Help Carrot Creative Design Their New Office!

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Ever since Office Snapshots began three years ago, it has been part of the plan to allow our readers to assist in the design process of an office, where we and our readers could give our best opinions and then later see the results in a real space. Essentially we would be crowd-sourcing the design of an office. Luckily for us, Mike Germano of Carrot Creative has asked for our help in just that way. Over the next few days, we will be posting images of their raw space and asking for specific ideas with regard to the design of workspaces, common areas and quiet areas, kitchen, and reception. That being said, in order to do this we should know a little about the company and what they envision. Rianna Mallard, Mike’s Executive Assistant gives us the following information:

What we are doing

Our company is moving into a new office and looking to the Office Snapshot community for some suggestions and help. We are an innovative digital marketing shop in Brooklyn and wanted to crowd source our new space.
Our goal is to make a diverse and fun place to work. We would like recommendations on everything from design, furniture, color, to even countertops. We need the creative yet professional appearance of a Marketing company with the innovation and openness of a tech startup.

About the raw space

Located on the top floor of a building in DUMBO, Brooklyn, we have 4 thousand square feet of usable space. The ceiling is v-shaped and lined with sky-lights bringing in a ridiculous amount of natural sunlight. The ceiling is held up by a row of huge white columns. We are on the corner so the 2 outer walls are mostly huge windows with a breathtaking view of Manhattan’s financial district (sunset is ridiculous). It used to be a gallery, so right now there are walls that obstruct the view of the windows, but the space will be gutted. There is one permanent room directly to the right when you enter the office. We plan to keep this room as a “study lounge” area for the crew to use as they please (Foosball, yoga, napping, etc). There is also a wall as you walk into the space that we may or may not keep up. It provides a good divider that can be used as a small reception area.

What does Carrot Creative want in a new office?

Overall feeling:
Half agency, half start up. It’s an environment that is fit for both work and play (think keggorator filing cabinets).

Initial thoughts:
Carrot Creative has a very creative, fun, and casual work environment with employees to match. We are hard workers who see a blurry line between work and play, and we want our office to reflect that. That means, we need an open collaborative space with as few walls as possible, without being boring and predicable!

Since we are half agency and half start up, we need something that incorporates both Carrot faces. We can build any kind of online tool you need, but when it comes to physical space, we’re pretty clueless.

A little more specific:
We love an open floor plan, but sometimes all you need is quiet time. So in addition to 4 executive offices, and a bullpen area for 15 (which will eventually convert into at least 26) we’re looking for some telephone-booth-like “quiet rooms”. We also envision a large, formal conference room for the far wall, and a smaller informal, cozy conference room for those brainstorming sessions that just can’t happen without a pillow fight or a white board.

We see the kitchen(ette) to be close to the employee lounge/game/hang/library room. We will have access to running water after we tap into the pipes in the building. We’re thinking sink, dishwasher and obviously a Keurig to keep us as hyper as possible.

We might be a digital agency, but paper still has it’s place. And that’s exactly what we need: a place for our paper! Aka: a print/fax/copy/scanning area that can hold reams, post-its, mops and paper towels as well.

The current door is reminiscent of dive bar in the Bronx. We would prefer if it was a more similar to to our digital style. Looking through these (soon to be) hightech, glass doors, one can see the large wall demarcating a small reception area. We are debating keeping the wall and facilitating the “oooh- awe effect” when people walk around the wall and are suddenly hit with the gorgeous space and view of the skyline.

Get Started!

Images will be posted tomorrow, but based on what has been mentioned here, do you have any ideas you’d like to share? If you do, just leave a comment with it. If you think reference images from past posts will help, you can do that in the comments as well. Employees of Carrot Creative will be interacting with us in the comments to help with any clarification or questions as well.

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Comments

http://patrickbjohnson.com Patrick

I’m not sure what you guys have now, but I would highly suggest an entire wall of whiteboard! Similar to this cheesy photo http://bit.ly/ekxsF1

Not sure what your budget is but you can buy whiteboard (8ftx4ft) for $11 at Home Depot.

Why confine thoughts to one small space when you can have a whole wall dedicated to doodles, thoughts, ideas and faux Mona Lisa’s.

Hope that helps!
http://itunes.com/sevensecondchance baristajim

hey guys, that sounds like an absolutely perfect new spot, you must be so excited! i love the idea of keeping things more open…but that can also lead to it feeling bare bones.

i think bold colors would help…not every color imaginable, but whatever colors you choose, make them stand out.

a random thought would be to have a bunch really nice, funky lamps. such as these: http://www.funkylights.com/funky/carry-out_lamps.html

… or a clock like this:
http://www.funkylights.com/funky_clocks/multi_color_orbit_wall_clock.html
http://www.carrotcreative.com Rianna

@Partick: I love that idea! Communal working spaces like that are a must!

@Baristajim: We are big fans of bold colors (and boldness in general). Since we are Carrots, we have a bright Green and Orange color scheme. We will definitely be incorporating this into the new office space. Thanks for the lamp suggestions!
http://omaha.net Jordy Clements

Whiteboards are so last year. IdeaPaint is way more fun.

http://www.ideapaint.com/

And clients will like it, too…
http://www.chrisyerkes.com Chris

Hey there. I second the whiteboard.

The design firm I work at, Taylor Design, just recently moved and designed its office in Stamford, CT.

We have two walls coated in white-board paint and they are really awesome for doodles and being creative. Only problem is the paint is very expensive, but from the look of your client list, I’d say it wouldn’t be a problem for you. They also make magnetic white-board paint, which is cool too if you want to design stuff with magnets and doodles.

You can see more of our office that was featured on officeal here, http://officeal.com/offices/taylor-design/
http://officesnapshots.com Stephen

I like the idea of large writable surfaces as well. Whiteboards are the traditional option, and like Jordy mentions, Ideapaint is pretty cool as well. Anecdotally though, from my tour of Adobe’s Waltham office, they mentioned that that paint is expensive, takes a long time to dry, and leaves ghosting. I could see the ghosting, though that might just be easily cleaned.

The stuff looks slick though.
http://www.carrotcreative.com Rianna

Thanks for all the discussion guys! And I like that magnetic white board paint. We will probably choose a wall to paint with IdeaPaint (probably in the informal conference room). We already have a wall like that in our current office and love it.

Loving the creativity!
Bryce

Very exciting!!

First…I think you need a basketball hoop somewhere…not just to
practice for your re-match with Vayner, but also because everyone likes
to throw balls around once in a while….right??

I 2nd the IdeaPaint…um, idea. I have a square of it in my apartment
and it’s amazing! Use it all the time. Maybe an entire wall…or ALL
the walls painted with it.

Lastly, you are obviously going to need some individual private office
spaces, but I would highly recommend a fully open floor plan in terms of
assigned work space. It’s been proven in many industries that
production increases when no one (not even the CEO) has an individual
closed door office. I work in Finance right now (boooo) and our Brazil
office CEO implemented this for his 400+ employees, including himself.
He sat in a cube just like everyone else and it did wonders for employee
engagement and idea sharing. There were private “community” offices
available but they were not assigned to one person. Now he is the CEO
of the entire Americas region.

Oh and office snuggies, with a designated wall rack for them. Duh.

Good luck!
http://www.vladcole.net vc

interesting idea to crowdsource the office design. some quick ideas that I’ll toss out:

* read peopleware — it suggests some innovative ways to provide a collaborative environment and quiet spaces in the same space — sometimes you don’t need to create separate booths to give people quiet — you just need cultural processes that’ll do the same. For example, if someone affixes a red flag to the top of his monitor and puts on headphones, it means “i’m in crunch — don’t bother me unless it’s really critical.”

* think about how to centralize services and amenities so that people are forced to mix and come together. put the water cooler, the coffee machine, the print machine, and so on all in a central location so that people will have to get together. I think Pixar did something like this with their office design.

* provide one or more rooms/pods that people can use to take a nap. I believe the research on the benefit of the midday nap is pretty conclusive: these are good for us.

* think about hot-desking every desk. put all desks on wheels so that teams can push them together (or apart) as project needs vary. heck, if all desks are really mobile, you could have a “quiet side” of the office … push your desk over there to do your individual contributor work, then push it back to the noisy / collaborative part of the office when you’re ready for that.

* think about standing desks for everyone. read this: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_19/b4177071221162.htm
http://twitter.com/jennifer Jen

Jen from Carrot here. We’re loving everyone’s input. Keep it coming!

@Bryce: A basketball hoop is already on the list. Thanks for your insight on the open floor plan. That’s what we have now and we love it.

@Vc: We love our chairs, but the hot-desking idea is definitely something worth exploring. And I personally love the flag idea, especially in such a social office environment.
http://www.ideapaint.com Stephanie

Enjoying the conversation and would love to help you guys incorporate as much collaborative wall space – IdeaPaint – into your design as possible! Reach out to me if you would like some ideas or to take advantage of our “end of the year” specials:)
http://itunes.com/sevensecondchance jim

oh! you absolutely need one of these: http://www.starmagic.com/Dart-Ball-Velcro.html

it will make every day bright.
Pingback: Help Carrot Creative #2 – Workstations - Office Snapshots
http://www.id29.com Doug Bartow

I would suggest hiring a professional interior designer/space planner/architect. It might not be as much fun from a social media standpoint, but you’ll get the space you want and need. Paying creative professionals to do their jobs is what makes America work.
http://www.carrotcreative.com Rianna

Doug,
We are talking to an architect right now and plan to have them incorporate the ideas we find here into our final designs. We would not dare do this on our own!

-Rianna
Pingback: Help Carrot Creative #3 – Reception/Common Areas/Kitchen - Office Snapshots

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