“Why not dream big?”

We help our clients dream big every day, so when we began designing our new space in Rockville Town Center, we took that question to heart. Our state-of-the-art facility has a personality that you can feel when you walk in the door. It breathes creativity, talent, and professionalism. It inspires. It is our brand in physical form.

According to Shevy Shafie, Partner and Chief Marketing Officer at Marstudio, this was precisely the idea. When we decided to find a new space, he asked, “What are we really looking for as a showcase site to exhibit our capabilities?”

As a strategic branding and creative marketing firm, we wanted to be able to practice what we preach, which meant a creating a walk-in brochure that would show clients what we can do instead of just telling them.

The design had to be not only functional but atmospheric. The feelings created by the aura of all physical attributes in the environment had to express Marstudio’s brand personality. Here are some of the design elements that do just that:

• Open floor plan: Marketing in purest form is communication; our open floor plan fosters collaboration between departments, allows for ideas to be exchanged rapidly and encourages us to seek input from one another.
• Walk-in Brochure: Our workspace is divided into 9 sections that highlight our capabilities and accomplishments. From our client portfolio in the foyer to our photography studio, to our wall of awards, the studio brings our services and skills to life.
• Environmental Branding: The architecture and interior design extend the experience of our brand. Our personality can be experienced through the signage, ambiance, colors, furniture, music, and much more.
• Diverse Appeal: Our studio helps us relate to clients in multiple industries. Our front window gives us the look of a retail store, while our modern industrial architecture gives us a manufacturing feel, and our conference rooms provide a business atmosphere.
• Location: Our Rockville Pike location gives us exposure and helps us communicate our value to the surrounding businesses and community.

What gives a brand strength is the brand’s identity – all the points of contact that a customer has with a brand. Our new office space had to be consistent with Marstudio’s personality; a run-of-the-mill office space was not an option.

To bring our ideas to life we turned to Ahmann LLC, an architecture firm based out of University Park, Maryland. Ahmann was recommended by mutual connection who knew that if anyone could turn our ideas into a design that hit the mark, Ahmann could.

According to Thomas Ahmann, Managing Principal, his team is very pleased with how things worked out. “It was a pretty quick process as these things go,” he noted, “and Marstudio had a very good vision of how they wanted things to be done. They were very involved the entire way through.”

Our space speaks for itself. First-time visitors routinely admire our space – and some want to move right in! According to Shevy, Ahmann’s work “matched my expectations and then some.” He added that the Marstudio staff love working in the office space, which is important to Shevy and Marstudio’s Creative Director, Sam Rooeintan. Sam rightly pointed out, “Because we spend so much time at work during the day, every time we get up in the morning to go to work we want to go to a place that we like to be in. And I think our space achieves that.”

Because so much creative design went into the construction, environmental design, and interior elements of our workspace, we produced a video on The Making of Marstudio’s New Headquarters which will give you an inside look at the entire process.