like reshifted focus on health, wellness, transparency in design and building systems choices, and leading with a sense of realism that a post-COVID return is still an ideal we're designing forward towards, a story actively being written.
Marketing strategy needed to change too. We developed a series called 'Pivot in Practice' in which we voiced ideas and offered solutions on how to pivot marketing communications in a virtual season.
We led our teams to reinvent, placing full emphasis on digital experience by way of virtual tours, interactive Webflow presentations with transitions and animations, and immersive video to tell stories in a new light. In these mediums, we further realized that regardless of the particular season, design will always be evolving with the times to discover new solutions and possibilities. It is our role as designers to be a part of the shift, leaning into change to embrace discovery.