How I Work, Part 2: The Power of Interior Design
When it comes to working, one of the most important factors for productivity for me is excellent interior design. Production and Operations are more than just managing projects and getting things done. One of the keys to being an excellent producer and operations manager is being innovative, creative and thinking outside the box. One thing that the advertising agencies do extremely well is creating a work environment that cultivates creative thinking and innovative culture, and they do this through superior interior design.
ICRAVE in New York makes excellent use of wood and track lighting.
I'll admit it...I'm an interior design snob. I have good reason to be, people spend 10.3 years of their lives at work. Now imagine spending all of this time behind sterile white walls and around boring gray cubicles with the only decoration being whatever purchase orders or vendor contracts that happen to be pinned to them. You don't decorate your home this way, so why would you want to work in an office like this?
People spend more time at the office than they do at home, so why not make the office a place that people would want to spend their time? Below are some of my favorite work spaces.
72andSunny - LA
72's kitchen area features a wall with beautiful plant life. Photo by: Clios.com
72andSunny is all about creative expression. It's also one of the hottest creative shops in the industry right now. Part of that success is no doubt attributed to their impressive workspace layout.
One of 72's open space layout sections have a modernized industrial vibe. Photo by: Clios.com
72's LA office is currently located in the old Howard Hughes offices in Playa Vista. There is already a lot of history in those halls, but 72 has done an excellent job at modernizing that old industrial feel of the building.
Contemporary furniture in an open lounge area filled by natural daylight is an excellent space to get away and clean out the inbox.
There are going to be times where you want to sit somewhere other than your desk, but you don't want to be inconsiderate and squat in a conference room. 72 has lounge areas both indoor and outdoor for you to have some alone time to crunch through emails, take a quick client call or even just to relax and browse the internet for inspiration.
Conference rooms as nice as this one will dampen the sting of your third status call of the day.
Conference rooms are often the least thought about room in corporate culture. "Phone? Check. Whiteboard? Check. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a conference room!" Conference rooms need just as much design love as the rest of the office. Clients come to the conference room. Potential employees come to the conference room. They need to be just as impressed by the thought that went into the room as they would be with a campaign pitch or agency culture. A wooden table is more welcoming than your basic IKEA black conference table. Also, 72 does an excellent job at hiding the communication device cables. Clean and efficient.
David & Goliath - LA
D&G's reception area is one of the best in the business.
David & Goliath is my current favorite agency office. This place is classy. as. fu*k. Everything is marble, stone and English Brown Oak. If a bond villain owned an ad agency, I suspect it would look like this place.
While lacking a bit of finesse (table looks a bit plain), this is still an excellent conference room design.
The conference room tables are lacking a bit of flair, but again, the brown english oak style goes well with the frosted glass doors and the chandelier light fixtures. There is plenty of natural daylight bleeding into the room during the day, but the track lighting provide more than sufficient lighting for a comfortable and appropriately lit evening meeting.
This agency bar is nicer than half of the bars in Los Angeles.
Even the bar is trendy. How could you not want to chill here at 5pm and have a chat with co-workers? I'd make all of my production meetings take place at the bar if it looked like this.
Innovative thinking is a product of good corporate culture.
And one of the cornerstones of good corporate culture is a good corporate office. People need an office that allows them to relax and stimulates their creative minds. Sweat the details.