.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Plain “banker’s gray” just didn’t cut it for Keri Storjohann. In designing an office for her integrated marketing company, Solutions Inc., she wanted the space to “pop,” to say something about the people who worked there. For her, that meant using lots of color.

“I wanted the space to be unique and different, not only to get our staff to think differently, but to inspire our clients who visit us,” Storjohann said. “You just feel energized in this environment.”

Color is a focal point in the design of Solutions’ office in Johnston. Storjohann moved her 20-year-old company from Urbandale to the Windsor Office Park last September. Sonia Villegar Design created the plans for the nearly 6,000-square-foot space. The office’s walls, carpeting, furniture and even its millwork incorporate shades of red, orange, green and purple.

“We started with an empty shell, this open L-shaped space, and Sonia was incredibly visionary with coming up with our plan and color schemes,” Storjohann said.

The result is something you have to see to believe. The reception area is elliptical in shape, with a curved couch wrapping around a curved purple wall. A purple circle is part of Solutions’ brand identity and a symbol it uses on all its marketing materials. Special holes were cut into the carpeting to accommodate inlays of purple circles and shapes of other colors. Various shapes are used throughout the office, from the carpeting to cutouts in the walls separating work areas.

Solutions’ office features artwork at every turn. Each employee choses artwork for their office based on what inspires them. For Storjohann, that’s framed prints from the “Secret Artwork of Dr. Seuss,” a collection of art the children’s book author created for his home.

“They’re fun, whimsical and lighthearted,” Storjohann said. “I want every employee to be surrounded by what energizes them.”

Smart design

Like Solutions, other local companies are incorporating attention-getting design elements into their new or remodeled offices and finding ways to use these new features to accomplish larger goals, such as building teamwork and giving employees a more satisfying work environment. As a result, local architectural and design firms are experiencing a strong level of interest from clients seeking innovative ideas for their spaces.

Sara Swaim, an interior designer with SVPA Architects Inc. and the president of the Great Plains chapter of the International Interior Design Association, attributes the trend in part to the tight labor market.

“Each corporate culture is trying to create its own identity,” Swaim said. “In the Des Moines area, where there is more demand than people applying for jobs, companies are using the design of their spaces to attract and retain employees.”

A wall with unusual shapes cut into it offers a glimpse of Bev Brannen’s workstation at Solutions Inc. and allows sunlight into her area.

Emily Kistner, an intern architect with OPN Architects Inc., is working on the Des Moines office’s renovation project.This conference room door, measuring 8 feet across and 8 feet tall, is made from ply-boo, a bamboo-based plywood. The room’s glass wall gives employees a glimpse of the meetings inside. Photos by Duane Tinkey

Among the other trends that Swaim sees in office design is the addition of more meeting areas and multipurpose spaces where employees can gather and work. She said this is a result of the shift many companies are making toward open floor plans as opposed to traditional offices and cubicles, and the changing demographics of the work force.

“The younger generation entering the work force gravitates to these alternative areas to do their work,” Swaim said. “Places that aren’t just for breaks, but can be used for work. Companies are trying to be flexible because they see that they can get more productivity from employees if they cater to how employees want to work.”

Swaim said even companies that have kept the more traditional workstations-and-cubicle setup recognize the need to give employees options on where to work. The growing use of wireless Internet technology and laptop computers is also helping drive the demand for flexible workspaces.

Alternative spaces

OPN Architects Inc. took this idea of multiple meeting spaces into consideration when designing its offices in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.

“We try to set up our hallways and traffic spaces to encourage incidental contact,” said Brian Gunning, OPN’s marketing director. “We cut multiple paths through the same space at different angles, so you choose your path a little differently each time and come in contact with people working on various projects.”

OPN’s Des Moines office, on the first floor of 100 Court Ave., is being renovated to expand its size and add more gathering places for about 25 employees, including a “teaming room” where architects and designers can work on projects together, a private meeting room and a larger conference room than it had previously.

Like OPN, Solutions has a smaller conference room in addition to its large one to give employees an alternative meeting space. The smaller room has a more casual décor than the larger one, and a personal touch to help employees feel at home: Framed caricatures of everyone in the office adorn the main wall. Solutions’ art director, Brian Fairchild, created the caricatures.

OPN strategically uses splashes of color, particularly bright lime green and orange, on the walls in its some of its meeting areas “to keep people talking and engaged,” Gunning said.

Some of the other colors in OPN’s offices come from the natural materials used in construction. The large 8-foot by 8-foot door to the new conference room in Des Moines is made from a material called ply-boo, a bamboo-based plywood. The wood has stripes of red and orange from the bamboo. Exposed brick, ductwork, wood beams and columns and plated steel add other colors and show clients a variety of materials the firm likes to work with.

Let in the light

Of all the office design trends right now, natural light is one that is getting attention from companies of all sizes.

Solutions designed its office with clear glass doors and glass panel insets in cubicle walls to let sunlight flow throughout the office. OPN Architects also uses glass doors where appropriate and uses the tall windows that surround its office to bring in natural light.

Wells Fargo Financial Inc.’s two newest offices downtown at Eighth and Walnut streets, which opened in 2002 and 2006, incorporate an astounding amount of windows and interior glass – enough to cover two football fields – to draw sunlight into the buildings. Instead of having offices on the perimeter of the building, which would block the windows, the perimeter is an open area. All workstations are in the center of the building.

According to Channing Swanson, an associate at Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck Architecture, which designed the buildings at 800 and 801 Walnut St., office design in which the perimeter of the building is windows instead of offices not only lets more light in, but keeps employees happier.

“Studies have shown that employees are 20 to 30 percent more productive and absent less often from work when you create a daylight environment in the office,” Swanson said.

Stan Gibson, a senior vice president of corporate properties for Wells Fargo Financial, said the sunlight that comes through the windows helps illuminate the offices and reduce electricity costs. The design also results in better air circulation inside the buildings.

“You always want to make sure that you retain employees and give them good environments to work in,” Gibson said. “To make them feel that they have effective workstations, access to natural lighting and the airflow is adequate to keep them comfortable adds to employees’ satisfaction with their workplace.”