When carefully planned and executed, branded environments can be used to inspire and uplift a company’s most important asset: its employees. Providing bright, cheerful, uplifting and encouraging branding in employee work areas can be just as important as the environments you provide for your customers. To show how an environmental branding effort can make a positive impact on employees, let’s take a look at a multi-year, nationwide branding project we’ve been working on for Loews Hotels and Resorts.

Since 2016, we’ve had the pleasure of working with Loews to create custom graphics for their “Heart of House” (often called the back of the house in hotel lingo). Loews’ main objective with this project was to create more pleasing and inspiring work areas for its employees at the Loews Business Service Center, located in Nashville, TN, as well as at all of its hotels and resorts across the US and Canada.

For the majority of the hotels, the back of the house areas previously had mostly white walls and often contained mismatched artwork or posters that had been placed on the walls over many years. Here are some photos of what some of those areas looked like before the new branding elements were installed. Those plain white walls definitely needed some decoration!

These photos show what many of the hallways and cafeterias looked like before the new branded graphics were installed. 

For this ongoing project, we printed and installed custom graphics in the following areas of each hotel:

• Team Member Entrance
• Security Lobby
• Doorways
• Elevators
• Corporate Work Areas
• Hallways
• Cafeteria
• Locker Rooms
• Housekeeping Department

For each property, Loews Marketing Department provided us with the original graphics and instructions for placement. Each property had the opportunity to select the number and type of “Heart of House” graphics that would be installed. The building’s size, number of doorways, rooms, etc., as well as the property’s budget were all factors in determining which of the graphics would be used.

For each property, our graphic designer checked the colors to ensure they would be print exactly as desired. He verified sizes for murals by working with a contact at each site. He also created contour cut paths for the decals.

Once these steps were taken, we printed the majority of the graphics on high quality vinyl with an adhesive backing and prepared them for shipping. We also cut custom frames out of PVC and printed the artwork on the frame surfaces using our flatbed printer. Our talented installers have now traveled to all of the properties to install the original graphics and are continuing to add occasional updates when needed. The vinyl and PVC pieces were installed on a variety of surfaces, including doors (wooden and metal), glass, drywall, and textured surfaces.

Now let’s take a look at some of the new, and very much improved “Heart of House” graphics that have been installed at Loews Hotels!

Wall Murals

We printed and installed full and partial coverage wall murals at Loews properties, including these bright and welcoming “Hello” wall murals. These murals contain the words “Hello” in different languages to welcome the many Loews team members who come from different countries.

Employees in the "Heart of House" are greeted with these cheerful wall murals, which say "hello" in many different languages!

Timeline murals were installed at every Loews hotel property. The timelines start with the company’s history and then end with the specific hotel’s history. The timeline in the photo below is located in the Loews Hôtel Vogue in Montreal, Canada. It includes the history of this particular property.

This timeline wall mural was installed in the "Heart of House" at the Loews Hôtel Vogue in Montreal, Canada.

Location murals were installed in the hotel cafeterias. The full-length murals, (often printed in black and white), contain a photo of a popular landmark in each hotel’s city. This striking mural is located in the cafeteria in Minneapolis, MN!

Each "Heart of House" cafeteria has a wall mural installed that is specific to the hotel's location. This beautiful mural contains a photo of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. 

Contour Cut Decals

We installed custom cut decals in several areas such as hallways, above doors, and in the cafeteria. Decals include motivational quotes, door labels, directional signs, menu signs, and Hall of Fame labels.

We installed these "Heart of House" contour cut graphics at the entrance to the cafeteria in Minneapolis.

Motivational quotes were installed on various walls in the "Heart of House" areas in all Loews hotels and resorts. 

Activation walls can be found in areas where all employees gather (such as the cafeteria). These collections of decals contain the company’s core principles and motivational statements. The scoreboard sign panels include a daily dashboard, key happenings and service scoreboards to show customer service ratings, number of arrivals and departures, and more important information. The Service Scoreboard also contains custom sliders which reveal green or red to signal when goals are being achieved.

This "Activation Wall" contains contour cut decals that provide important information for the staff. Managers can write on the white areas with dry-erase markers.

Custom PVC Frames

Custom frames were installed next to the Human Resources offices and also next to time clocks. These were designed to hold important announcements from Human Resources. The frame outlines were printed on ⅛” PVC using our flatbed printer. We hand-cut the frames to match the unique outlines.

These frames are used to communicated important information from Human Resources, such as employment anniversaries, birthdays, and open positions. 

Window Graphics & Vinyl Door Wraps

“Heart of House” window graphics were installed on doors with windows, and vinyl door wraps containing “Thank Yous” in various languages were also installed on some doors.  

"Heart of House" window decals and bright vinyl door wraps provide a much nicer and more welcoming environment for Loews' employees.

Elevator Graphics 

“Heart of House” decals and stripes can also be found on elevators.

Even the elevators were brightened up with "Heart of House" logos and stripe decals!

As you can see, the new graphics provide a much more cheerful, positive, and motivating work environment for all of Loews’ employees! We continue to visit various locations to install updated graphics or even unique (yet similar) graphics for their specialty hotels, like the Bisha Hotel Toronto.

If you would like to learn more about how we can help with your environmental branding on a local or nationwide scale, give us a call at (615) 595-6564 or click on the button below.

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We specialize in all types of custom signage, wall murals, window graphics, architectural displays, custom projects, advertising wraps, and much more! We’re located in Middle Tennessee, and serve customers in Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, Murfreesboro, Spring Hill, Hendersonville, and across the nation. We look forward to working with you!