Happiness in the Workplace

Happiness is directly tied to productivity, therefore it is more important than given credit for. A rational man is less likely to leave a happy workplace for a hostile one even If it pays more. But the job of ensuring a happy work environment cannot entirely belong on the environment itself - it should be a collective effort from each and every member of the organization. Here are our top tips that you can follow to create a blissful work environment.

Look sharp
A bit of grooming never really hurt anyone. The better you dress, the fresher you look and the more confident and comfortable you feel. Taking care of your overall health and appearance, although seemingly painstaking, does make a difference to your overall performance. How people dress, and carry themselves speaks volumes about who they are. A neat and tidy get- up reflects meticulousness. And that makes a great impression. A few compliments from co-workers on your tie, or how much slimmer you look, don't hurt either.

The early bird sings the sweeter tune
Try to wake up at least an hour before setting out for the workplace. Spend some comfortable 'me' time. You can even spend a portion of that time working out, or taking a morning walk. This will help you show up at the workplace in a better mood and a better frame of mind.

Jazz up your desk
Keep the workplace as tidy as possible, as well as well ventilated. Play some soft music, some soothing smooth jazz or bebop (if allowed), the kind of music that won't distract you or make your surroundings inaudible to you. You are a part of the environment, and you share a part of the responsibility of making it a better place. The more you invest in making the workplace a happier one, the more involved you will feel.

Avoid negative people
It's best to casually avoid negative people when possible. Such people can be a source of undue stress, conflict and even at times an unwanted influence. They can lower your job satisfaction and may even lead to your losing productivity which will further reduce job satisfaction.

Throw in a smile
Informal communication in the workplace may not seem to do much to meet organizational objectives, but much of the internal culture of a company is built on informal interaction between employees. Try to be an easy person to approach and be around. Greet everyone with smiles when you walk into the workplace. Hang out with co-workers after-hours from time to time. One fun way to get to know them is might be to engage in group games, like charades, which may seem childish at first, but it is good to get away from being grown-ups all the time. Many people still prefer a properly recited salaam over a curt nod and a handshake. People tend to respect you a little more when you take care to greet them and engage them in small talk about how they are. Being able engage in small talk is a very important social skill one needs to learn to get along and get ahead. Taking care of little things, like holding doors open for a colleague or offering them seats can put you in a rather heightened place in their perspective.

How Reception Design is Becoming More Human

Reception areas are a building’s chance to make a lasting first impression on its visitors, and construe subtle messages about the companies that inhabit them. Not so long ago, this fact instigated glossy and imposing spaces, with heels clomping across a vast expanse of marble floor (with the sound echoing off the marble walls), but now they are a little more welcoming. Online fashion store ASOS’s entrance for example, is done out in reclaimed scaffold board and eclectic vintage furniture, with a bustling cafe to boot, while Rochdale Council’s new did away with the ominous reception desk altogether, opting for movable booths and so-called ‘floor-walkers’ to greet visitors instead of receptionists.

“Receptions have always been important because they’re the front door to your house,” says Suki Shocker, head of design at Hi Design, describing BBA reception at Wigmore St London. “What I’ve seen change is that they have become more human. Look back 10 years, and receptions were quite prestigious; they had the expensive materials and durability, but they were impersonal. They are used in a different way now.”

Hi Designs reception design for BBA is still impressive, but in a softer way. Working with a single-height space but aiming to create the illusion of depth, the firm drew inspiration from aviation with the reception desk being a cross section of a wing. The ceiling and walls form a series of angled and reflective surfaces that give the impression more space. Lights embedded in the bulk head and media wall creating a sense of drama and interest. Polished surfaces absorb light, giving the space its diffused glow.

“You’re always looking towards an illuminated space; there are no dark grey ceilings or downlit areas,” says Suki. “We still have the marble floors and mirror-backed glass, but there’s a human aspect. Visitors don’t want a cold space – it needs to be warm and welcoming."

To see more of BBA’s office space please click here.

Bangkok Blends Cinema & Luxury Hospitality

At Hi Design we love going to the cinema and who doesn't like a little luxury, so we are really excited by this concept. It reminds us of the early days of cinema when the occasion would be a glam and sophisticated affair.

The luxury cinema and lounge in downtown Bangkok opened to the public on June 7 and blends high-end hospitality, design and film to offer a customised entertainment experience.

It features two lounges, a celebrity green room and five sophisticated screening rooms ranging in size from 32 to 56 seats. 

Diego Gronda, managing and creative director of Rockwell Group Europe, commented: “We imagined a mix of lounge areas and screening rooms that are elegant and cozy, transporting guests into the home of a film star.

“For the screening rooms, we moved away from the traditional model where everyone sits in rows of conventional theater seats. There’s a special VIP cinema that offers a lot of flexibility.

“Guests can relax in a massage chair, on daybeds, or ‘home theatre’ style with their family, with a private mini bar at their fingertips.” 

We really think this concept should have a home in our home town (so we can design it and use it!) Who's with us?

Digital Library Wallpaper

We think this new product innovation that combines the world of mobile technology and office interior design is amazing. It’s a bookshelf called the Digital Library Wallpaper, which is an actual adhesive wallpaper that looks like a bookshelf filled with books specially chosen by the customer. The books can be read on the owner’s mobile or tablet devices by scanning the books QR codes.

The Digital Library Wallpaper combines technology and interior design. To create their own library wallpaper, people just need to log on to the Biblioteca Digitala site, pick out their favourite free titles and even add in a few photos and decorations to personalize their digital bookshelves. The books printed on the wallpaper include QR codes that allow users of the library to scan them and read the books on their mobile devices.

The digital library wallpaper does not take up any floor space and helps brighten up an unused wall in a waiting room or meeting room. It’s also perfect for book lovers who love technology and don’t have the floor space for a physical shelf.

When the new product launched, interior designers loved it so much and began joining in on the project by creating suggestions and interior design concepts that include the digital library wallpaper as a central piece. The digital library wallpaper not only promoted the use of mobile internet in people’s living rooms, but also helped the publishing industry by offering writers a new kind of platform to promote or sell their novels and works.

Creating the Perfect Picture Wall

Creating a montage of photos can be a bit tricky to figure out where to start and then how to balance the sizes and layout. We do it a lot for our clients and find the below guides are really effective. These creative ideas are a great resource to use to give you a starting point.  Once you get arranging, expand or tweak the layout to fit the photos you have.

Tips to create a photo display wall

- The centre of your photo display wall should be at eye level (between 60″ – 66″)

- Use similar frames or matting, or display all colour or all black & white photos

- Vary the frame sizes

- Introduce a focal point

- Mix it up – display photos as well as signs and other unique wall decor

- Before putting nails into the wall, layout all your pictures on the floor and move things around until your arrangement is exactly how you want it!  Then hang them one by one onto the wall

Is Your Open Office Noisy? Here are 7 fun noise-reducing ideas

Open offices have proved a beneficial strategy to improve collaboration and innovation and are unlikely to disappear. But the effectiveness of an open office is not absolute for every employee. Rather than designing to the lowest common denominator, tweaks in office furniture and design can turn any space into an employee’s comfort zone.

Noise distractions are one of the biggest drains on productivity in today’s open office. However, reducing office noise doesn’t have to mean quashing the creative open-office vibe by throwing up walls and separating people.

The furniture manufacturers who first invented the open office – creating a new world order for both introverts and extroverts – have responded to the noise issue with a variety of furniture solutions. Keilhauer Talk and BuzziHub offer semi-private lounge groupings without the cost of building hard walls.

Want to work alone? Vitra’s Workbay is like an old-fashioned study carrel made from thick polyester fleece. And although it may look like the hair-dryer chair your grandmother used at her salon, the privacy of the Massaud Lounge with canopy is worth the retro look. The canopy’s design helps reduce visual and audible distractions, and it comes with LED lighting and can even host mobile devices.

What happens in the open office when you need to make that private phone call? There are several stand-up phone booth options like Era’s Nautilus. This freestanding unit with striking, large horizontal stripes can be easily placed anywhere.

OFS makes a more architectural statement with its Jux Group Refuge. This giant wooden box creates a private enclave with different options for individual or collaborative work.

Offecct makes several acoustical products, including sound absorbent wall panels in a variety of patterns and colors (even hot pink). They can be mounted directly to a wall to make bold visual patterns and textures, and there’s even a wall planter insert. Or try hanging acoustical baffles such as Sound Silencer or thick industrial felt panels from the ceiling to create a sculptural element.

Want to reduce noise and divide a room? BuzziBlind looks like giant freestanding vertical blinds, and Offecct makes a couple simple freestanding screens like Soundwaver.

While most of these strategies concentrate on sound-attenuation and individualized space, on the other end of spectrum is music. Believe it or not, allowing employees to be the DJ through overhead music sound systems helps establish a company culture. Sure, people may not like every song that is played, but creating an eclectic and employee-driven playlist establishes an energy that can build camaraderie and drive productivity. It can also break the deafening silence that more sterile spaces produce. 

Try setting some general music category suggestions, like classical or acoustic in the morning and mid-tempo music in the afternoon — then let them loose after 4 p.m.

Admittedly, not every office will have the personality to pull off some of these ideas. If not, managers can still bring some control to the open space by investing in good sound-maskingtechnology. 

Also called white noise, sound masking is actually quite effective at reducing ambient noise by emitting a sound spectrum that covers noise over 15-20 feet away. Unlike noise produced by mechanical systems that produce an uneven sound spectrum, sound-masking systems can be automated to adjust to changing noise levels and designed to respond to specific acoustical qualities of a space.

10 Bizarre Objects Found in 'Cool' Offices

As we continue to work with an ever growing range of clients we are excited that we are being asked to design more creative and imaginative offices. Companies, particularly in the creative or tech industries, are desiring offices that look more like adult playgrounds than a place of work, in the hope that it will make their employees more creative.

It's a trend that started in the US, with basketball hoops and jelly bean machines cropping up in creative offices. Having a fun environment, they believe, will help spark conversations and collaboration, encourage people to be playful and, crucially, generate great ideas. It will also impress clients and help with talent retention and recruitment.

Google recently released early design plans for its new UK headquarters in King's Cross that included a climbing wall between floors, a swimming pool and a running track on the roof. It withdrew the plans shortly after, saying it wanted to challenge itself to be even more ambitious.

With that in mind here are our top 10 ‘cool’ design ideas from the UK.

Woodland retreat (BBA AVIATION)

BBA Aviation’s head quarters situated on Wigmore Street London provide specialist on-airport support services to the owners and operators of business and commercial aircraft. When Hi Design created the new offices the goal was to create a woodland breakout oasis in the middle central London. With the clever use of graphic wallpaper, wood finishes and glass paneling Suki Shocker of Hi Design provided staff a place to relax with nature and feel refreshed after a not so inner city lunch break.

A slide (Ticketmaster)

Earlier this year, US firm Ticketmaster opened the doors to its new overseas head office in London. The ticket sales company designed the office to prioritise socialising. Its standout feature is a metal slide that staff can take to reach the bar area, where table football, a jukebox and pinball machines await.

Playfulness is a vital part of creativity, says Matt Kingdon, co-founder of an innovation consultancy that styles itself ?What If! and author of The Science of Serendipity. But he adds "the way to trigger this is not an indoor slide. It is much better to create a space or opportunities that encourage colleagues and different teams to bump into each other. This is more likely to trigger thinking that challenges the status quo."

But Bridges says the impact of a playful environment can be helpful: "If a space gives you permission to have fun and enjoy yourself, that is more likely to make you creative than a stiff formal situation."

Disco tunnel (Karmarama)

Coming into work through a "disco tunnel" might be calculated to dissipate Monday morning blues. Advertising agency Karmarama also has a collection of strange objects inside its offices including a huge red Buddha, a VW camper van and a life-sized plastic llama.

A recent study at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota suggests that these wacky offices could help people be creative as researchers. It found that people working in orderly environments were more likely to conform to expected behaviours.

One of the report's authors, assistant professor of marketing Joe Redden, says, "Our work supports the notion that funky offices aid creativity. The key idea is that a non-conventional office supports non-conventional thinking. One of the challenges in being creative is to break out beyond the typical way of thinking... A less organised office helps people do this."

There is a scientific excuse for a messy desk after all.

Grass floor not a glass ceiling (Innocent Drinks)

The entire office floor at Innocent is made of fake grass, even under the desks. The main kitchen area is filled with natural light, bunting and benches for people to sit together. There is also a cosy reading corner with a selection of books.

Innocent's environment manager Charlie Heavey says that while there are tea stations on every floor, "there is only one kitchen area so everyone has the opportunity to mix with everyone else - we were very particular about the layout of the building because we wanted to encourage interaction".

Picnic benches - Duke Studios

Like Innocent Drinks, Leeds-based Duke Studios has an outdoors feel to its interior. The co-working space was founded by a photographer and interior designer who disliked other office spaces offered in the city. Inspired by Google and Pixar, they created their dream office last year, which now houses 42 small creative businesses. The pair made the office open-plan to ensure people spoke to each other, and have a strict application process to maintain its open culture.

"The benefit of talking to other people is that you are exposed to ideas you wouldn't otherwise have come across," says co-founder James Abbott-Donnelly. "Networking with other people requires extra effort, and that doesn't come naturally to most people. We have engineered a space where people will meet each other in an informal way without the need for name badges and handshakes."

An indoor sky (Virgin Money)

Virgin Money's Edinburgh operation centre has an eye-catching sky painted on its ceiling. The new layout secured an award from the British Council for Offices.

The theory is that staring up at the clouds is likely to have a beneficial effect on creativity. Bridges says that to be really creative, a person needs to use their unconscious mind to work on a problem.

A wooden treehouse (Mind Candy)

Mind Candy, the company behind children's game Moshi Monsters, has an office that encourages employees to think like its customers. It is based at the Silicon Roundabout at London's Old Street and has a wooden treehouse and gingerbread house as meeting rooms, a colouring-in wall and quiet areas that look like hobbit holes.

Thinking like a child can aid creativity because it means people question the norm, says Now Go Create's founder Claire Bridges, who advises companies like Pret A Manger on how to be more creative. "Much of creativity is about risk-taking and pushing boundaries. A child will always ask 'why' and this mindset can be helpful when coming up with original ideas," she says.

A padded cell (Wieden + Kennedy)

 Ever felt so frustrated at work that you want to scream? Employees at advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy have a green leather padded cell at their disposal. MD Neil Christie says the cell was installed after someone told his creative director Tony Davidson, "The way you carry on, you should be in a padded cell." Workers there suggest that as well as being an offbeat fixture, it also turned out to have great acoustics for conference calls.

One huge desk (Mother London)

There are no teacher's pets at advertising agency Mother. Every member of the agency sits at the same huge concrete desk that spreads throughout its space in Shoreditch's Tea Building.

This helps staff to talk to each other and removes hierarchies.

Kingdon says that being exposed to unusual or unanticipated thoughts can help increase creativity, particularly ideas that might not initially sound particularly sensible. "Bumping into someone that you haven't seen for a while is one of the best ways of colliding different strands of thinking," he says.

Beach huts (Man Bites Dog)

PR agency Man Bites Dog has been inspired by its Brighton location. Its office has a full-length indoor pier, its meeting rooms are beach huts and one of them is decorated to look like a forest.

Managing director Claire Mason says it would be easy to dismiss the decor as a gimmick, but argues: "If we look at hard performance measures such as staff retention, engagement, productivity, quality of work and team satisfaction with their workplace, then it's a clear winner."