It’s a studio not an office!

You may think its just semantics, but the difference is enormous. For creative teams, those truly creative and striving to push the limits of inspiration and innovation, environment is everything. Where you work, your space, is arguably as important as who you work with; I’d say it’s the same, your working environment should be a part of your creative team. I agree that real creatives can be creative anywhere, but this is more about where you “should” strive to be than where you “have” to be!

When you can walk into work and feel more creative the second you step in the door than the moments right before; it becomes more about creating than working. Imagine a place where you’d rather be than home and being paid to do what you love to do there; sounds a little like work, sounds more like a design utopia.

When Alex and I started nclud, we wanted to do more than just start a company. It was never really about being entrepreneurs, being our own boss or trying to strike it rich; it was about creating a place for creative talent that we ourselves couldn’t find but knew everyone wanted. The majority in this industry loves what they do but are discontent with where they do it; doesn’t that just sound wrong?

We knew from the beginning that our working environment was one of the most crucial elements to creating nclud. We knew right away what we needed; we needed a studio not an office. We had ideas of what that meant to us, some more superficial than others. We knew what we didn’t we want, we actually have a list; a list of things we knew if happened then the idea of nclud has gone with it. When a lot of organizations look for space, they crack open the old MBA books and do it by the numbers; what a terrible way to do anything interesting!

The logical thing to do is figure out what 5% to 10% of annual revenue is and assume that to be a starting point for annual rent affordability. You then determine square footage required based on the size of your current team and projected growth. Then you start looking at the map and determine what geographical regions provide the general size space you require at the price range you’ve determined. I know, I know, I am putting myself to sleep as well. The next thing you know, you are in a large office complex out in the suburbs and now referring to your location as the “metro area”. The point being, that this is such a programmatic way of going about it, you’ve focused more on the logic and have forgotten who your team is (and yes, lets call them ‘team’ and not ‘employees’; thank you) and even who you are!

Forget revenue; start by looking at who you are as an organization. We knew who we were, or who we wanted to be. We are a young group of creative talent; we strive on consuming inspiration anywhere we can find it and give that back to our clients who love us for it, and for who we are because of it. So, young and creative, we knew we had to be in the city, as close as we could get. Again, an arguable point, but it felt right to us and still feels right; being emerged in the dynamic and interesting nature of the people, the architecture and life that the city has. We picked our geographic region first. We then knew we needed a unique space, one with some of the creative superficial elements such as exposed brick, lofty atmosphere, hardwood and concrete floors (yeah, both!). We knew we wanted space, lots and lots of space; regardless of how big or small our team was. No two designers should be attempting creative feats when sitting shoulder to shoulder; everyone’s coffee cup deserves to have at least a two-foot free-range radius. So, done. Just get off your ass and scour the city looking for that unique gem and then we can start talking dollars and sense.

The point is simple, our space isn’t where we work, it is who we are. It isn’t our office; it is our creative design studio. In business, there are hundreds of places to invest your money to grow the business – the best places to start are with your team; and remember, make your space a member of the team; it sure as hell should be!

You are a design agency, act like one! You put so much time and attention into your portfolio because it is an extension of who you are as a designer; but think about your space in that same context. Do you need a city loft to be creative, absolutely not! You can be in the suburbs and you can be in a spare bedroom; but don’t be there for the wrong reasons and make your space an extension of your creativity.

We pride ourselves at nclud on not doing things by the book, but by doing what ultimately reflects who we are. We don’t anally care about revenue projections; we believe that if you create a place where talent can shine you can simply do great work and assume great things will happen. It’s just an assumption, but it works for us.

I love creative working spaces and get inspired as hell when I see people doing it right such as IndyHall and Happy Cog in Philly and even Protein Media here in my own backyard! I am also happy to announce that the fine folks at “This Ain’t No Disco” have recently featured nclud’s studio space in their portfolio of the best agency interiors in the world. If you haven’t seen our studio space check it out … spend some time on the site, it is a hell of an inspirational ride and really shows what creative spaces can do!

nclud, a creative web design agency