Dream Office

RE open space: some people hate it. We defiantly had some people struggle, and it isn’t always the one you would think. Some extroverts get too easily distracted, so introverts want to be left alone. Personally I love open offices and always absolutely hated having a private office. I worked super hard in my first corporate gig to “get that office” only to realize I hated it. This time around since I was building the team around me, I also built the office the way I liked it. It certainly took time for people to get used to having pin pong and xbox going in the background in addition to the open meeting space. Big monitors and noise cancelling headphones helped, as did a giant studio sound system that everyone could DJ to. Without the sound system on it sounded like a cacophony in there, but some music over the top smoothed a lot out. When I designed the other spaces for other teams they were different. Finance got cubes and offices, sales ops got a partially shielded desking model… in my experience no matter what 50% of the people will complain and 50% will be ok with it. The benefits of open office are defiantly not efficiency though. Some potential benefits are: seeing what everyone is doing (good for a creative director, maybe not for a designer), smaller footprint, less cost, visually looks good (if you can keep it decently neat, we had to put rules in place around that).

RE light: we had giant overhead tubes (it was previously a light industrial space) that we had switched out for daylight bulbs. When picking pentanes and reviewing samples this is important. A large bank of windows and an 18’ x 22’ roll up door (it was in SoCal, the door could be open almost all the time… which was great but had other draw backs like dust and pollen)… sometimes we shut off the overheads or shut off some of them and did desk lighting for people who preferred that.

We have an open-door culture. If you want to pop down to the CEO’s office and stick your head in, go ahead, knock yourself out. Managers have conversations with those who close their doors and/or draw their blinds (there is a lot of glass with each office, so you are fully visible).

Some offices (they tend to be on the inside corners of intersecting hallways) can be gathering places. I have seen meetings of several people while the “owner” of the office is working on their computer and not a part of the conversation of the others in the office.

Collaboration is vital in any creative space. Offices do not need to be an impediment. I think the culture can control whether walls impede collaboration. Also, our designers spend a lot of time in the shop as we are big on prototypes and not drawings. That is mostly an open space.

I would be interested to know whether people tolerate an open plan or if they thrive in an open plan.

Open v. closed: I think the data is in. People are more efficient in closed offices / cubicles. If you need to pump CAD, sketches ideas, build a model, which is 80% of a staff designer’s job, you need a space that allows you to concentrate.

On the other hand, when I designed an open office space (When I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong), I found that my team worked really well in an open environment. We were all maker types (google “maker time versus manager time”). We were all pumping CAD/sketching/building, so we left each other alone 99% of the time. So distraction wasn’t a problem.

A year later, sales was moved into our space (not my idea) and then distraction was a problem…

Old workshop v. digital build studio: I agree with your thinking Bryan. 3D printers, CNC, laster cutters are just excellent tools today. You get the precision of mass production on your prototypes. Hard to beat it. At my current gig, I’ve been thinking of going the same way. Digital tools in house, contract out the long hours of sanding to someone else:)

My only real word of wisdom: get commercial grade chairs. The Ikea ones break after a year of daily office abuse. They just aren’t made for 8 hours / 5 days a week. They are made for 2 hours / 3 days a week.

great piece on the open vs closed thing… i think the better framework is good vs bad.

thanks for all the feedback.

We literally just opened a brand new, huge, modern office/warehouse in the Midwest as the corporate HQ. It’s predominantly open space with offices for the CEO,CFO, etc. I haven’t even seen it finished yet, I’ll be working there next week.

Our owners and CEO are still coming off that project and are definitely pushing for open office. I think 90% of the companies I’ve worked with have been open office plans for their creative teams but I’ve seen a lot of people construct their own fortress of solitude in an attempt to get some privacy, myself included. I’m personally coming off of almost 5 years of consulting with no boss and no reason to leave my home office on most days so this is a going to be a big transition for me regardless of whether we have walls or not.

We absolutely want to be able to show off this space to impress any business we might want acquire, corporate buyers or future investors so there is as much importance being placed on how “cool” the space is as there is on functionality (i’m certain we’ll be able to create a good balance). This will not be custom build or even a purchase so right now i’m think i just need to keep my mind open as we look at spaces and figure out what works best for the “coolest” space we can find.

my shop budget has been approved, provided we can find a space that accommodates everything we will have all the fun modern rapid prototyping tools along with a small scale, very basic, traditional shop.

Ryan,

If you do go the open office route, there are some great options for add-on privacy these days. Check out what Buzzispace is doing in that arena.

thought this might be relevant :slight_smile:

Also, this circa 1994: Clipper CS-1 Cockpit Cubicle


those look great to me, i have always found ways to build my primary workspace in to a fortress of solitude.

i’m a pretty social dude and love collaboration on concept and development projects but when it comes to the tasks that can only be solved by focused work i like to just put my head down and grind until the job is done. I have a hard time tuning out nearby distractions… have you ever tried to write a pitch while an animal of a salesman makes cold calls 10 feet away from you?

I actually think more social people might have the hardest time with open offices, because we always have that “squirrel!” factor. The only way I’ve had open offices work for me personally is if they are pretty much creative discipline only. I don’t mind another designer looking over my shoulder without notice, but I don’t want someone from sales doing that.

Where Midwest are you moving? Just curious.

Odd thing happened here recently. We had these 120 degree workstations put in with vertical walls between them.

(kind of like this, but with panel walls that are 54" tall)

We had left the top unfinished for a while because we couldn’t decide what color of frosted acrylic to put in, so everyone could see the tops of peoples heads. It was loud, people complained for a while at first but got used to it. Couple weeks ago, we put in 6" tall dividers in, and suddenly…

It’s quieter. Way quieter. BUT… people are collaborating more, communicating more, working together more. It’s really odd, but it’s great. It’s a nice combination of openness and privacy, and I think people are really responding to it.

i’m not moving anywhere, i get to build the creative team around me in NJ/PA the home office has been in Wichita for 30 years and we just moved from an old converted grocery store to a brand new, shiny, ultra modern 100sf corporate headquarters and warehouse. That office is mostly open plan, a huge room of desks divided by 48" walls the top 12" of which are frosted glass.

bringing this one back as I transitioned from designing a corporate design office to my own consulting studio, then moved to Portland, and now am finally getting settled into the space. :slight_smile:

Anybody else have spaces they want to share?



Wow! What a setup yo!

Personally I need some mockup space- a big table- all cutting mats… a Kongsberg, a big UV printer… thousands of #2 blades and a variety of tapes… a range of hot glue… pressure pot for moldmaking, spray booth for paint… all business :joy:

Though I would naturally keep the display shelves and pinup boards.

Half of my current office – The one thing I miss most after selling most of my business a few years ago is my shop - we could make anything out of anything. I don’t miss having employees even a little so maybe it’s a bit of a good trade-off. “You makes your decisions and you lives with em.”


beautiful space, Dan. I love the beams.

Impressive spaces! I am aiming to be able to share the results of my new studio office when it is all set and done by the end of June. I am expanding to something about 3-4 times the size than this former kid’s room I’m in now :slight_smile:

Ask and ye shall receive.

Big table (we have 4 currently, another 5 coming by the end of the year). We cut directly on the formica, but we do have cutting mats for fine work…


Don’t know what a Kongsberg is, but a a big printer.

Is hundreds of #11 blades OK? I know there is a stash somewhere, but the lab makes sure we don’t have many boxes open at any time.

Tape rack

Hot glues

No pressure pot, but a vacuum pot for degassing. Along with a tiny vacuum former and a crappy but gets teh job done slip roller.


Spray booth.

What else do you need, Jukis? Got them. Shop fully stocked with tools, fasteners, materials? Got them. Chemistry lab for mixing? Got it. Clean room for finished good manufacture? Got it. CNC and lathe? Got them. And, contrary to my earlier post, we are now up to 2 Formlabs and 1 FDM.