Diageo is a company that deals with some of the finest brands in the alcoholic beverages business. It called for a design concept that not only celebrates its core business, but also speaks of the organisation’s corporate values.
The team had to produce a workspace that would promote collaboration between employees, and create areas conducive to co-creation and innovation, while celebrating the spirit of the organisation. The client also requested for flexible, adaptable workspaces that could accommodate future needs for expansion and contraction.
To efficiently use the space and maximise natural light to all areas of the office, the layout composes of a central core with open-plan spaces that surround it.
The open spaces serve as working suites that flow one into the next, enabling staff to move easily from one environment to another. An internal Esplanade is situated in the core provide connections between ‘neighbourhoods’ of workspaces and community spaces.
The ‘neighbourhoods’ are the work areas with clusters of desks placed in groups in open plan spaces, connected to each other and to the other working areas. Its open plan workspaces make full use of the available space and mobile workstations make the layout flexible, in preparation for any future expansion plans.
The community spaces, or quads, have been designed to encourage and support collaboration, socialisation and alternative ways of working. A working bar, adorned with a ceiling feature that celebrates the serious business of quality drinking, provides one informal area, while a café provides another.
The interior design celebrates the Diageo’s line of business by utilising its products at every available opportunity. A stylish reception uses bottle displays in the back wall, and the counter becomes a further display area with circular insets. A ‘wall of fame’ runs along the length of the Esplanade, with rows of display portholes, each celebrating a different brand. Seating areas are scattered along this connecting passageway, allowing for quiet working moments, or simply waiting for an appointment. At key locations on walls and circulation paths LCD screens provide flexible and dynamic advertising.
Alcohol and lifestyle related icons are used creatively to communicate pride and accomplishment in Diageo’s core business: bottles hung from the bar area like a set of twinkling lights, perforated ceiling features that reflect bottle tops being flicked off, feature display niches like barrel ends, as well as bubbly motion feature walls. To further drive home the company’s product focus, each enclosed meeting room is further designed to recall the process of producing good wines and spirits, having a wine cellar, distillery, and stout and draught room themes.
Given that Diageo deals with various brands that are updated and rotated at irregular intervals, the team devised a structured approach to branding, so that the design of the workspace stays relevant to the brands that Diageo works with.
With flexibility is the key aspect of the design concept, the LCD screens, light box displays, ‘wall of frame’ and bar features are easily updated with new content, such as adverts, bottles and logos.
As the LCD screens, light box displays, ‘wall of frame’ and bar prominently feature the updated contents, visitors and staff are always kept aware of the current brands represented by Diageo.
The company’s devotion to clients and consumers, as well as their pride for their products, are ingrained in Diageo’s interior design. The result is a thoroughly engaging workplace that is both refreshing and inspiring.
