Creative Reaction

This Ain’t No Disco is the ad agency counterpart to On My Desk, which we mentioned last week.

“This Ain’t No Disco is a portfolio of some of the best agency interiors in the world,” according to the blog’s description. Read The Perfectly-Designed Office first to gain some perspective. Let’s hope the best interiors inspire the best work!

Wow. I stumbled across this amazing post, The Perfectly Designed Office, which discusses designed-to-impress ad agency offices and which is a must-read. (I’m somewhat embarrassed that I haven’t come across Leland Maschmeyer’s writing/blogging until today, though it’s safe to say I’ll be following his blog closely from now on.)

The Perfectly Designed Office drops a bombshell of a question, “should an office’s architecture communicate creativity or foster it?” then answers, “I think we’d all say ‘foster,’ but I don’t think these pristine offices do that.” Such offices are “not all that effective in generating creative thinking”, he writes, then provides four reasons why he thinks this way. Clearly not the type of person to merely observe and complain, he then offers a series of seven solutions. I’m intentionally not summarizing his points - read the article - though I will include a few quotes. “I think an agency should not look at its office as a place: it should look at it as a tool.” “After all, clients hire agencies for their thinking - not their architecture.”

While all of this is squarely aimed at advertising agencies, it is fodder for any creative or innovative business.

In another post, Maschmeyer provides a quote from another web essay, which I’ll both leave you with and use to segue into my next post:

“Clients who value your designs are good. Clients who also value your design process are better.”

An Adweek article way back in March (and found online here) details the architectural design decisions involved in three well-known ad agencies; Mother (London), JWT, and TBWA/Chiat/Day, as well as Google. The common themes include collaboration, private v. public space, and “openness” - fewer walls/transparent walls.

Quoting the article, “Assembly-line cubicles and closed-door offices have decreasing relevance in a workplace changed by mobile technology and new business priorities that demand greater collaboration.”

What I find odd, though, is that in all the openness, people have to work quietly alongside others, trying to concentrate on their own work. The very atmosphere that is meant to foster collaboration and face-to-face communication is at the same time very distracting, disturbing creative reaction.

Quoting Clive Wilkinson, whose firm designed all the offices featured in the article, “The more mobile our tools become… the more people will be doing their concentrated work away from the office and their collaborative work in the office.” Wait. Isn’t work the one place we are supposed to be able to, um, work? Are creatives supposed to go to a coffee shop or head home every time they need to concentrate? This, too, is an office design requirement.

The article isn’t the most cohesive I’ve seen, though it offers some interesting, if not completely compatible insights.