Contentful Berlin. Office branding, wayfinding, and spatial storytelling.

Brand and culture, set free in space.

Murals, spatial branding, environmental graphics, and wayfinding for Contentful’s Berlin HQ, designed to feel playful, cohesive, and unmistakably Contentful.

space

8 215 m² office / workplace

client industry

Software Development, Tech

Location

Berlin, Germany

Sentiform Deliverables

Wayfinding Strategy, Wayfinding Design, Signage, Naming, Thematic Concepts, Environmental Glass Graphics, Spatial Branding, Office & Workplace Branding

architect / Interior Designer

toi toi toi creative studio

Year Completed

2023

Project Photography

Koy+Winkel, Sprühsinn, Sentiform

Awards

SEGD Global Design Merit Award for Wayfinding

ArchDaily Building of the Year Nominee 2024

Project Overview

A welcoming workplace for digital builders

Contentful is the world’s leading composable content platform for digital builders at digital-first companies. Over 25 percent of Fortune 500 companies use Contentful to create and manage digital experiences for their customers across every channel. Founded in Berlin in 2012, the global enterprise employs over 750 people from 70 nations in locations in Berlin, Denver and San Francisco. Contentful connects a vast app and partner ecosystem together with their API-based software to free digital builders to build the next chapter of digital experiences. Today, more than half a million programmers and thousands of companies worldwide rely on the Berlin unicorn, including brands such as Siemens, Plaid, Danone, Bang & Olufsen, Zalando, and N26.

We partnered with the interior design studio toi toi toi creative studio affectionately known as T3 to deliver wayfinding and environmental graphic design applications for Contentful’s new 8 215 m² new office in Berlin’s neighborhood of Gesundbrunnen.

Dimensional PIctograms

Helping users to navigate the environment

Contentful’s Berlin office has over 120 rooms leading from narrow corridors. We designed an elevated wayfinding system to help employees quickly navigate the environment. The color-coded pictograms for meeting rooms, toilets, tea kitchens , and other specialty rooms enable employees to quickly and easily recognize the room’s function from a distance.

Detailed on the wayfinding design - meeting room pictogram signage

Detailed on the wayfinding design - nap room room pictogram signage

Close-up on a wall hung wayfiinding pictogram for all genders toilet / gender neutrail toilet in Contentful workplace. Part of the wayfinding services applied in an inclusive and modern workplace.

Hallway at Contentful Berlin with a directional sign on the wall and elevated wall pictograms for tea kitchen and printer.

3D model of wayfinding signage - directional signs

inclusive signage system

Following the brand and interior’s design language

The acrylic signage system follows the interior’s shape language and supports accessibility through Braille wayfinding. Paired with 3D-printed arrows and floor indicators, it brings Contentful’s playful identity into the everyday. Our primary wayfinding typeface, the stencilled Kroppen font, adds a crisp, technical edge while steering clear of the usual tech clichés.

Close up on the inclusive meeting room signage with braille at Contentful

Room signage from the Contentful wayfinding design system

Directional wayfinding sign as a vinyl application on the glass

Close-up on the physical amenity sign Contentful together with vinyl application

Floor indicator sign at Contentful Berlin

Wayfinding floor indicator and directional sign installed on the wall at Contentful Berlin office.

Glass window decals

Patterns that enhance privacy

Glass is a dominant surface throughout Contentful’s new office. We developed a tiered system for window films that improves safety, supports privacy, and stays true to the visual language of the space. Two dotted patterns and specialty 3M frosting films are combined into four privacy levels, applied room by room. For phone booths with limited space for themed graphics, we designed custom pattern variations that subtly express each room name.

Glass graphic pattern applied on meeting room glass panels.

Phone Booth Environmental Glass Graphic Pattern KatieBouman NASA

Environmental glass graphics applied to phone booth doors at Contentful Berlin workplace.

Glass Graphic Vinyl Pattern Checkpoint Charlie on the Phone Booth

Glass privacy graphics on a meeting room in Contentful Berlin workplace.

ATTENTION TO DESIGN DETAIL

Improving the workspace usability

The large set of utility pictograms improves the usability of the workspace. The humorously reinterpreted signage—such as prompts reminding people to use hand sanitizers or to not leave any belongings in the toilets—cheers up the office environment.

Pictograms applied on the furniture in Contentful office in Berlin help workplace and real estate teams improve the workplace usability.,

Pictogram for ice cube machine in Contentful Berlin office.

Wayfinding design pictogram set for Contentful Berlin workplace

THEMING OF ROOMS AND LOUNGES

Celebrating content and content makers

Across the five floors, Contentful celebrates content. Our theming and naming concepts pay homage to trailblazing scientists, engineers, artists, and authors. They highlight humanity’s most famous content landmarks and celebrate well-known Berlin places and institutions where Berliners get to immerse themselves in cultural content.

Meeting room placemaking in Contentful Berlin

Close up on meeting room vinyl decal on the wall

Berlin Grunewald themed environmental wall vinyl graphics application in the meeting room in Contentful office in Berlin.

Meeting room wall graphic design with vinyl application

Detail of the wall decal in the meeting room

Workplace branding themed glass graphic application on the window panels in Contetful Berlin office.

Susan Kare inspired meeting room office branding design applicaiton onn the wall

CUSTOM SIGNAGE AND DESIGN APPLICATIONS

Adding character to communal spaces

The custom branded approach enhances the character of communal spaces. The Ritter Cafe, named in tribute to Contentful’s previous office, and The StorageRoom, which celebrates Contenful’s original name, use custom-designed signage and foil applications. The IT Help Desk sign tackles people’s frustration with broken computers in a fun typographic construction.

Placemaking and office branding done via custom signage

Custom signage - office branding application in Contentful

Large-scale Murals

Artworks enriching the office environment

The most prominent environmental design applications are large-scale murals. Using several mediums from chromatic foils through painting, posters, and 3D printed elements, they enhance Contentful’s brand presence and celebrate themed floors with high-impact] artworks.

Berlin's underground techno posters culture inspired wall mural installation in Contentful office Berlin

INCLUSIVE WAYFINDING AND ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHIC DESIGN

Welcoming to everyone

We delivered Contentful wayfinding and environmental design application solutions that were in synergy with the interior design and aligned with Contentful’s brand values. Our solution has enhanced the workspace’s inclusivity and helped create an inspiring environment while staying true to the playful nature of the Contentful brand.

A large-scalle 12 meters wide wall mural application dedicated to Ada Lovelace, the inventor of algorithms.

A detail on large scale Ada Lovelace themed mural improving enriching culture and institutions spaces.

SENTIFORM SAYS

Thank you

To Contentful and toi toi toi creative studio, thank you for the trust and encouragement to shape one of Europe’s most design-led workplaces. And to every project manager, design talent, and fabricator who helped bring it to life, thank you.

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