LOS ANGELES—The boom in creative office has fueled new business for designers. Design firm Tangram, which focuses on commercial and creative design, has seen a 25% increase in sales since 2014 thanks to demand for co-designed and creative spaces. As a result, the firm has six Southern California offices and 300 employees. To find out more about how the demand for creative office has fueled the firm's business and how the firm approaches design to win customers in this competitive field, we sat down with Joe Lozowski, the firm's CEO, for an exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: How has the increase in demand for creative office affected your business?

Joe Lozowski: Over the past three years we have seen more than a 40% increase in overall sales. From 125M in 2014 to 188M in 2016. Our growth has been tied to strategic decisions in response to the marketplace trends. As a direct result of the desire for more creative and co-designed workplaces, the uptick of technology integration and the trend towards anti-corporate furniture, we've increased our market penetration with our flooring, custom furniture and technology brands and increased the amount of manufacturers we work with to over 700. Last year's performance ranks Tangram in the top 5 for Steelcase dealerships worldwide. This year's strategy is based on the expansion of our Studio (custom furniture) brand to a national level. And we're well on our way so far with projects already installing in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago and New York.

GlobeSt.com: Creative office has become favored across property sectors. How does your approach to office design change between professional sectors?

Lozowski: While there are common qualities to every workspace, design requirements for the various vertical markets are as different as the professions that operate within them. When working with a client in the healthcare industry, we have to take into account HIPAA laws, patient privacy, fabric choices to ensure cleanability and sterilization and so on. Right now the focus in higher education is incorporating new technology into the classroom, integrating active learning pedagogies and evolutionizing libraries from analog to digital while also providing very traditional office or administrative spaces for university staff. Law firms often require more private offices and stratification of space based on hierarchy while creative spaces gravitate towards more collaborative areas with the addition of fewer quiet spaces.

GlobeSt.com: What are the design trends that your clients are requesting across professional sectors?

Lozowski: We try to incorporate the same basic principles into each environment, posture, privacy and proximity. Posture relates to the various possible modes of work, sitting, standing, lounging, etc. Privacy is pretty self-explanatory; the degrees of privacy in a workspace vary depending on job functionality. And finally, proximity, the idea that a quiet space necessary to duck into for a quick call or get some heads down work done, a collaborative space with appropriate technology or a social hub for relationship building or a minute to revitalize is close enough to each workstation to be utilized effectively by all.

GlobeSt.com: How has the increase in demand for creative office affected your business?

GlobeSt.com: Creative office has become favored across property sectors. How does your approach to office design change between professional sectors?

GlobeSt.com: What are the design trends that your clients are requesting across professional sectors?

Instant Insights /

Creative Offices Mean Big Business for Designers

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