Designer turned remote worker Marcus set up his home office in a blank room with white walls after only six months. He uses a simple desk and chair, and a standard computer monitor on a standard monitor base. But what they reflect is the interior consistency of his space and gear. The space has a stylish, cutting-edge look and is accented with plenty of chrome. The monitor base even looks like the dashboard of a high-end sports car, reflecting the designer’s love of automotive design.
Why passion-driven workspaces matter
I’ve spent a lot of time in many environments – most recently an 8 hour work day at an office. Office furniture and design speak an initial language of efficient institutionalism. But that first language can be easily supplanted by a design that embodies your passions and interests.
For those who appreciate cars, the shapes, lines and details of car design can elicit the strongest of emotions. From the aggressive wedge profile of Ferrari to the sharp creases and bulging muscles of classic American muscle, and the intricate details of modern Formula 1 racing cockpits, car design can inspire admiration, excitement even envy. Speed-inspired design is all about focus, intensity and the very highest quality materials and details. Racing-inspired design is about performance and function above all else.
Your workspace has become an appendage of your body.
Translating automotive aesthetics into office design
Designing an automobile is quite similar to designing a workspace. When you look inside a high-end car, you see beautifully designed and organized space where every control has a specific function. The design of the car’s interior and the functional spaces within it culminate in creating a wonderful aesthetic. These some of the principles that workspace designers try to achieve.
The laptop range has been translated into a variety of office products using a range of materials. Brushed aluminium surfaces similar to the highly finished surfaces found in premium automotive products have been used to create a premium feel on the laptop range and office products such as power adapters, wireless mice and laptop bags. Leather panels referencing luxury automotive interiors have been applied to the highest end laptops, bag and accessories within the office range.
Using the colors from a car brand is a good way to create consistency in an office space. Using the racing stripe from a brand also references the patterns that can be found on their products. There are many iconic sports cars and their colour palettes are incredibly energizing but never overpowering. The most iconic combinations include both red and black.
The coherence factor
Random items to a desk relating to cars is not automotive aesthetic it just relates to badly placed clutter with a theme.
Like the car’s interior design process, the surface of the work desk or workbench is treated as a design space in many successful workplaces. Every object and fixture serves a function, but also contributes to the overall look and feel of the space. A pen holder might be designed like an air intake for a concept car, a cable organiser inspired by the organisation of a high performance vehicle’s dashboard and placed thoughtfully around monitors.
Building momentum through strategic additions
Most people start with the “cute things” first – that really cool ruler, fun eraser, or brightly colored pen, for example – and then later try to work in how all of those items will fit within their work space. This common mistake leads to less-than-ideal setup.
Setting a base line of starting elements for your theme is always a good starting point. However, adding a desk pad or mousepad that has a car themed design will help set the tone for the rest of the theme. These quality automotive mousepads have some very cool designs to choose from and will help decide what other theme based products you will want to add later. However, you wouldn’t want to duplicate designs. But you could use the same colors, textures, or another design that is associated with the same theme.
Choosing a few automotive design products to display on your desk is very different from choosing desk organizers. You don’t want a gear shift inspired desk organizer to overpower the function and professionalism of your workspace even though it relates to other automotive design items on the space. A collection of super small cars like these model cars might initially look impressive as a miniature car collection, but they can very quickly descend into chaotic clutter that detracts from both the visual and functional efficacy of your workspace.
Beyond decoration toward environment
Unlike themed offices that become a proposition in themselves, the most effective automotive-inspired workspace designs graduate from cars as inspiration to spaces where someone can sit down and work while connecting with automotive design and having that space reinforce one’s identity with automotive design on a daily basis.
After months or years spending time in your work space, the space can become psychological and energizing to you which can transcend simple uses like storage for the parts and tools you keep for car repairs. While your workspace is not the place to store your classic car collection or all your tool sets and parts, there are some design elements that relate to the interior or exterior of an automobile.
The form serves a purpose. The precision engineering involved in this miniature model is astounding. Function trumps fashion.
