Published on <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/architects-at-work-branding-and-storytelling-for-the-services-industry-2-3-b1287aafdfd3?source=rss----eb297ea1161a---4">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Sheel Damani 
<h4>Beyond square-feet, facade and acreage.</h4>
Soaps, soda or any Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) play around emotional fixes to make their brand stick. Be it humour, a slice of life, simple ideas or dramatic connections.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*5g8vSmQw3g_FMC2uDjKFuw.gif">
<blockquote>Branding a service is far from running campaigns. The product hidden behind a service is a complex process.</blockquote>
That same process is playing peek-a-boo with clients, flicked around in daily interactions and forms an invisible story. Your office culture, whether you believe it or not, can make a compelling brand story.
<h3>Challenge 1: Finding a Story in Daily Interactions</h3>
<blockquote>Culture stories connect people. From the small wins at work to the big wins for clients. And everything in between.</blockquote>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*cMjZXtYgkq8UlzgN73h2rg.png">Handpick a portion of the story from daily wins, alongside meeting room goals to pop out loud.
<blockquote>In my client’s case, a single narrative connecting 20 years of work, client interactions, and project innovation was needed. The purpose was to make the internal team and recruits learn about the company, also make a clear pitch to prospective clients.</blockquote>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*OP7TxfFKbzERSGAYNWX7RA.png">This is a draft I draw before writing any story. It helps me build the information flow and identify missing pieces later.<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*84YTnU6p9qVeVvXem_P2cw.png">These are slides from the brand story deck.<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*a_IO2y1mRTUXKNnG4h66iA.png">Process shots from earlier years were either hard to find or unavailable.
<h3>Challenge 2: Narrating Culture Stories</h3>
Culture is like the DNA of a brand. It holds genetic information about the company. Inherited habits, mutated interpretations and evolution history as more entities get added.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*qUYycy8hkXo2Cz3rUmwY0A.png">Complimentary base pairs are like finding a match between brand values, practices and people’s personality.
A DNA uses standard elements for all humans to form a unique system (code) for each one, defining a distinct character. Similarly, any business practice will have some standard components. However, a company’s values and people make a unique market presence.
A company’s past reflects its culture and growth.
Show this history to bring out the work approach, derived methods over time, skills gained and credibility. Compiling a timeline, whether you show it or not, is a must. It helps you recall milestones and see the evolution of your work.
It’s a story one belongs to and builds further to be a part of it.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*gZFAWqzuJixehwyUtG8Q0A.png">Slides from an internal review during the project.
By now, my client and I changed the official name of the architectural practice from Vitan Architects to Jagrut &amp; Partners. The details of this decision and other strategic moves are here👇🏽
<a href="https://medium.com/@sheeldamani/declutter-your-business-communication-to-build-a-better-brand-2-2-a7dd1ca7400e">Declutter your Business Communication to Build a Better Brand (2/2).</a>
<h3>What did we achieve for Jagrut &amp; Partners (J&amp;P) with a New Brand Story?</h3>
The architects were looking to solve two things —
Identity: Show a clear Market Position. Build a Coherent Team: Creating a Culture through Common Brand Values and Design Philosophy
I helped J&amp;P with a story they can share with people at work, prospective clients or partners. Their initial struggle was to string 200 projects as one story with diverse solutions. Well, they had 200 slides (really! I saw it) to show. But we stitched a crisper narrative which not only spoke about the work but covered stakeholders, business process and a clear advantage of partnering with them.
It was laborious to collect, recollect and collate data, but it gave us one connected story and many short snippets within.
<h4>Beyond the Project.</h4>
The team recognised the lack of organised documentation since 1990. A real win for me as a designer was their adoption of a system where they consciously captured process, people, technical wins and monetary gains for clients as part of their brand story. More on this in the third essay.
Below are recent posts from their insta feed as my trophy!
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<blockquote>Storytelling for services needs a closer look at the internal processes of a company to weave a credible tale. Also, a palatable one covering technical bits to human bites.</blockquote>
If you found this article helpful, clap to support. Part (1/3)👇🏽
<a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/architectsatwork1-d7c99f3e40fb">Architects at Work: Fixing the Brief (1/3)</a>
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<a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/architects-at-work-branding-and-storytelling-for-the-services-industry-2-3-b1287aafdfd3">Architects at Work: Storytelling for professionals that’s human (2/3)</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io">Prototypr</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Architects at Work: Storytelling for professionals that’s human (2/3)

Beyond square-feet, facade and acreage.

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