Office design. Create a balanced workspace.

AuthorBurningham, Lucy
PositionFocus Office Planning

It's official-you're in business. You've hired the perfect team of employees, the tech guys installed the latest software on next year's PCs, and consultants helped craft a business plan made for success. But have you put enough thought, time and resources into one of the most significant aspects of your company? Whether you're opening the doors to a new business or continuing years of work, you should consider the importance of your office's design.

The typical office manager might ignore the details of an offices layout, color scheme and furnishings, assuming that "design" is something for offbeat boutique businesses or long-established corporations with money to blow on the frivolous. But what this practical penny-saver fails to recognize is that an office's design affects not only the productivity and happiness of employees, but helps define a company's image as much as a bold logo or mission statement.

Cari Junge, a senior interior designer at Salt Lake-based Gould Evans Associates and certified feng shui practitioner, notes that each industry requires its own image, which should be obvious in an office space. "The ideal office aesthetic is a visual extension of a market image and graphics package," she says. For example, a law office should represent professionalism, with clean lines but some amount of warmth--all visual representations of stability and order. On the other hand, an advertising agency should illustrate playfulness and creativity, a depiction of what the firm is capable of producing. "These attributes have become industry standards per market sector and tend to stand the test of time and climate," Junge says.

The challenge, either in creating a new office space or redesigning an old one, is to accurately portray the company's image without bowing too much to fads and trends that will be outdated too soon. After all, design is a financial investment and one that should be undertaken with longevity in mind.

Karen Cahoon, design director at CCG in Salt Lake City, says that long-term flexibility should also be an important consideration. "The average office tenant stays in one space for just three years," she says, "which means timeless design and flexibility are important. Furniture needs to be easy to move, inexpensive to install and sturdy."

Which brings up the most basic and influential concept in good design: functionality. No matter what you choose for your office space, each decision should take into account how...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT