Despite the recession prompting cut-backs in company spending (and the public sector in particular) corporate hospitality is still one of the most popular and effective ways to network and get your brand known. Learn how you can use our corporate planters to liven up your event or location.
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Steel Planters Bring Life to Car Showrooms
Steel galvanised planters are a common design element in many car showrooms – and it’s not difficult to see why.
Car show rooms tend to be large, roomy spaces and large, tall planters can act as attractive room dividers, segregating particular areas ie the reception, foyer etc. They can also add an element of style, particularly glossy black or gleaming mirror stainless steel planters filled with cultivated greenery.
- Flexibility
The great advantage of using steel planters in the design of a car showroom is their flexibility. For instance, if the planters have castors attached onto the bottom of them then it’s easy to move them around and alter the design – certainly it’s much easier than removing a purpose-built partition or desk area. And if only the one variety of plant is used throughout the car showroom then it’s possible to move them around without worrying about interfering with the original design. Stones can also be put into the bottom of the planters to improve their stability and ensure they remain put when needed.
- Design
Greenery in the form of shrubs, plants and flowers can be added to cubed planters, coloured planters etc to enhance the overall design element. For instance antique gold planters are often used for a room aiming for a more classic theme while high gloss neon coloured planters are more contemporary or even look great in a sixties or seventies themed design. Meanwhile an exotic and eye-catching single plant or flower can fit in well in a modern minimalist environment. Planters can also look impressive simply filled with sand and glossy or natural looking stones and pebbles.
- Colour
Not only can the planters themselves add colour but the plants can as well of course. For instance planters with bright flowers or leaves can be used to liven up a dull and gloomy entranceway or a corner in a car showroom which doesn’t receive a lot of light and needs a bit of an enhancement. Sometimes a touch of greenery is all that’s needed to add a bit of a boost to an area with a monochrome colour scheme.
- Environment
Who doesn’t like to see plants and an expanse of greenery in what is traditionally a rather sterile, masculine environment? Not only are plants and flowers nice to look at, but they also add a more natural and lighter touch to all that gleaming steel and rubber. Then there’s the health benefits of course, plants improve the air quality of a room by converting carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis. Depending on the type of plant, they can also remove harmful elements from the air such as benzene and formaldehyde.
- Brand enhancement
One car dealership in Canada even used the planters and greenery to enhance their brand’s overall message. “Our design goal was to achieve a symbiosis of nature and high design which is a key driver of the Lexus brand identity,” explained General Manager Mark Worbeck for Open Road Lexus Richmond.
To take a look at the type of planters available for today’s car show see Precious Design
Our Favourite Airport First Class Lounges
Planters can, of course, enhance any environment – their greenery can soften harsh dark or even abstract décor while it can also enhance any plain façade. Then again, planters can also introduce an alternative colour source into a monotone minimalist look and the new trend for bright neon coloured planters brings dull corners out of themselves, making them positively glow.
So we’re surprised designers don’t use galvanized steel planters even more when it comes to creating commercial public spaces. One design area that seems to be divided as to their use is that of the upmarket airport first class and business lounge. These are, after all, the locations which entertain passengers travelling via some of the world’s largest and best-known airlines such as Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Virgin and British Airways.
We based our knowledge on an article by top American news agency CNN of what they considered the Top 10 airport business lounges in the world. Viewing the photographs we noticed many of the lounges had coloured planters and greenery. In fact the Quantas Lounge at Australia’s Sydney International Airport seems to have gone to extremes and looks like it houses an entire botanical gardens. It would have been much easier maintenance-wise for their poor staff to have installed a few strategically placed planters. That way the planters would have provided a dual purpose of adding to an area where everything appears to be white and grey. And yes, it’s sunny there, we know, but another colour wouldn’t have upset the balance too much we reckon.
Other airport lounges, such as the first class lounge at Abu Dhabi could definitely have done with some greenery to relieve the drabness of all that beige. Alternatively a few large glossy black planters with sand and smooth stones would have chimed in nicely with the surroundings.
Now we do like the modern, dynamic look of Lufthansa’s bright orange lounge at Frankfurt International Airport. That Satsuma shade cheers us up instantly, certainly no blandness there. However, we definitely reckon it could do with a glossy orange planter or two to take away the vastness of all that brown wooden flooring.
And the ones we like? Look how those sophisticated and smart silver steel planters with their refreshing greenery really blend in with the glass walls and roof in the Swiss Air Lounge at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg. It has a sleekness about it which isn’t too business-like.
Another first class airport lounge design we appreciate is the simplicity of the three planters in the foreground at Qatar Airways Premium Terminal at Doha International Airport. The planter displays aren’t huge but image what the lounge would look like if they weren’t there – it would seem almost bereft. Note the two large white planters with greenery in the background too.
Design at the ultra-modern Finnair Lounge in Helsinki Airport shows how planters (spot the greenery in the background of the photo) can fit in with the clean aesthetic lines of Finnish and Nordic furniture too.
You can see the full range of planters available from our online store Precious Design.
Add More Glamour to A Luxury Hotel
For most of us, the whole idea of heading off to a trendy five star or boutique hotel is to be pampered and spoiled. That means spending the weekend – or longer if we’re lucky – nestling in the lap of luxury and enjoying our surroundings.
We want our hotel to be an inspiring yet restful oasis in our in normal rather hectic lives. One way to introduce tranquillity into an environment is provide plenty of greenery and living elements in the form of planters.
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