Global Design: the era of customization by Parella

Our approach is global and allows us to accompany brands in the deployment of their identity throughout their real estate project.

"Our mission: to reveal and distill the extra soul emanating from your brand, your DNA and your corporate culture in your living and working spaces. 

In March 2023, Parella brought together its creative teams and created the "Global Design" division.

A strategic ambition to respond to the evolution of its market. Increasingly involved in real estate projects, CEOs, HR Directors and Transformation Directors need to tell their brand, their culture, and embody it within their new spaces.Companies are now looking for more than just a functional and efficient workspace.

Carried by the raison d'être of Parella, "more than offices...", Global Design imagine ultra-personalized living spaces where people work. Their approach is global and their to accompany brands in the deployment of their identity throughout their life cycle.s projects real estates.

Composed of a multidisciplinary team, the "Global Design" division brings together 22 talents (architects DPLGarchitects, interior architects, spaces-graphic designers, object designers and decorators).

Nicolas Flachot, who is taking over the management of this new entity, answers our questions.

A pool of DPLG architects, interior designers, space-planners, decorators and many other profiles give life and meaning to your living and working spaces.

Can you explain to us explain the genesis of
Global Design at Parella?

Companies have been going through a period of profound transformation for several years. A transformation started before the Covid pandemic, exacerbated during and strongly accelerated afterwards.

Companies must respond to new questions and new societal issues such as their social and environmental responsibilities, the return to the office, the experience in the workplace, the meaning given to each person in the exercise of his or her professional activity, the hybridization of work, the flex-office, their differentiation...

Companies need, more than ever, to assert their identity, their raison d'être and to make their offices a new attractive land where people enjoy coming, exchanging and collaborating. The office must embody the company and be the support of the identity, the personality, the expression of the brand and its products. The company's headquarters naturally becomes an additional communication medium. Brands become permanently anchored in living and working spaces.We strongly believe in the power of the place, and one of our jobs is to make it a showcase for the brand.

Thibaud Poirier for Parella
Thibaud Poirier for Parella
Thibaud Poirier for Parella

To better respond to this challenge, we decided to bring together Parella's creative teams who were already working on the design and personalization (Image & Style) of spaces in order to offer our clients a unique and complete approach, from the very beginning and throughout all phases of their real estate project. We intervene from storytelling to branding and communication supports, and of course on the architecture of the places and their personalization.

This "Global Design" approach allows us to imagine, conceive, realize and tell the story of ultra-customized places in total adequacy with our clients' brands. The other asset, to inform and engage our clients' employees, is our ability to produce all communication media, for internal and external use, such as podcasts, videos, newsletters, websites, welcome booklets... all in total adequacy with our clients' identity.

A multidisciplinary team of graphic designers, UX & CX designers, object designers, motion designers, webmasters and many other talents accompany you in a "Global Design" approach.

You talk about creating living spaces where we work, that is to say?

Since the implementation of hybrid work and the generalization of telecommuting, people no longer come to the office to simply work, it must become a landmark, an anchor, and allow for greater socialization. The premises must encourage meetings, exchanges and creativity, facilitate collaboration, reinforce the feeling of belonging and pride, and provide well-being to its residents.It is a place that allows people to meet, to feel that they are part of a collective adventure that has meaning... it becomes a place of life, much more than a simple work tool.

How do we move from a standardized to a tailor-made approach?

Our first job is to understand the brands we work for and then to translate their identities into the spaces. Singularity is one of our values. Our ambition is to tell stories, to create unique universes and ambiences, tailor-made with a craft and artistic approach.

We pay particular attention to the selection of decorative objects. Some are found, others are specifically created by artists or craftsmen.

For the Rémy Cointreau Group headquarters, we combined objects from the group's brand heritage with decorative objects. The Remy Cointreau Foundation completed the personalization of the premises with a selection of works of art from the craftsmen it represents. For the Groupe Rocher, we found hundreds of second-hand objects to meet the company's CSR requirements, had a custom-made 2.5-meter-high sea beacon modeled and manufactured, and created recycled wood huts for each of the village's squares (informal spaces of 80 to 100 meters).

Does global design also have an impact on impact on the employer brand?

Thibaud Poirier for Parella
Thibaud Poirier for Parella

There is indeed an employer brand issue. Moreover, the figures from our latest barometer on the evolution of work modes and spaces confirm this: 75% of employees working in offices believe that the premises contribute to their desire to stay with the company and for 71%, they are an important or decisive criterion for choosing their future company. If the company wants its employees to identify with its brand and feel committed, they must be immersed in its corporate culture, its products, its colors, every time they come to the office.

Space is also a competitive advantage for 56% of business leaders.

In addition to employees, we must also think about visitors, suppliers, partners and customers.We are in the general storytelling of the brand.

We help companies make their employees' daily lives more enjoyable, to attract talent and retain their best people.

Global Design, window dressing
Thibaud Poirier for Parella

This must require a real listening to the customer ?

Undoubtedly yes. It requires a real listening of the customer on the one hand and time on the other hand. It is essential to understand the client, its history, its brand, its culture, its identity, its products but also its ambition and its projects. We strive to co-construct with our clients, we are as systematically as possible in a collaborative and participative approach with the managers but also with the employees.

Whenever possible, we take the time to immerse ourselves in the client's world. For example, we went to La Gacilly for the Rocher Group and spent time in the different addresses of the Rémy Cointreau Group before starting to design the spaces.

22 talents to accompany you throughout all the real estate phases of your project

But doesn't customizing mean being more expensive?

In an office project, decoration is the least expensive and most visible budget. Why do without it?

You have a project ? Write to Nicolas Flachot to benefit from his Global Design advice: nicolas.flachot@parella.fr

Thibaud Poirier for Parella

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