THE STORY OF BEFRANK
THE STORY OF BEFRANK
Written by Lotte de Jong - reading time 3 minutes
Applying storytelling in your office is not only a means of communication, it also contributes to building culture. By using a playful and interactive expression, it can also serve as an introduction for new colleagues!
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Incidentally, the above result was not the question that Joy Hofman (office manager at BeFrank) asked in 2023: 'When furnishing our new office, Gielissen and STUDIO &lotte had already been asked to help with the design, which resulted in some very cool and original circular items. When we settled in our new place, we noticed that we were very proud of our new office, but that the sustainable idea mainly depended on the story of one employee. And this was not clearly visible in itself.'
With this design question, I got to work! And soon after Joy and I got together again. Joy: ‘In no time we received really cool and original ideas from Lotte that were circular and perfectly suited BeFrank.’
Telling a story can be done in a simple way. BeFrank suggested that adding labels to their interior would already help a lot. But I was thinking about something a little different ;)! BeFrank's sustainable story deserved more. The great thing about this office design is that you don't always see the sustainable choices when you walk around. So… how do you make this invisible layer visible? I did this by adding a filter. Filters with information about the sustainable thoughts and choices that were made. These filters are made of recycled acrylic with a print of illustrations and stories in writing.
You can imagine that once you start talking about sustainability in this interior, you can't really stop. That's why we decided to add the labels in addition to the filters. These labels are placed randomly in the interior to surprise the BeFrank employees over time. The origin story of the materials and furniture is lasered on the labels, which are made from discarded leather.
Collaboration
To achieve the right goal, you need each other. That is exactly why I like to come back to the client with ideas as soon as possible. Brainstorming together is more fun, gives the right direction and leads to an impressive result. But for me, collaboration also means getting to know each other in order to work together for a long time. And that is exactly what I did in this project commissioned by Gielissen Interiors. After the design process, we made the filters and labels together with this interior builder. This was a great team to work with! 'A good collaboration with BeFrank and STUDIO &lotte has led to a striking result', thus Joël van der Ree of Gielissen.
Want to read more about this project? Take a look at my portfolio!
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Lotte de Jong