Design and Plan Your Office for Collaboration and Inspiration

Design and Plan Your Office for Collaboration and Inspiration AIS Calibrate Table

Elevate your office from the mundane to a setting that generates collaboration and inspires your team to do their best. The thought invested in planning spaces, choosing the right furnishings, and using color schemes that matter keep morale high and your employees working at peak efficiency. 

Tech companies around Los Angeles are known for breaking out of the traditional gray and brown industrial colors to use shades that represent the sun and surf.

Companies that have a break-the-mold business model such as The Honest Company, founded by actress Jessica Alba, maximize light and use sleek-looking architectural walls to frame meeting areas. 

Symbols also create unique experiences. At Red Bull’s headquarters in Santa Monica, a 420-foot skate ramp flows over storage spaces down the center of the office.

Read on for ideas that will perk up your office’s design, make the best use of your existing space, and boost goodwill among your employees.

Getting Started

Look at your goals and budget, then choose the need that best describes your situation:

  • freshening up your office
  • overhauling an existing space
  • planning a brand-new interior 

Consider what you want the end result to achieve, like creating more common spaces for office collaboration or deciding how to get the most from your current floor plan.

Look at your overall use of space, color, and light. Set the tone for the atmosphere or vibe by considering your company’s brand. Are the promises you make to customers carried into your office setting?

Plenty of options exist to give both small businesses and corporations vibrant settings that become valuable places for employees.


Photo: Arcadia Domo Lounge Chairs

You may want a minimalist design with clean lines and plenty of natural interiors, also called the Scandinavian office.


Photo: Stylex NYC Loose Lounge Sofa

A minimalist interior can also come in an industrial flair like the Modern Industrial Office using a brick- and-mortar approach. Or try a modern look with bold colors and eye-catching designs.


Photo: Source International Scape Lounge Sofa

Get Smart with Ergonomics 

Make your environment and equipment work in support of your team and their overall office collaboration – so they are more efficient while staying as healthy as possible both physically and mentally. 

Ergonomics is more than having a height-adjustable desk so a keyboard and laptop monitor are at the right height.


Photo: OFS Aptos Private Office Desk

Accessories are important but investing in furniture, lighting, and colors helps the overall environment by assisting the workers and boosting morale. You promote productivity, profitability, and goodwill among your team members.

Seating

Select chairs that are designed for long-term comfort and well-being so that team members can fully engage in their tasks. A quality ergonomic chair is sensitive to the user’s body weight and shifts effortlessly as the person moves.

Look into the 9 to 5 Seating Agent Chair for durability; the mesh technology in the Humanscale Diffrient World Chair; and the OFS InSync chair that’s customizable. 

Sitting for long periods of time stresses the body so use chairs that support different body shapes.

Desks and Workstations

Desks that aren’t chosen properly can make a room feel crowded and make the user uncomfortable. Decide how much surface space is needed and how the person likes to do their work, such as spreading out and then gathering things when finished with tasks.

Some desks will convey authority or fit in with the surrounding décor regardless of title and position.

Open plan benching and modular workstations accommodate teams performing similar tasks while creating personal boundaries. Use configurations that work the best for your area. 


Photo: Friant System 2 Workstation

Need face-to-face with privacy screens and mobile storage? 

How about clustering people in a group for easy sharing of ideas?

Your options are highly customizable. You can shape your setting in numerous ways and choose from colors that complement your office surroundings.

Movement

Allow for as much movement as possible in the office.  This is important especially to promote office collaboration and office wellness. Encourage stretch breaks every couple of hours. Provide lounge furniture and break areas inside or outside where your employees can sit comfortably to work away from their desks, have a focused discussion, or just take a quiet moment.

Moving keeps blood circulating and eases pressure on the lower back, wrists, and knees.

Design and Plan Your Office for Collaboration and Inspiration Arcadia Domo Bench
Photo: Arcadia Domo Bench Seating

Colors and Light

There is a science to choosing colors that inspire or soothe to create a pleasant background. Just for kicks, here’s a fun experiment from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Cal Tech in Pasadena showing how beads seem to change colors under different shades of cellophane. Different shades affect moods and emotions.

Aristotle believed all color was either black or white and related them to the elements of water, air, earth, and fire as described by the Smithsonian Libraries. His views were held for 2000 years until Isaac Newton studied how light changed when passing through a prism.

Now, let’s hear it for sunshine. Bringing in as much natural light as possible keeps people upbeat and emotionally sound.

Knowing the result you want from your office environment, using the right equipment, and planning for an overall pleasing atmosphere will help your place of work become a desirable destination.  If done correctly, you will see obvious improvement in quality of work, team camaraderie, office collaborations and overall employee wellness. 

Koncept Splitty Lamp for Office Collaboration
Photo: Koncept Lighting Splitty Lamps

Call on 2010 Office Furniture

Planning an office that works for your firm requires a custom approach. Do you need a hybrid model with work-at-home solutions? How will your plan support flow of information and tasks?  Is it conducive to good office collaboration?

The team at 2010 Office Furniture has more than 50 years of combined experience working with clientele that are among Southern California’s most notable corporations, leading universities, and small businesses in all industries. 

Contact them with your office needs and questions.

Read Also: 3 Popular Office Layouts to Meet Your Office Culture
Main Photo: AIS Conference Table
Resources & Special Thanks to Respective Product Manufacturers: AIS, Arcadia, Friant, Koncept, OFS Brands, Stylex and Source International

Design Your Office Space for Residential Comfort and Professional Results

Design Your Office Space for Residential Comfort and Professional Results

An office is a place to tackle your work, and the office environment impacts how well you’ll do your job. This is important to note when you design your office space. The trend in resimercial design is a way of making employees feel comfortable, boosting their creativity and creating an environment to increase productivity.

But how do you know a new design can work?

Let’s look at the science behind the merging of commercial and residential design.

Look around your office and what do you notice?

How much natural light flows through the space? What colors are used?

These elements have been proven to be important in different ways when you design your office space.

In the mid-1980s, a researcher, Roger Ulrich, wanted to see if there was a relationship between the environment in health facilities and patient well-being. He was exploring if beauty, including the design and mood, affected emotional well-being and physiological stress.

He separated participants in two groups with some participants staying on one floor of the hospital and the other participants staying on another floor. One group looked outside their room and saw trees while the others had windows facing a brick wall.

Patients who saw the trees and not the wall needed fewer medications and reported a greater feeling of well-being than those who had the brick wall for their view.

Various elements in your surroundings will impact mood and energy levels.

Design Your Office with Colors

Colors play a key role when you design your office space.  There’s subjective opinion about which colors affects moods, but there are also universally accepted colors. Blue is one of the most popular colors around the world. So if you have an office with a diverse cultural mix, then blue can be a unifying color.

The London Image Institute provides a useful color chart and describes the emotions that the colors evoke. Blue is the color of trust, serenity and peace, while green evokes harmony and nature. Red is associated with emotions ranging from love to anger.

Photo: Friant Dash Workstation Table

Design Your Office with Lighting

Lighting is key in both corporate and home offices.

In a garment factory, improved lighting led to a 10% increase in production and one-third fewer errors. When you design your office space, let your team have as much access as possible to natural light. Lamps and other lights at workstations should have their light focused properly so there’s no glare or feedback.

Another benefit of letting natural light flow throughout the workspace is that it actually helps people sleep better at night.


Photo: OFS Tangent Lounge

Design Your Office with Layout and Movement

At home, rooms or areas are clearly designated for specific purposes. A kitchen has an obvious purpose and so does a bedroom. Some rooms don’t have clearly defined purposes. There are dining spaces but not as many formal dining rooms as there once were. And in today’s world, living rooms and family rooms blur in their use as well.

The home office is for doing work, especially if an employee is using the space to work remotely.

Yet, we also move naturally from one room to another depending on what we need. You can take calls in the office portion, but you may feel more comfortable sitting on the sofa while reading a report.

Traditionally, in an office setting you’re expected to sit and work at a desk for several hours a day. You do your work in one place and you remain stationary except for eating lunch and taking restroom breaks.

An office setting can be planned to have home-like qualities so that the environment is inviting and motivates people to do their best.


Photo: Friant My-HiteWorkstation, Allermuir Kin Chairs and Source International Laze Chair

When you design your office space, Consider the Abstract Modern Office with a variety of bold colors. Everything from a touch of mid-century modern to the newest décor can fit with this design. This is great for playful brands and companies that want to infuse a touch of energy.

More subdued colors are possible, too, even in an office that has open benching and cubicles since modular furniture comes in a variety of colors.

Layout options are flexible. Consider having workstations for each department in one area while lounge seating is available in a central area. Or, depending on the office size, there can be a lounge area in a central space like the hub and workstations on the perimeter.


Photo: HON Empower Height Adjustable Workstations

If you’re going to re-design your office or make substantial improvements, then let employees know and ask for their feedback since they’re the ones being affected.

Architect Donald Rattner, author of “My Creative Space: How to Design Your Home to Stimulate Ideas and Spark Innovation,” says address issues of durability and safety. Use products that have the residential appeal but are made with commercial manufacturing standards.

Let 2010 Office Furniture Help

Get your questions about office space planning and layouts answered by 2010 Office Furniture. The team has more than 50 years of combined experience, serving corporations, universities, and growing enterprises throughout Southern California.

Contact them with questions about your potential projects.

Read Also: Resimercial Office Furniture
Main Photo: OFS Ani Soft Seating
Resources & Special Thanks to Respective Product Manufacturers: Allermuir, Friant, HON, OFS & Source International 

Essentials for the Corporate and Home Office Spaces

Essentials for the Corporate and Home Office Spaces

Employees working remotely are no longer an exception.  In the aftermath of Covid-19, companies have learned to accept employees working from both corporate and home office spaces, as well as other remote places.

The corporate office is still necessary. Goals that fulfill the mission of the company begin in a central location and move outward, like spokes from the center of a bicycle wheel.

The main office, home offices, and third spaces like coffee shops and co-working sites all serve a specific purpose and fulfill a need.

What is essential for a company’s primary office and remote locations to function well?

Start with clear goals.

Office Essentials: The Goal

Companies are in business because they sell products or provide services that customers either need or want. Simple. Nonprofit organizations offer programs to meet community needs.

When the goals are clear, workers know what’s expected of them.

Office environments exist to provide a number of functions that range from designing and producing the products or tracking the services that are provided.

An office supports the work through a layout that promotes an efficient flow of work with equipment ranging from workstations to modems and printers.

A key element in a successful corporate and home office design is that the environment is planned and designed to support the workers so they can readily complete their tasks.

Reaching the Goal: Mission and Vision

Companies with clear missions and a vision on moving forward have a subtle, but clear advantage over competitors. There’s a framework that guides decisions on everything from improving operations to engaging in new marketing opportunities.

Office morale also impacts business. Although it’s intangible, lack of morale is evident in employee listlessness or a resignation to doing a job. An office design can help boost the overall morale by providing a pleasant atmosphere with pleasing colors and comfortable fabrics.

People today seek community, and companies that offer a flexible community where talent is respected will operate with a higher degree of morale and productivity than those who see their employees as commodities.

Office planning and design lays the foundation for bringing workers together.

Supportive Environments

There’s not one specific type of corporate and home office setting that works best. People can adapt to their surroundings, but you’ll do well to draw from your brand and the image you give to customers. Develop a supportive environment based on design.

Design for Corporate and Home Office Spaces

The Office Inspirations page of the 2010 Office Furniture website offers a look at the style that fits different personalities.

Does a minimalist approach reflect your operations? If so, then check the Modern Industrial office. This works especially for companies that operate without much of a hierarchy.


Photo: Senator Group Pailo Workstation


Photo: SitOnIt Sona Chair

This is a look that Google has used in the office it opened in Pittsburgh, keeping a brick wall and elements that pay heritage to the industrial past of the area.

If your office is in or near an urban village setting like Old Town Pasadena or Westwood, then consider the Upbeat Contemporary office.


Photo: Allermuir Famiglia Chair

Colors and the styles of workstations have a psychological impact, even if it’s subtle. This sets the tone.

Think of it this way:

  • How well does your equipment work?
  • Is it newer or older?
  • Do your chairs and workstations adequately flex to your workers’ shapes or do people have to adjust to the equipment?
  • Is there plenty of natural light flowing through the area or is it relatively dark?
  • Is there a soothing and pleasant color scheme throughout or are the walls an older basic color?

A home office can have minimal standards, too. Quality desking, ergonomic chairs and adequate lighting are the basics.

Establish a positive tone in both the corporate and home office to signal your care and concern for the team.

Use Quality, Ergonomic Equipment for Corporate and Home Office Spaces

Sitting at a desk isn’t a passive activity. Gravity normally exerts pressure on the neck and shoulders, but the muscles are further aggravated by leaning forward for long periods of time.

And pay attention to the chairs that your team needs. Sitting at awkward angles constricts circulation in addition to stressing the body.

Ergonomic chairs will support a person’s shape and natural movements to ease joint strains. Additionally, height adjustable desks keep a laptop and monitor at eye level to limit the amount of leaning forward. Remember the importance of good lighting to reduce the risk of eye strain.


Photo: Deskmakers Ascend Height Adjustable Desk

Essential Office Protections

Extend the atmosphere of well-being by installing simple protective screens. These can be partitions between desks and work stations that also offer privacy, like the Loftwell Split Space Divider or the Enwork Freestanding Screen.

Counter shields and desktop shields also offer protection so your team can work in the corporate office with confidence.


Photo: Loftwall Desk Shield and Split, Allermuir Famiglia

Get Expert Advice on Corporate and Home Office Spaces

Let the team at 2010 Office Furniture know about your office planning and furnishing needs. They have more than 50 years of combined experience helping Southern California’s most distinguished companies.

Contact them with a phone call or email.

Read Also: Repurpose Your Office Space for the Post-Covid Work World
Main Photo: Source International Fjord Multi-Use Chair
Resources & Special Thanks to Respective Product Manufacturers: Allermuir, Deskmakers, Loftwall, Senator Group, SitOnIt Seating& Source International