I popped into an Art Director friend’s agency leaving do last night and the conversation came round to the Perfect Creative Department Office Layout. The consensus of opinion was that the Perfect Creative Department would comprise: - a main open plan area with hot desking style desks (with no dividers!) close together, music going, lots … Continue reading Creative Spaces
Tag: Creative Spaces
the kind of Beta I wouldn’t mind working in
Since I’m slightly obsessed with Creative Spaces, I’m all for Italian furniture maker Tecno’s new Beta range of office furniture. Its a ‘workplace system’ designed for creative offices that has not only been designed to easily evolve over time but also seems to allow everyone their own little bit of personal space – something sadly lacking … Continue reading the kind of Beta I wouldn’t mind working in
comparing and contrasting agency shop floors
In my new freelance life I‘ve been having lots of meetings with local agencies. From one man bands to UK top 30 agencies and from start-ups to old timers I’ve sat in a lot of agency receptions recently and it’s been a real eye opener. I’ve been amazed at the sheer diversity of approaches to … Continue reading comparing and contrasting agency shop floors
Packing ‘em in – today’s open plan means shrinking space
Telegraph newsroom photo by victoriapeckham on flickr I’ve been ranting about Creative Spaces, open plan and working-where-you-work-best for a couple of years now. I stumbled on a piece in the Wall Street Journal today which reported that the average new workstation designed by global architecture firm HOK Group has shrunk from 64 sq ft to 48 in … Continue reading Packing ‘em in – today’s open plan means shrinking space
creative environment or can’t be arsed?
One thing that has annoyed me about every single agency I’ve worked for is that the office has looked like a cross between a teenager’s bedroom and an explosion in a paper factory. No matter how smart or scruffy the actual building and furnishings were, it was still a bombsite. I’ve been to lots of … Continue reading creative environment or can’t be arsed?
Open plan vs. open to distractions
archive image from Life magazine, hosted by google Sam Leith in today’s Guardian has written about her experiences working in an open plan office – in essence, an ethnographic study of territorial anxiety and opportunities to acquire cake and gossip. Sitting in our very open plan, very noisy office, trying to avoid the siren call … Continue reading Open plan vs. open to distractions
don’t bother showing up if you’re just going to sit quietly
Prolific marketing blogger and author Seth Godin writes: [if you employ knowledge workers] it's hard for me to see why you'd bother having someone come all the way to an office just to sit in a cube and type. He also comments don't bother showing up if you're just going to sit quietly. He’s right - space is … Continue reading don’t bother showing up if you’re just going to sit quietly
work where you work best
It struck me, as I was having an in-depth discussion on media strategy in the ladies' loos this morning, that some of my most productive meetings have taken place in the most unlikely locations. I'm not talking about the 'fourth floor meeting room at 10am' kind of meetings (which in my experience rarely produce the … Continue reading work where you work best
Where would you chose to work?
My part of our building is the big, modern open plan bit, which I share with 75 others. I obviously did something wrong in a previous life because the other 100 or so agency bods are happily ensconced in the adjoining mansion (yes, really, with a secret staircase and everything), complete with French windows, original … Continue reading Where would you chose to work?
Is your desk the window to your personality?
Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent book Blink describes an experiment where a psychologist called Samuel Gosling asked members of the public to rate college students against key personality traits on the sole basis of spending 15 minutes in their dorm rooms. He found that these strangers were more accurate than the student’s own friends in rating the … Continue reading Is your desk the window to your personality?