BKV Group Adds Branded Environments Group to Multidisciplinary Design Team

02/21/2023 | Firm News
Holistic design approach offers clients purposeful brand identity across project lifespans, implemented through conveying the project story to resonate with BKV’s diverse set of end users.
BKV Group announced today the addition of our newly integrated Branded Environments team. This group will guide the firm’s internal teams nationally in building powerful and purposeful brand identities for clients that utilize BKV Group’s full suite of design services, using storytelling techniques to establish a consistent narrative that is carried throughout the built environment. BKV Group is one of the few national design firms offering an in-house Branded Environments unit, which is led by Megan Van Beck, Director of Branded Environments and Associate Partner, and Kristine Siiro, Branded Environments, Graphic Designer, both based out of the company’s Minneapolis practice site. They will work in collaboration with BKV’s internal team of architects, interior designers, landscape architects and engineers to navigate through the initial research, strategy and discovery phases, shaping brands early in the project life cycle that will inform how spaces are designed, marketed and activated upon completion.
Megan Van Beck
Director of Branded Environments and Associate Partner
Kristine Siiro
Branded Environments, Graphic Designer

“Branding is what unifies a project – it’s the look, the voice, the feel – and when executed properly, it informs virtually every design decision that is made. We are excited to bring that continuity to the spectrum of services BKV Group is able to offer to current and prospective clients.”


Megan Van Beck, Director of Branded Environments and Associate Partner
The team’s full-scale design approach incorporates brand discovery; messaging, positioning and strategy; visual identity; naming; environmental design; logo creation; trademarking; use guidelines; and creation of signage, digital and print collateral, floor plans, promotional merchandise, social media templates and website design concepts.

Branding Services

We immerse our team in your community by facilitating guided workshops help to to gain a deep understanding of your culture and values, objectives, goals, competitive landscape, audience, and practices and procedures.

Using the results from brand discovery, we create your brand messaging, positioning and strategy and produce a synthesis of the findings in a clear, concise document (Brand Book). This component creates a clear and strong foundation for your brand and can be shared and utilized by all stakeholders. This steers creative direction for the brand.

We immerse our team in your community by facilitating guided workshops help to to gain a deep understanding of your culture and values, objectives, goals, competitive landscape, audience, and practices and procedures.

Armed with an understanding of the brand identity, we create the visual identity which consists of the logo/wordmark. We provide 5-8 concepts with 2 rounds of edits to get to the top 3 choices. We then provide the top 3 choices in color and mocked up on products to get us to the final logo selection.

We create a multi-page document that describes the elements of your brand. Your team can use it to create consistent materials going forward and to also share with anyone using your brand. It includes usage rules and specs for the logo, color palette, typography, a certain photography or illustration style, custom patterns, and any other elements that make your brand unique.

We offer creative solutions for all of your marketing collateral needs
such as investor packages, brochures, flyers, leasing packages, menus and presentation templates.

Working with the architecture and interior design teams, we create marketing floor plans to use for your sales materials.

We provide creative solutions for all of your promotional needs such as t-shirts, hats, notebooks, pens, coffee mugs, water bottles and lots of fun stuff!

Working with the architecture and interior design teams, we can create branded moments in spaces that enhance the brand and design.

We implement your brand into design solutions in the built environment. This includes wayfinding signage throughout the space.

We offer creative solutions/templates for all of your social media channels.

We offer website design consulting and concepting. Web design and development is a specialty in itself, so we recommend that clients hire a dedicated individual or firm for this. The firm can use the style and elements we develop in the Brand Guide to create your site.

“A strong brand reflects the sophistication of the building or development and can leave a lasting impression that differentiates it within the marketplace,” said Siiro. “What we often see with our clients who use outside branding agencies is that they engage them too late in the design process, sometimes resulting in a disconnect that can be costly to fix. We are able to offer a continuum of brand services across the lifespan of each project, ensuring the spaces the client and the design team envision are the ones that are ultimately delivered.” Van Beck has been with BKV Group for 11 years and previously served as senior interior designer. Her project management experience spans the residential, corporate and hospitality design sectors. Siiro joined BKV in January 2023 and previously held the position of senior graphic designer for the past six years. Her professional design portfolio includes large-scale projects across the healthcare, restaurant, retail and specialty industries.
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