Updated: Nov 5, 2021
Innovative's Office Redesign
Admist the chaos of a global pandemic, Innovative Marketing Solutions decided to take on a drastic redesign of their world headquarters in Schaumburg, Illinois. With over 50 years of collective experience designing displays for the retail industry, we wanted to utilize the skills of our in-house design team as well as our project management and procurement teams to help our vision for our space stay on track, on time, and on budget.
As a company, it was imperative that we were heavily involved in the design of our space as it should reflect how we work: our constant collaboration, our dedication to work-life balance (we work hard, we play hard!), and our attention to detail.
We wanted a space that was welcoming, timeless, and most importantly, we wanted it to be inherently obvious you were walking into a company that knows design when you walked through our doors.
The Design Process
For our project, we partnered with TW Chicago (General Contractor) and Ware Malcomb (Architect) to help bring our vision to life. While there were many design challenges to be considered, the largest one was how to add architectural interest to a run-of-the-mill and dated office that at one point had been a call center with cubicles as far as the eye could see. We had done some updates over the years in furniture and paint, and the space was comfortable but we had yet to tap into the full potential of our space.
After collaborating internally, utilizing companywide surveys regarding the wants and needs of all of our team members as well as generating mood boards and many different floorplans- we got to work!
First impressions matter, and we decided that the “biggest bang for our buck” was to raise our lobby and kitchen ceiling from 10’ to 25’ feet as the first step to creating an impact on our space and our visitors. This new ceiling height made the space seem bigger and allowed us to design our lobby and kitchen/dining area into a multi-use flex space for informal meetings & parties.
Because the rest of the office’s ceiling height was staying as is - we had to find a way to unify the ceiling heights so that the change seemed harmonious and unforced. We decided to design an indoor pergola and slat wall architectural feature supported by a large beam with soft uplighting. This provided balance for the ceiling height shifts, added a little separation to the very open floor plan, and also created some rhythm and movement to our space. We bumped up the personality of the entrance by adding glossy white dimensional panels to the feature wall in our lobby along with matching wall texture in the main conference room. We also repeated the slat wall feature in the “back of the house” around both our display showroom and our engineering departments.
Openness and transparency are important to us, so our formal conference room needed to reflect that. Cue another sledgehammered wall! We glassed-in our entire conference room and installed mid-century modern-inspired furniture and lighting. The functionality of this room is just as important as the aesthetic, so we made sure our new layout would accommodate our entire team and added a state-of-the-art presentation tv/monitor for seamless communication for both in-house and remote meetings. We chose to paint our presentation wall black to make sure that that the idea on the screen takes center stage when we are presenting our designs. We chose a black floor covering with an understated texture and pattern that would hold up over tastes and time.
To make our space reflect Innovative's culture, we next focused on environmental branding. On the main wall of the lobby, we designed dimensional lettering and signage to announce our brand to our visitors. We added the vinyl lettering and floating shelves to present our awards prominently but uniformly next to our conference room. For our Creative Department, we designed a wall-to-wall custom terra canvas mural, produced and installed by Moss Inc. It was also important for us to highlight mission as a company, so we created the "Power Wall" at the end of our long hallway near the lobby. This wall features a tone-on-tone paint-and-vinyl graphic activation with a generous pop of Innovative Red.
THE RESULTS
