Observer's book of creatives

FOUNDER,

DINOSAUR

Right. If we got our clichés handbook out, and looked up ‘creative workspace’, ‘stimulating’ and ‘inspiring’ would be sat proudly at the top of the page.

Maybe there’d be a shot of two guys wearing indoor scarves, racking up another game of pool. But we’re creatives. We hate clichés. We all want to be different, be admired for our originality. Which means there are no rules, no set guidelines. What works for one agency, will sound horrific to the next. Like Mother’s 300ft communal desk. Yes I’m an advocate of the open plan office environment, but maybe that’s going a bit far (about 290ft by my reckoning).

I can see where they’re coming from though. One team one brain and all that. I’m certainly not a fan of creatives hiding away in their own little bubble. After all, we have to remember that we’re running commercial operation here and communication and collaboration between the creative and account teams is key.

That’s how we do it here at Dinosaur. Open-plan. Which, when you put it like that, makes everything seem cold, stark and boring. Until you mention our Hilda Ogden-style flying terradactyls, life-sized plastic rottweiler and wall-mounted deer’s head. All of which have been bought, found and salvaged by various staff members over the years. Yeah, it’s a bizarre collection.

But it works for us.

COLIN REEVES

CREATIVE DIRECTOR,

REEVES GREEN

Never mind the Playstation. What’s really essential is that the boss, arms folded, stands over the hapless designer from dawn to dusk . It’s just wonderful for productivity! See how grim and focused Kate is…but is her ‘mouse’ hand straying to towards that Troll?

Here, you can clearly see the icons of a good creative workspace:

Environmental control: ‘back to the future’ retro Anglepoise light for inspiration. Fan turned directly towards boss to keep him cool.

Wellbeing: fresh fruit and spring water at hand... though coffee cup standing by for that 4pm caffeine hit.

Voodoo account winning equipment: lucky troll. Sometimes your only hope to defeat the ‘Pigs Might Fly’ syndrome when spending 2 days filling in a PQQ that doesn’t even ask about your skills, then competing with an undefined number of other agencies, only to find that it was 50.

Ergonomic adjustable chair: Essential when you’re pregnant (Kate has just had a lovely baby girl) and still pretty important when the work’s piling in despite the recession!

CRAIG BUZZEL

CREATIVE DIRECTOR,

BIG COMMUNICATIONS

I think it’s less about the physical environment and more about the people working on a job that help make good ideas happen.

A department with talented, genuinely nice, good-humoured people will be able to produce the goods no matter what their office space is like – they help create the environment that encourages ideas and creative thinking. In any case, mostly you seem to get your best thoughts when you’re away from the very place you’ve set up to be your “idea-generating zone”. I find the bath’s pretty good. And there’s always the toilet.

Here it’s probably a rather normal-looking office. A desk, some chairs, some general untidiness and always some tea on (strong, milk, no sugar, thanks team). But I think that’s a good thing, because it’s the work that should be the thing that’s interesting, adventurous, challenging, etc. It’s all very well having a well-cool environment, but, for me, the work should always be cooler than your office. No amount of pool tables and Playstations are going to help you write your next commercial. (Prefer “vital research on the Internet” as my skive anyway.)

Right, next brief in; I’m off for a bath with an account exec.

WINI TSE

CREATIVE DIRECTOR (IN THE 'GEEK' T-SHIRT),

CODE COMPUTERLOVE

What Paul has done is capture the kind of moment that happens a lot at Code. We really do huddle around a screen like a group of excited kids when we see something ace – whether it’s a great piece of work, a funny bit of viral – or when someone finds something really cool like tribute sites to Chuck Norris!

We moved into this office a couple of years ago and we quite deliberately kept things open plan – we didn’t section off our creative team from our technical team, our client services department, our planners and our media people because it’s far better to have them being able to collaborate.

That stems all the way up to us as directors. We don’t lock ourselves away in offices of our own. I think it’s important being on the battlefield, sharing our ideas and actively getting involved.

Yes we have games in a the office but we’re not as much of a cliché as you would imagine; the guys did just buy Tony, Louis and me a Wii for Christmas but to be honest I don’t think I’ve seen it used yet. We try and do most of our R&R outside of the office, down the pub or on the various nights out that get arranged.