Our New Office - Interview with Jarrod Wicks

I haven’t yet seen the new office, tell me about it?
The new office is great! We opted for an open-plan layout to foster communication and collaboration, and there is certainly an excellent team spirit as a result.
It’s also in a great spot – nothing beats drinks by the river in summer.

How did you know it was time to upgrade?
We knew it was time when sardines started to tell us we were too packed in!  Sorry, I make terrible dad jokes.

Is the project complete?
We perhaps took the notion of “open-plan” a little too far, as there are no internal walls whatsoever!
This will change though with plans for a boardroom and a quiet space.  Perhaps also a shower as we have a number of keen cyclists. Like most small businesses, our continual growth and development is a work in progress.

Where did you find the inspiration for design?
Being engineers and not interior designers, we naturally decided that we could design a fit out just as well as anyone else.  We choose not to ask an actual designer what they think of the result…

Which was the most debated matter and how did you find a conclusion?
Just about everything that could be debated was debated.  Office layout, desk shape (corner vs. straight), colour schemes, office dog, bean bags, you name it.
However, staff polling allowed us to make the majority of decisions quite comfortably in the end.

What did you learn through this process that you wouldn’t have otherwise?
To strike commercial interior designer off my list of back-up careers.

Interview by: Jarrod Wicks (Associate)