three rooms

design: Eric Shew

As with any transition, our company’s recent move has created opportunities to rethink how we do our business. After several months of planning and moving, I’m glad the transition process is nearly over and am delighted with our new space.

Having a suite of three rooms, our first thought of the office was rooted in the concept of ownership. (“This is my room; this is yours; this is the clients’.”) This concept was quickly turned aside in favor of thinking thinking about the function of each room – for meetings, for designing, for writing, etc. This thought later evolved into considering each room housing a particular type of conversation.

Our conference room, for example, has a large flat screen TV and conference table that makes it ideal for presenting visual concepts. Other resources – a whiteboard, scratch pads, etc. are on hand to foster a collaborative, spontaneous exchange of ideas. I’m convinced that the best work emerges from a dynamic exchange, and it’s exciting to me to see the instrumental role a thought out environment plays in bringing this about.

looking out on Cornwall and Magnolia streets, Bellingham WA

storage in the meeting room

Our creative workspaces are designed to foster a different type of interaction. We wanted to avoid the appearance of barriers between our clients and the creative work, so clients walk through our work space on the way to meeting room. Though the spaces are essentially just desks, they’ve been designed for flexibility. My workstation, for example, can swap between “design mode” and “illustration mode” in just a few seconds. In addition, it’s designed to be easily viewable by a handful of people for cases in which the client is directly involved with the creative process.

Eric's workstation

Becca’s workstation, similarly, includes tools of her trade (Pantone color books, cutting boards, corner rounders, etc.) so that we can quickly create design prototypes or explore options for how print production choices can contribute to the final result.

Becca's workstation

Having watched all of this unfold for the past month, it’s rewarding to see how it is coming together and watching how these new workflows and interactions contribute to the process. Creative work, I’m convinced, is stifled by rigid, abstract barriers; a (nearly) controlled collision of perspectives  in a creative, open environment is truly the only the way to fly.

creative storage