Festive lighting and decoration in corporate lobbies
Festive lighting and decoration in corporate lobbies
Corporate “what” decoration? Lobby. For those unfamiliar with the term, a “lobby” (in the context that we’re using the word) is a reception area, a large room or entrance hall, usually found near the entrance of public building*.
For example, the reception area in a hotel, with or without comfortable sofas and chairs, is often called the hotel “lobby”. In a corporate building, the reception area might be called a “foyer” but also the “lobby”.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about lobby decoration for the festive and holiday season.
A perspective on corporate lobby decoration and lighting
To many, decorating corporate lobbies feels like “an American activity”. And yet, non-Americans often report that walking into places of business in the US over the holiday season, and being greeted by twinkling lights, gorgeous wreathes and Christmas trees makes them feel welcome. The decoration lightens moods, puts smiles on faces and sets a positive tone for the day.
But beyond offering a warm welcome, what’s the value of corporate lobby decoration for the festive season?
Frank Delazer, MK Illumination Sales, Austria and Germany, said: “Corporate lobbies are where first impressions are formed. Over the festive season, corporate organisations and businesses have a once-in-a-year opportunity to use festive lighting and decoration to reinforce their brand image, raise brand awareness and become a talking point for anyone who visits their lobby. For example, when thinking about a city bank, the words “luxurious” and “high-end” might not immediately come to mind, but if that bank’s festive lighting and decoration is visible, engaging and up-market, it’s just possible that you’ll start to associate these words with them without even trying.”
What’s the American perspective?
Delazer’s comments resonated, but we wanted to break things down into an easy-to-remember list. So we approached our American office and spoke to our team at American Christmas in New York. American Christmas has turned corporate lobby decoration over the festive season into an art, so they seemed the right people to provide additional insights.
What’s next?
If you’d like to know what our American experts had to say about lighting and decoration in corporate lobbies over the festive season, join us next month for part 2 of “Festive lighting and decoration in corporate lobbies”.
*In British English one might make a distinction between a “lobby” and a “foyer”, but we’re sticking to global English for the purposes of our posts. Whilst we’d love to get into the different uses of words in different varieties of English around the world, that’s not our objective: we aim to write clearly and concisely about festive lighting and decoration, experience lighting, and atmosphere lighting in a form of English that most can understand.