All this while still trying to work in the space (aside from a 2-week closure over Christmas). If a client had asked us to do this we’d have advised against it but we gave it a go…and we’re over the moon with the results.
Our bespoke reception desk, made of Corian combined with reclaimed scaffold board, is a functional eye-catching piece of ergonomic design that demonstrates how a mix of materials can play with the senses.
We updated all the electrics and have installed recessed LED spotlights to illuminate our original brick walls and examples of work with a wash of light. But the main lighting feature is our LED ‘circles of light’ that appear almost randomly placed across most of our low-level ceiling but that bring the workstations to life. These pools of light subtly reflect the dot of our brand but they also create a trompe-l’oeil – although flush with the ceiling they appear as huge recesses of light.
Another big change was to convert the rear of our office. An area few clients would see, unless visiting our rather tired toilets, this is where our storeroom doubled up as an in-house meeting room – too messy for clients and on some occasions, too messy for us! We retained our meeting room at reception but created a more prestigious glass-walled meeting room at the back of the office. This means clients and visitors can see the true scale of our space as they are led round, see the teams at work and arrive at a more functional hi-tech meeting room.
Obviously having mentioned our toilets, these were also a target for the refurb with an enlarged space and clever use of large mirrors at either end of the sink area to enlarge it further. The installation of a long-awaited shower has gone down especially well with those who cycle in, run at lunchtimes or partake in our lunchtime yoga sessions.
Updateable poster frames in the toilet double up as doors to hidden recesses where all the essential stock for this area can be stored so the space remains clean and clear.
The new meeting room features a 4K Ultra HD TV, so Joe can show off his latest animations in glorious colour with lightning fast refresh rates, and it’s connected to a mac mini, Apple TV and an HD webcam so we can have virtual visitors as well as real ones.
We got rid of our rather old and tired Ikea sofas (snapped up on eBay) and found this tidy little colourful seating set at Made that fit the bill as a relaxing chill-out area or an informal meeting area.
We didn’t let anything go to waste and found that the spare scaffold boards, when halved along their length, were ideal for shelving. And with routered grooves, they are great for displaying mood boards and samples of print work that we are particularly proud of. The black wall you see in the above picture was an experiment that has gone down very well. It reflects our brand but is also magnetic paint. This meeting area in reception can now be used for crits and brainstorming so that the clean white walls in other areas of the office aren’t left with bits of blue tac and masking tape all over them…
We’re very grateful for all the help and input from the team at RHJB and Fluid and hope to work with them again on other office projects for our clients. If you’d like to see some of the other spaces where we’ve brought brands to life you can find our case studies here or get in touch with Simon or Kevin to find out more.