L.A. Advertising Agency's Office Encourages Creative Collaboration

If there's one best place to look for the cutting edge in commercial real estate design, it may be the advertising industry — a collaborative, competitive and creative business in which appearances matter.

Los Angeles-based ELA, whose big clients include TikTok, Disney, PepsiCo and Western Digital, opened its newest office in September 2019 in Irvine, California.

Every inch of the 4,500-square-foot space was designed to showcase the agency's creative energy and dynamic culture, says Jaimelynn Shah, design director at global architecture firm Gensler, which led the project's design.

"ELA wanted the space to be not just functional, but also a place where people wanted to hang out while they worked," Shah says.

Creative Space Fosters Creative Collaboration

One objective when the office was designed was to accommodate the agency's "creatives" and its operations staff despite the two groups' very different work styles and needs.

The creatives, who outnumber the operational staff, landed in a living room-like space surrounded by a perimeter of individual, height-adjustable desks. A Pac-Man arcade game against one wall in this space is meant to contribute to the homey environment and encourage playfulness.

A frosted glass wall that divides the space can be written on for brainstorming and idea-sharing purposes. "In an open floor plan, part of the challenge is that fewer walls means less places to put things on the wall," says ELA CEO Andre Filip. "This [frosted glass wall] was not only a design element, but it's absolutely functional so we have another wall that people can write on."

An oversized, dual-sided production table, also in the creatives' space, may seem old-school, but is highly tactile and used to make physical things.

The ELA operations staff — including finance, legal and human resources departments — works in a separate space with slightly larger desks and two private offices: one for finance, the other for HR. A glass panel at the top of the wall between the two offices lets in light to soften the spaces and connect them to rest of the office.

Filip normally works in the Irvine office about once a week, though his full-time office is located in Los Angeles. Both locations are closed at the time of publishing due to the COVID-19 situation.

Room to Refresh and Regroup — Individually or Collaboratively

In addition to the employee workspaces, ELA's Irvine location also has a boardroom, huddle room, additional seating area and full kitchen.

"It's important to give people multiple spaces to refresh and regroup," Filip says. "We could have three people working here; five over here; and seven over there. It's not like the entire agency is meeting all at once. We have micro-conversations."

The boardroom doubles as a breakout space when it's not being used for large formal meetings or client presentations. The creatives also use the walls in this room to pin up printouts, mood boards, artwork and ideas for discussion.

Occupancy of this room and other spaces may be limited to fewer people when the office reopens after coronavirus-related shutdowns cease.

The huddle room, which is semi-hidden behind a barn door that can be closed, is a favorite with clients and creatives, Fillip says. It's used for private phone calls, small-group collaborations and solo work. There's also a marker board so the creatives can write on the wall there, too.

Filip says some clients prefer to meet in the huddle room because it's less formal than the boardroom.

The kitchen is fully outfitted with luxury appliances by ELA client Thermador. This room also serves multiple purposes. It's not only a lunch spot and coffee station, but can also be used for solo and collaborative work.

"People gravitate toward this really cool open space where we might do a working lunch and continue the conversation," Filip says. "It's a very homey vibe."

Here, disinfecting, social distancing and lower occupancy may be part of the new normal when the office reopens.

Shah points out other design elements that exist in the space. Petrified moss adds a natural touch that's low maintenance and softens the high contrast of ELA's black and white brand colors. Black and white wall coverings that vary from room to room add fun, texture and personality. The charcoal-planked wood and candlelight-like fixtures in the reception area add warmth and signal hospitality.

"Our creativity isn't created in a vacuum," Filip says. "It's very collaborative. If someone comes up with an idea, it's always brought to the table and people make the work better together. Collaboration is part of the job and highly encouraged, [so we wanted to] give people the space and tools to do that."

The office is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and while there's no timeline yet to reopen, ELA is proactively making plans to adapt the space to comply with state and local guidelines, says Filip.

"We can do the majority of our work from home, so until they give us a green light, we are probably going to play it safe and do it that way," Filip says.

Changes may be made to various spaces in the office to accommodate post-outbreak considerations , Filip says. Some adjustments may involve physical reconfiguration of modular fixtures and furniture. Others may be behavioral, such as new protocols for disinfecting surfaces and practicing social distancing.