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I am always so interested in beautiful and inspired commercial/ corporate/ workplace design. Maybe because I’ve done so much of it over the years, and perhaps because it is in this discipline where I notice a real gap and a lack within our industry. Good commercial designs are few and far between, unlike residential, retail and hospitality interiors. So why is it so?

Is it because commercial design is too restricted by the budget and function in comparison to other sectors? I’ve seen many brilliant designs come out of tight budgets – this is precisely when a designer needs to be ultra creative, as he or she is not able to rely on those things that a generous budget can afford such as interesting finishes, amazing furniture, tricky lighting, creative consultants, artworks etc. This is true for good design in any genre. As for the function, I honestly don’t see how commercial design has a function that is more restrictive that that of a fine dining restaurant, a hotel or even some retail spaces. Am I right?

So what else could it be? Is it those quick turnaround times? I’ve personally worked on a project where I was engaged by a client 4 weeks before they had to move into their new tenancy. {And just for the record, I am NOT doing that shit again!} I was lucky to have had a great relationship with my client and also the head contractor {and still do!} but the process was extremely stressful to say the least. However, the end result was really successful, despite the super tiny budget {talk about a winning combo – no time or money. Oh boy! Again, refer previous comment in brackets}. I’m sure that fit outs in other sectors would have to be done just as quickly at times. I’m thinking of retail here specifically.

So what else…? Do most ‘good designers’ end up specializing in non-commercial sector? Maybe so, I don’t really know. They might be thinking – screw commercial interiors, it’s too hard/ boring, those type of clients don’t get it, the budgets are crap, etc. Am I right? I don’t want to necessarily be right by the way, I’m just trying to work this out by “talking” out loud and hopefully hear some of your thoughts. Which bring me to my next point – what is a good designer anyway? I wrote a little post back when I first started this blog which was about the similarities between Designers and Personal Trainers, and this idea that good designers’ role is to extend their client, much like a personal trainer does for their clients. Designers simply cannot rely on a “perfect client/ brief/ budget/ type of project”. We have to create our own opportunities by taking responsibility for every project. And I am not talking here about over the top try-hard commercial design, cause there’s plenty of that going on already. Seriously – why are some commercial interiors {particularly for advertising agencies or more creative businesses} so OTT and completely irrelevant? If you wouldn’t want to live there, why would you want to spend upwards of 8 hours working there? I just don’t get it.

Oh boy, what has started as a little post about a beautiful workplace project I wanted to share with you has turned into a massive rant. So I’ve decided to just go with the rant this time and I’ll show you that project on another occasion. In the meantime, I would absolutely love to hear what you guys think, regardless of whether you are a professional designer or not.

x dana

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{collage of images from yellowtrace image library}