Creating a fun working environment

We've recently moved offices, and in search of new inspiration thought we'd share some of our thoughts and experiences of looking for fun and quirky things to brighten up our space.

Research shows that the happiest and most productive employees enjoy being in their work environment, so it makes sense to jazz things up a bit. Whether that's adding a lick of paint to the wall or introducing something fun and interactive to the office who cares! As long as everyone's happy, right?

So where do I start?

We first did a bit of research on some seeeeriously cool work spaces, and managed to find a site that did all the hard work for us. It's called 10 seeeeeriously cool work spaces! Pixar's offices came top of the list, although Mindlab came a close second. And we were particularly taken with the conference bike! What a revolutionary idea!

We'd encourage anyone to do a little research first, but don't be scared off by big ideas, you can always be creative and incorporate ideas on a smaller scale.

And once you have the ideas?

Our place is currently looking a bit bare, clean and tidy, so we're ready to make our mark, and the first place we checked out (because I've been meaning to buy some of their products for a while) was blik. The idea of sticking these fun objects to the wall and moving them around or replacing them to suit your mood is muchos fun.

What we're planning to do is create our own, similar to these ones created by Joy for Habitat. So not only do you have something fun and funky to show off to clients, you can always say it was created by moi! Now that WOULD be interesting...

So is it just about the look and feel?

Not at all, we're big fans of finding occasions to celebrate, such as birthdays and new client wins. Earlier in my career at a large finance company the team used to have 'word of the day' first thing in the morning. We'd all get a chance to put forward our own word of the day and whoever's was best could enjoy everyone continually using it. Might sound a bit drab but we had a lot of fun with this. Use your imagination.

I also recall having a stress ball fight with the team one day. It was the most stress free I had felt in a while.