STUDIO CASE STUDY
Our 2020 began with a focus on staff wellness, without knowing, of course, a pandemic loomed. Leadership planned retreats around meditation, yoga, stress management, and self-defense, and gifted stipends for personal training sessions or massages. By March 14, we were all working from home. It was truly an unprecedented moment in history for us to navigate, as business owners, designers, and individuals.
We’ve always been a technology-forward workplace, and each of us already had a laptop and access to a VPN, so the move to remote working was relatively seamless. Each person received funding for home office needs or wellness gear, like bikes, if they preferred.
As many Chicagoans started to transition out of the city’s stay-at-home order in late spring, we began thinking about how we could give our design team access to our expansive studio and its resource library, while enforcing capacity, distancing, and cleanliness measures. First, we surveyed everyone to see how they were feeling about living and working through the pandemic.
We are currently practicing an A, B, and C week rotations, which allows our staff of 28 plenty of workspace options when it is their week to be in the studio. If an A person needs to be in the studio on a B week, they can use a designated work area outside of the open benching so that there is not a high concentration of people in any one space. We created several wellness-focused areas, with plants and soft seating, to fulfill a need for quiet work and lounge areas that we didn’t have previously.
Our intent with this plan to isolate groups effectively minimizes the amount of people who could be impacted by an outbreak.
With no reception desk or receptionist, we installed a doorbell, asking deliveries and visitors not to come inside of the studio until a staff member meets them.
Perhaps the easiest, and yet most impactful addition to the studio was instructional signage. We printed and installed before the staff began filtering back into the studio. The graphics communicate safety instructions (Wash Your Hands!) and space capacity with our studio’s preference for casual, fun language and bold branding.
We are a very social studio, and though we’ve tried, no virtual hang out can replace in-person gatherings. Recently, we’ve started to have very limited capacity events with proper distancing and face coverings on the studio’s deck. We value having an amazing outdoor space, and we're hoping each team can catch a sunset or two before winter arrives.
