How Do You Create a Sense of Place

On the very ground you're standing, something else of significance took place. A child was raised. A man built his career. A confederate soldier lost his life.

For the past few months, I've been exploring the idea of "a sense of place" for STORY, our theme for 2013.

It's not just about your physical space like, say, the way your office is designed or the environment in which you express your craft. It's also about your unique place in the world.

I discovered that just a few blocks from our venue in Chicago sits a nursing home parking lot. It's just an ordinary, old parking lot to the unknowing eye.

But to someone who understands "place," they know that this is the very spot where Al Capone's gang dressed up in police uniforms to gun down seven members of Bugs Moran's gang in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929.

This gives greater meaning to the work at-hand. You recognize that what you're doing has a history. An importance. You carry yourself a little taller.

George Bush once said that when took over the presidency in 1992, he insisted that every one of his staffers wear suit coats when entering the Oval Office in order to restore a sense of dignity to the room (I was a Clinton intern).

How do you work differently when you have a sense of place? You stop working in sweat pants? You keep a cleaner desk? You print thicker business cards?

No, seriously. What do you do?

Comments

[Matt C]

Something is wrong in your paragraph about Bush/Clinton and the Oval Office.

[Ben Arment]

Matt, the slogan of this blog is "this isn't the New York Times"

[Carole Turner]

Ha! Ben!^^

When planning for the Tea shop we are going to open I decided that my daughter and I, who will be the only employees starting out, will wear retro or vintage dresses, to give it that "other world" feel, like your leaving current reality and stepping into a world of warm smells, tea stained linen's and clothing, a place where a child's tea party is hosted in Wonderland or Narnia. The entire building will feel different then the outside world. It wont be "just a tea shop" if you know what I mean.

[Ben Arment]

I love that Carole! Do you happen to know what existed on the plot of ground where your tea shop is located?

[@jlaaz]

Sense of place is everything. Im a huge fan of lighting to create environmental ambience. I love combining industrial minimalist with organic. Such a convergence of beautiful.

Experience happens in environments. They create experience. We live this from our office environments to the open air as people arrive on campus, to the smells they experience when they walk into one of our facilities.

[Ben Arment]

Everything has a UX

[Sam Mahlstadt]

when we ordered business cards for our non-profit, The Move Project, we went with thick, heavy, letterpressed business cards. Doing work in homelessness, food/clean water access, and modern-day slavery is heavy work, and our brand should reflect that. Also, we have both co-founders' email on the cards with tick boxes. We personally check our name when we hand it over. This reflects the personal, collaborative work we do. Moo cards wouldn't cut it... :)

[Carole Turner]

We haven't found the perfect space for the tea shop yet, so no, I don't but I will look into that for sure once we have. :-)

[Carrie Starr]

We have photos of our property from the past 100 years framed and hanging in our entryway to continually remind us of the history of this special place. We've been grafted into an incredible legacy of live-giving ministry on these 15 acres.

[Regina]

We are moving our offices to mid-town Manhattan from downtown and the owner of our company wants no personalization in the space.
We are allowed one picture frame that will be chosen for us. For the past 18 years since I worked at this company I was free to customize my cubicle space. I am going to take a photograph of my old cubicle for the picture frame.