In architecture and interior design, branded environments extend the experience of an organization's brand, or distinguishing characteristics as expressed in names, symbols and designs, to the design of interior or exterior physical settings. It uses space as a physical embodiment of the brand to create a ‘brand space’ . This is achieved through ‘architecture, interiors, lighting, graphics, landscape’ in spaces such as retail stores, showrooms, trade-fair booths and office environments.
Components of a branded environment can include finish materials, environmental graphics, way-finding devices and signage and identity systems. Creators of branded environments leverage the effect of the physical structure and organization of space to help deliver their clients' identity attributes, personality and key messages.
The creation of branded environments grew out of a movement within the practice of interior design in the 1990s that recognized that brand equity, or the perceived value in the identifying brand characteristics of an organization, could be applied to three-dimensional environments.