- Image4 Marketing
- Featured Projects & Award Winners, Financial Services
- January 11, 2022
Dedham Savings is a leading financial institution in the greater Boston area, with a long history of prudent operations. To refresh and optimize their headquarters, Image 4 and NES Construction redesigned the facility for today’s consultative banking approach.
PROJECT: Dedham Savings Bank Presents a Fresh Brand Experience While Retaining Community Historical Context
CLIENT: Dedham Institution for Savings
LOCATION: Needham, MA
Refresh and Optimize
Project Overview
Founded in 1831, Dedham Institution for Savings is a cornerstone of the communities it serves. This history and presence is represented in their beautiful Neo-colonial corporate headquarters. As banking has changed, the branch and headquarters needed updating, and Dedham Savings turned to the team of NES Construction and Image 4 Branding for the project.
While NES managed a complete branch refurbishment through the initial Covid shut-downs, and effectively kept the branch accessible through the construction, Image 4 redesigned the in-Branch experience literally from the ground up. The branch was opened up to create a more customer-friendly traffic flow, semi-private waiting areas were incorporated, and the dated teller line was replaced by technology-based pods.
Universal Bankers and Specialists are located in an alcove adjacent to the branch for easy customer access and pod-line support. All private offices and back-room areas were refreshed with new finishes and glass facades, allowing daylight into the interior of the building and enhancing privacy and comfort for rich or complex interactions with customers.
Image 4 worked with Liz Bissell, Sr. Vice President of Marketing and Tammy Reposa, Project Manager of Dedham Savings to reconceive the Brand presentation and to bring to life the history and solid management of the institution. Employing a refreshed, elegant color palette of dark Walnut over grey and maroon, we blended in silver metallic Brand accents to relieve the traditional palette, and created a subtle series of floor-to-ceiling wall murals over which we installed a lovely community wall which displays artifacts from the bank’s long history.
The 24-foot community/history wall presents replicas of artifacts from the institution’s extensive archive. Image 4 craftsmen carefully reproduced Dedham Bank’s first ledger, the institution’s original charter letter, as well as an early account book. We used specialty deckled papers and aged the edges to mimic the original items which are too fragile or valuable to be displayed. These are presented alongside mementos of banking including a brass piggy bank and a copper plate of the headquarters in the 1940’s.
Integrating technology into the branch, a 4-monitor, edge-lighted acrylic feature wall allows both generic and merchandise content to be displayed. Dedham’s marketing department can manage content on an as-desired basis via a web portal. And because both the drive-up window and drive-up ATM’s are heavily used, Dedham branding was extended to the exterior of the building with custom graphic wraps on the units. These were integrated with the interior wallcovering around the in-vestibule ATM as well.
Customer experience has been greatly enhanced. The atmosphere is open, warm and inviting, while remaining sensitive to privacy concerns. Visitors can immediately see service staff upon entry, and if the pods are busy, the comfortable waiting areas are easily accessible and supplied with hot and cold drinks. While waiting, visitors are presented with the Institution’s values and history – reinforcing their decision to bank with Dedham – and product offerings can be viewed along with news stream and other Brand messaging.
