Preferred Studio Layouts and Designs
admin
We've recently been discussing the possibility of updating our workspace here at the studio so I'm looking around for different ideas and inspiration. What kind of layout do you all prefer for a studio? Pods, cubicles, open pits, separate offices, etc...? How about general asthetics? Modern, industrial, cozy, etc...?
Any input would be great and images would be awesome.
Cheers!
Any input would be great and images would be awesome.
Cheers!
Replies
Honestly though, open pit or pods with like 6+ artists in them. The closer artists are together, the better the feedback/inspiration, imo. And yes, I like it dark!
Barring actual offices, focused pits or pods are probably the next best thing.
I absolutely hate open or cubicle layouts; it's too easy for the wrong people to just drop by your desk and kill your concentration. Open layouts also make it harder to get good light levels for different disciplines, which is a problem when you have programmers and artists in the same space.
Thought it would get too loud in there but its really not bad at all.
"Easy for communication" pretty much means that everyone can interrupt you all the time, and that people yell to each other across the office. Getting focused work done, especially programming, is not easy.
As for design - keep it simple and let each person customize their workspace. I know some people who have desks like toy stores, but personally I'm the total opposite. I like distraction free. Give people the choice about decoration, and if possible lighting too - e.g. allow desk lamps or let people choose between standing lamps, overhead neon or whatever works for them.
Also have people put plants on their desks - it really makes everything look much nicer and more calm.
If you can't stay away from open floor plans, then provide enough meeting rooms, or lounges, where people can quickly retire (ideally without an annoying "booking" procedure), so that discussions happen there and not at the office floor where they annoy everyone else.
Really depends on the acoustics of the room, low ceilings can really intensify the noise.
I agree with Kwramm, I worked in a similar environment. Putting on headphones to drown out the noise takes the place of cubicle walls. There are a lot of studies that show it kills productivity and increases stress. Give everyone little sheds like Pixar!
Now at Ubisoft in Osaka, it's the open office thing. I hate it. I really, really do. I wish they did pods or something. I don't like the lighting and the layout. No place to meet, talk, private space, eat or relax.
Oh yeah Im in a situation like this at the moment, Light issues are a pain here because of MASSIVE windows so we have blinds but they cant stop the sun really.
My favourite studio lay out so far was splitting up into different medium sized rooms based on your team and the feature or game you are working on. Means you are all isolated from the chaos of the big open office but close enough to the people that matter to chat and figure out solutions on the fly with no pressure of scheduling meetings etc. Producers would probably find this a bit annoying as they would keep having to check on us and what we are doing haha.
i have mostly worked in offices of 3 - 6 people from the same or related discipline which was always good. never worked in true open office environments as such but i know plenty who do and they all seem to despise it more or less openly.
for me, noise-concerns aside, movement in my peripheral vision really takes me out of it.
Small offices with 3-5 people who are of the same work types as you works decently altho still not ideal. If you have someone who is a chronic talker and the others aren't, it can get annoying.
I prefer a solo office altho I never really had that until I left Epic. :P
I've seen this. It's utter nonsense, especially if the dividers aren't even taller than your monitors.
Unless management realizes that lost productivity, decreased quality and lower employee satisfaction weighs more than the cost of some cheap walls, open office plans will stay with us.
Cant really bare being in an office for more than a few days-weeks anymore, spent the amount of years I could stand being in one.
not that it is super important for my work to have constant communication with other teams and skype exists.
Maybe I'm the opposite to a lot of people, but I actually find having the freedom to move around and experience places whilst working makes me more productive/inspired. I've definitely noticed I do better work than when stuck in an office, probably because I'm happier/more relaxed sitting in the sun than under a flickering fluorescent light.
ofcourse it relies on people being happy with me delivering work in this way, but saying that if it all goes tits up, I will be determined to find a way to keep my freedom. maybe sell a kidney,
Kind of amazed that you're given the opportunity to have a decent input into your workplace =o
Edit No.2. Just realised you work with Mr.Distraction himself, Philip Simmons, Sean. Say hi for me haha.
depends on how you work i suppose. hanging out in a coffee shop with a bunch of monitors, intuos or cintiq and a capable machine to run all that stuff on does not seem so feasible.
Open-office sucks!
firestarter - Hahaha, yup, I'll make sure to say hi when he swings by my desk on his daily distraction run.
We have pods of 4 people that are open, BUT we all have chest high wall that block your view of other pods so you are not super distracted. When you are sitting down, you cannot really see the other pods and it allows you to focus on your work, when you stand you can easily have a conversation with the other pods.
I think this is the best of both worlds, it removes the closed offness of an office but doesn't have all the pitfalls of a fully open office.
People in each pod are a good 10 feet from eachother with ample desk space. No one is jammed up next to eachother, but just turning around I can easily see what my texture artist is taking about on his monitor or hear what he has to say without being stuck within annoying arm length of someone.
We had fully open/no wall environment at Bungie with desks only 3 feet from eachother and I would occasionally find that distracting. But even still, with headphones you can remove a lot of that and I think the openness of things is far better for collaboration than being closed off in an office.
An office is just a huge barrier for people and removes a lot of quick impromptu meetings that for ND have always benefited the project. Our Creative Director sits in an open pod instead of being in an office he could have for that ease of apporacbility and open collaboration.
Yep, I 100% agree with this. I've moved about 5 times in 4 months, and the pods type setting was awesome (I'm actually moving to them again next week
My least favorite was definitely the hallway/open area. With a completely open space I found that people will decide to have meetings wherever and it can be super frustrating to have people talking right next to your desk without actually talking to you.
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