How do companies assert their identity in a shared space?

The meteoric rise of coworking and flexible office spaces is overturning traditional office codes. Flexibility, pooling of resources, community dynamics... these are just some of the advantages that are attracting more and more companies, from start-ups to major corporations. But in these places designed for the collective, a fundamental question persists: how can a company assert its own identity, without a wall or a door to its name? Well, you can! While flexible space brands strive to be recognizable and identifiable among a thousand, they also enable their occupants to make their own workspaces their own.

An employer brand to live up to, even without its own territory

For many companies, the workspace has long been a strong cultural marker. Customized desks, in-house signage, visual language elements... all ways of embodying the brand to employees and visitors alike. Does the flexible workspace, by doing away with walls, erase these markers? What if a company's identity didn't stop at its postal address?

Office branding can be expressed in a multitude of ways: murals, stickers, inspirational quotes, logos, signage and team photos. These elements help reinforce employees' sense of belonging, nurture their commitment, and foster an environment conducive to ambitious achievements. All this can also be found in a flexible office space.

It's no longer a question of owning a place, but of providing a consistent experience, whatever the setting. This requires rituals, an atmosphere and shared codes. A playlist, a branded mug, an internal Slack channel, or even recognizable clothing (sweatshirt, sweater, etc.) can be enough to recreate a sense of belonging, even within a shared open-space environment.

Shared spaces, individualized culture?

In an environment where several companies coexist, it becomes crucial to make the invisible visible: values, managerial posture, relational codes. Some organizations go even further, co-constructing a "mobile identity kit" with their teams: objects, posters, collaborative tools, olfactory or visual ambience to accompany teams on the move.

Another powerful lever: entertainment. Organizing a weekly coffee break, running an in-house workshop open to coworkers, celebrating collective successes in public: these are all opportunities to exist in the place. It's not the office that makes the DNA, it's what you experience there. When employees are proud to talk about their company, the identity naturally shines through, even without a logo on the wall.

The key role of coworking managers

Coworking space operators have grasped this challenge. Some now offer ephemeral personalization services: light branding on meeting spaces, the possibility of organizing one-off events or corners in a company's colors. Others encourage storytelling through resident portraits, experience sharing or in-house collaborative platforms.

A well-designed coworking space then becomes a living ecosystem, where each structure can assert its difference while opening up to others.

Identity without territory: an opportunity rather than a challenge

At a time of widespread telecommuting and organizational fluidity, corporate identity is no longer confined to walls, but is embodied in practices, postures and stories. Far from diluting it, coworking can become a laboratory of expression: a space for testing, asserting and adjusting one's image in a stimulating environment.

Asserting one's identity in a shared space ultimately means moving from a logic of signage to a logic of meaning. And in this new paradigm, the most audible companies will be those that know how to tell - and bring to life - their story on a daily basis.