What Our Dancehall Office Furniture Looks Like
Pull up…
People often step into our creative design studio and ask “Did I just miss a party?”
That would be dope, but not quite. The tower of black speaker boxes is actually a modular storage and seating unit we designed and built for our space. And we’re designing affordable work stations next, also dancehall-inspired. Because, why not.
I have read about how design can impact office culture.
Open floor plans + ping pong tables in the board room = cool.
But what about how culture can impact office furniture design, and its positive impact on a creative team?
Must we look foreign to look innovative?
Close your eyes and think of a cool, innovative work space…Bean bags and neon tables probably come to mind. It’s the ‘techie’ work space of our dreams. But I don’t think that’s what our dream looks like.
Yes, Jamaica is known for bright colours (well, mostly just 3). But Caribbean recreational spaces are not all jungle gyms and ball pools. It’s the streets. Home to the bars, corner shops, playfields and dances. It’s where the music lives. It’s where we feel at home.
We wanted to use furniture to combine our love for the streets with what we love to do.
Using furniture as our narrative
I believe the dream office and the things in it should match our goals, the way we want to work and the people we want to attract.
We could just have easily have used filing cabinets or apple crates. But this design excited us. By experiencing the familiar energy of the iconic Jamaican Street Dance as a fixture of our design work space, our minds get leave the office while we’re working quietly in our chairs.
Loud furniture, not music
By the way, we don’t actually play loud music in the office. That would be distracting.
But our storage speakers do make a loud statement. They speak of the impact our people have on the world and all the great things that make us culturally spectacular and worth celebrating. They say being different requires independent thinking.
Want to see what else we’re thinking about? We’ll be showing more of what we do at @Listenminow on IG.
Who’s ‘We,’ anyway? We’re an animation and design partner for pioneering communicators and creators, who are using storytelling and technology to change the way their companies connect with their audience. To work with us on your next illustration, web design or animation or game, just click here. To chat more on Twitter, shout me @keniamattis. Thanks for reading!
