How a good workspace enhances creativity
In an agency like ours, and in any organisation really, the office environment can go a long way to making or breaking the bottom line. Sound like a big call? It might be, but when you think about how the aesthetics of a workspace can inspire or smother creative thinking, it doesn’t seem so far-fetched.
And before you write off the need for a creativity-inspiring workplace – because you have a creative agency like us on hand – remember that creative thinking is how your business sees opportunities, innovates, adapts and ultimately grows.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that there’s been extensive research over the last few decades into how to make workplaces more conducive to creative thinking. Read on for some highlights from the research to see how tweaks to your office could get the creative juices flowing. And we’ve included some workplace inspiration to get you started.
The pool at our office. That’s 50 metres of cool relaxation or heart pumping exercise right there.
How to make your office more inspiring
· Make it light – natural daylight is great for creativity. Position your office next to windows to the outside world to let the light flow in. By contrast, darkness can inhibit creative thinking, so if you’re not able to pull rank on the corner office, make sure your space is still well lit with overhead lights and desk lamps.
· Add a splash of colour – both cool (blues/greens) and warm (reds/yellows) colours can impact the creative process. While some people will be more inspired by warm colours than cool colours, the overall recommendation is that some colour is better than none. Add some colourful artwork to your walls to welcome in the creativity.
· Set the right temp – this is about being comfortable as much as it is about being creative. A room that’s too cold or too warm will make us shiver or sweat, and that can have a real impact on creativity.
· Reduce the noise – if Spotify is pumping in your office, it’s probably to break the silence. But too much noise, either through music, chatty co-workers or general environmental noise, can be really distracting. At a good level, music can help, and so too can silence or simply the absence of annoying sounds.
· Bring in the plants – nature stimulates creativity, there’s no denying it. Having plants in and around your office can actually aid in a high creative output. They also help with keeping the air fresh inside, which brings us to the next point…
· Breathe fresh air – if you do luck out with an office surrounded by windows, open them if you can. There’s nothing like fresh air to fill us with inspiration. If you can’t get fresh air in, at the very least keep the bad smells out. We don’t need research to tell us that offensive odours can really stifle our train of thought.
· Work with the right equipment – how you furnish your space and what equipment you have on hand makes a difference. You should have everything you need to make the process smooth. If you like nutting things out as a group, have a whiteboard and pens handy. If you need a spare desk to lay out your scribbles, allocate one to the creative process.
· Get personal with your space – adding personal items to your desk, like photos of your family and notepads that make you happy, can inspire creatives throughout their daily work.
Office inspo to get you started
Flight Centre’s famous slide on the 12th and 13th floors.
Flight Centre Travel Group’s global HQ in Southbank, Brisbane, is home to our clients Corporate Traveller, FCM and Stage and Screen. Their office is renowned for fun. From an indoor slide to a popular café, and meeting rooms decked out to resemble their namesake (like the Wimbledon room), you can’t help but be inspired.
FCTG said this about their purpose-built workspace: “We love our global head office! It's been designed to reflect our core values, but especially our love of fun.”
Blackmore’s HQ is filled with light, lush plants and an overall sense of wellbeing. There’s free massages too.
We recently worked with Blackmores to shoot a video about the vitamin and supplement company's corporate social responsibility program. Based in Sydney, the Blackmores’ campus is everything you would imagine from a leader in the health industry: light-filled open spaces, greenery, and onsite pool, gym, wellness centre and massages.
Our office is light, colourful and Spotify keeps it fun (Kylie likes it turned down a bit when writing though!)
Ever wondered how we keep our brainjuice flowing to produce all that creative gold for our clients? Our office set up is part of the secret. Spacious workstations, lighting to suit our taste and colourful artwork all help to raise the creativity bar.
Source: Designing Creativity-Enhancing Workspaces: A Critical Look at Empirical Evidence, October 2017, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320323715_Designing_Creativity-Enhancing_Workspaces_A_Critical_Look_at_Empirical_Evidence