Our office suite was terrible. Really terrible.
A mishmash of furniture – leftovers, really – thrown into an available space. Cubicles set up haphazardly, without thought to who sat where. Team members scattered, spare cubicles filled with items never sorted or stored.
What.A.Mess.
Getting the office sorted was a priority of mine and fortunately, my arrival coincided with a long-planned remodel of the entire building. Despite a very tight budget, we were able to work up a better space plan that grouped team members together with huddle up spaces, plenty of whiteboards and pin-up surfaces plus a giant conference room where the entire team could meet. Plus we removed very dated (and peeling) wall covering and repainted the entire suite.
For a two week period, we moved everyone out of the office into two spare office suites while the contractor worked.
We also removed all of the mini blinds, replacing with modern clean shades and frosting our hallway windows.
The piles of forgotten stuff thrown in a corner were sorted and either tossed, passed on to other departments, sent to the warehouse or stored in our new storage closet (a formerly rarely-used edit suite).
When we moved back in, the difference was remarkable. Suddenly our space felt like a creative agency (which we are) and it looked like the City (which we are).
We’ve hung artwork – photography we’ve worked to update over the past year.
We’ve installed motivational quotes to keep the fire alive.
A new magazine rack allows us to display City-focused publications for guests.
Instead of two bulky dusty awards cases, a nice clean wall of floating shelves holds our most recent awards.
The conference room is epic. Much much love for the space. In fact, I think it may be everyone’s favorite update to our suite. Even though the clock stopped working and we can’t be bothered to fix it.
Well, actually I did replace it – 6 months later.
I’ve finally got my office in shape – artwork up, furniture replaced, diplomas hung for the first time in my professional life. Much love in here also!
We’re still lacking our new audio-visual for the conference room and above our lobby sofa, as well as new sound proofing panels for our edit suites.
Who would have though my old life in design and construction would be so important in my new gig?