trendey

Speaking of the super-brand Day Home and speaking of home offices / study rooms and how to furnish and arrange for the Creative Flow to check in…the latest issue of Swedsh Elle Interiör features the Copenhagen home of Marianne Brandi and Keld Mikkelsen, the founders of the Danish fashion empire Day Birger et Mikkelsen and interior collection Day Home.

Marianne Brandi’s favourite room is their large bright home office.

|scanned from Elle Interiör 9/2009|

Ever wondered what it looks like where all those Facebook employees are gathered? Is it like a blue building where each have their own little white/pale-blue room with exactly the same folders in the shelves? I just stumbled across the looks of Facebook’s headquarters. And it looks really nice, not at all as streamlined and boxy as the Facebook I know. The interior design company Studio O+A designed the new (it was brand new in July) offices for Facebook in California. It’s a 150,000-square-foot space that prevoiusly housed a laboratory. The design goal was to maintain the history and raw aesthetic of the building and create a fun dynamic, appropriate for the company’s youthful staff. Many walls and spaces are left unfinished – like Facebook itself, employees are encouraged to write on the walls, add artwork, and rearrange the furniture. So, the office can and will evolve continuously, and it was arranged with numerous “neighborhoods”; a DJ area, lounges, and impromptu work spaces. Here’s a few pics, more can be found @ Studio O+A.

Speaking of Creative Flow, might this be a creativity-stimulating environment for the Facebook staff?

I reckon so.

..is the trend theme of the Spring 2010 Formex Fair and Exhibition. Current season, AW 2009, Formex took us on a fashionable journey back to yesteryear. From the window of a respectably-furnished train carriage we saw the 1940s and 50s, literature, maps and globes. The colour scale included olive green, orange, tomato, rust and muted yellow. The trend theme was Vintage Travel. Now, for the light season ahead, Nordic designers gather round the theme Creative Flow. Spring 2010 Formex fair will take place January 21-24, 2010.

The outline says cautious optimism and a desire for change create considerable scope for creativity. So what’s the setting this time? Rooms…places where people go to create. Workrooms and studios of designers and creators, may it be an industrial premise, converted shops or loft spaces, the gardener’s greenhouse, the author’s den or the artist’s studio. Or rooms where creativity and living space merge: The kitchen table becomes a sewing corner; the living room a painter’s studio. Some key words on this trend theme: Natural, raw surfaces blend with bright colours and high finish. Poppy primary colours meet muted earthy naturals. The feeling is sophisticated, but also very relaxed. I like it! Creative flow is exactly what I need. Not only because I am planning how to arrange and furnish our new home (I have lots of flow on that part!), no, because I have some creative job to do. For-a-living. I need to find the flow. My study room/home office in the new flat will be given the best circumstances to stimulate this. My chioce of creative colour for the walls is obvious. It’s a blue hue. The blue on the pic below (from DAY Birger et Mikkelsen) is very similiar to the colour I’m after.

To determine the colour on the pic (to make paint-shopping easier) I tried the programmes Color Capture and Color Snap (iPhone app-versions). To my great satisfaction the hues closest were called Refuge, Stillwater and Sea Reflections. I know nothing more creativity-stimulating than the sea, the great blue ocean. In order to be creative in a concentrated way, I need calm and serenity. Like the view of an open, calm sea. Noise creates ideas, waves challenges ideas, but for creativeness to flow the sea needs to be still. Shades of blue brings me peace and enliven my creative spirit. I will combine the sea-reflecting cold blue walls in my refuge with velvet curtains in a warm copper-rust-orange hue, hung on a white-painted birch tree branch. I will rest my head in a black daybed, and have all books arranged in white bookshelves. I’ll post a photo when it’s done!

What is a creative environment to You? How do You arrange a room or space to spark creativity?