When Southeast Frozen Foods planned to move their office division to a new facility in Miramar, they called on 90 Degree Office Concepts for advice about moving their existing furniture. Relocating offices is not what they do. However, being a past client, 90 Degree sent a representative to see what advice could be offered, and to see if there was a way they could be of service.
Modern office designs may be great, but what about the cost?
After meeting with the CFO and crunching the numbers, the rep from 90 Degree came up with an idea to help them in a way they never thought. They were shown how they could purchase brand new custom designed furniture for slightly more than it would cost them to relocate their existing furniture. Being a careful and responsible protector of company funds, this offer seemed too good to be true. For that reason, the plan underwent serious scrutiny, looking for holes in the concept, product and/or numbers.
Making dollars and modern office design add up requires creativity
The team at 90 Degree took them by the proverbial hand and explained; because they are manufacturer, incredible deals could be had, first, simply by virtue of the business model. By having a buy direct model and not having second tier markup responsibilities could save them a bundle. Secondly, by getting creative with design and using materials effectively can erode costs.
90 Degree created a custom product for them by integrating laminate and solid maple wood materials giving them unique office design that was different from anything in the current marketplace. More challenges
As with any office space, design presents its own set of challenges. Often times it is a matter of matching functional preference with allotted space. Off the shelf workstations are designed with standard size panels, which makes getting the exact size and fit often not possible. In this case, getting supervisor stations to fit in a designated space between wall and window, offer the right amount of storage together with balancing privacy with an open ability for workers to approach was a question for us to answer.
We custom made the panel walls to the exact size needed to get the supervisors into the space so as not to overshoot windows, and not to leave space unused. We made the panels high enough to provide surrounding privacy. We included a rear credenza to fit the panel size and custom-built maple overheads (for extra storage) to match the panel walls and trim. We opened up the workspace by designing the primary worksurface on an angle, while making it inviting enough for workers to approach.
There are many things involved in building the perfect workplace. Each company has their own set of values that make sense to them. If there are tons of dollars available to throw at a project, you can make most problems go away, but sometimes substituting creativity for dollars works just as well or better. In this case we combined a cool, modern style, (uncommon to off the shelf products), with functional needs required to do business their way.
A word about the project from Southeast Frozen Foods
We recently moved into a new office space requiring the replacement of all our existing obsolete cubicles. Various sources referred us to Bernie of 90 Degree Concepts who introduced us to an incredibly unique design concept.
Bernie enthusiastically plunged into the various stages of the space planning, designing each cubicle per our individual needs while offering ideas we would not have otherwise considered. His upbeat demeanour made for a very pleasurable experience. The end result was a cost effective, yet rich new look that traditional cubicles don’t offer.
