Spacing Out
Artists have always taken great care designing their work environment, knowing instinctively that what surrounds them can either dampen or whet their appetite for creativity. As a result, creative studios, desks, and drawing tables are known for ever-present music, stimulating views, vivid color schemes (or total lack of them), fanciful furniture, toys, fun-and-games spaces (I.P.A. and foosball, anyone?), meditative nooks, and therapeutic crannies.
If your work space is the polar opposite, we suggest you get with the program. There’s a work style revolution afoot and it’s winning converts all over the world — and not just with members of the so-called “creative class.” Acuity Insurance headquarters sports a Ferris wheel and a rock-climbing wall. Go Daddy employees tool around the office in go-karts and bicycles. Quicken Loans’ workers use scooters as they navigate a building known for harboring the world’s largest indoor, hanging water sculpture. Hyland Software’s campus features three diners, a volleyball court, and a Montessori-based daycare. Google-search “creative offices” and among other things, you’ll discover workplaces with fireplaces, indoor pools, treehouse meeting spaces, treadmills with desktops, firemen’s poles and slides that take people from one floor to another.
If all this inspires you to do something about your own work space, you don’t have to go crazy — or broke. Start with the simple things: music, a little more color, some meditation space, a few art objects, mood lighting, plants and other living things, and maybe a couple of adult toys (of the platonic variety). If you have the inclination, a hammock might be nice. A Ferris wheel? When your newly supercharged creative spirit starts putting money in the bank, go for it.
