Denise Cherry Shows Businessweek How to Design an Office

Denise Cherry Shows Businessweek How to Design an Office

In the current "How To" issue of Businessweek (along with a primer on making coffee by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and a guide to motivating people by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel) Studio O+A Director of Design Denise Cherry demonstrates how to design an office.

Cherry directed an in-house makeover at the firm's San Francisco headquarters, transforming Director of Projects Perry Stephney's office from a paper-swamped quagmire into a sleek sanctuary - the whole process recorded on time-lapse video by photographer Jasper Sanidad.

"People spend much more of their day in the office than they do at home," says workaholic Cherry in the article. "It should be a place that you want to come to and that inspires you."

The project involved two makeovers: the first a more formal "Industrialist's" office with a Captain of Industry leather chair and faux taxidermy heads on the wall; the second a space for the "Creative" professional with seating for six and a credenza that doubles as a bar.

A key element of the makeover was the wheatpasting of Stephney's back wall with retro graphics from old Life Magazines and newspapers from the 1930s and 40s. A team of wheatpasters from O+A's staff (pictured above) assembled the collage of campy ads, startling photos and headlines into a perfect backdrop for brainstorming modern office design.

Photos: Jasper Sanidad for Bloomberg Businessweek

Studio O+A

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