Office Fit-Out for Your Creative Agency: Let the Ideas Flow
When you're in the business of creativity, you can't afford to sit around and wait for inspiration. You need lots of good ideas and you need them now. One way to make this happen is to provide the best environment for you and your team to create in, and here are some ideas to get you started:
Use colours
Step away from the standard black-white-grey office fit-out. Add colours to stimulate your team's creative thinking and communication.
Researchers from the University of Munich and the University of Rochester discovered that people came up with more creative, imaginative ideas after looking at the colour green. Another study compared blue and red and found that participants who were surrounded by blue environmental cues came up with twice as many ideas as when they were exposed to red stimuli.
Make the most of the sunlight
Natural light helps regulate people's circadian rhythms. When you maximise exposure to natural light, the body knows when it's time to be awake and active and when it's time for a rest. To make sure your team has lots of creative energy during the day, install bigger windows or glass walls and plan your space with minimal obstructions to light penetration (but don't forget about the need to avoid glare directly on computer screens).
Encourage collaboration
In his book Jump Start Your Brain, professional innovator Doug Hall identifies diversity as one of the main factors that boost creativity. Working on ideas with other people and having a variety of different perspectives will increase your team's creative power exponentially.
The traditional office design where everyone sits at their desk doing their own work is not going to work for you. You need to create dedicated areas for your team to connect and discuss their ideas, whether in brainstorming sessions or informal conversation.
Have a variety of stimuli
Another part of Doug Hall's creativity formula is the need for stimuli, which is anything that can potentially help your brain make new connections. Stimuli can utilise all of the senses—sight, touch, smell, sound and taste.
Fit your creative spaces with comfortable furniture that is made in varying materials. Use different ways to capture and organise ideas—whiteboards, pin boards, screens, paper pads. When you're designing your office, make space for audio equipment. Also, having a kitchen in your office is not just a way to care for your employees; it makes it possible to stimulate your team's sense of taste.
For further ideas, contact a an office fitter from an establishment like William Waters Shop Fitters.