Reputation.com

The online image management company Reputation.Com wanted for its Redwood City HQ the feel and functionality of a research lab.  Our design drew inspiration from the laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey where Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and the light bulb.  A prototype for the modern Research and Development facility, Edison’s workshop combined the stark infrastructures of nineteenth century science with traditional wooden construction and wood furniture of the period.  

O+A sought to translate this vintage look into a modern idiom.  Our design employs industrial materials—uni-strut, cast iron, reclaimed wood—to create spaces that are practical, but engaging.  The infrastructure remains stark:  a skeletal system of space partitions, exposed ceilings, functional lighting—implemented in creative, even playful, ways.  Cork board and white board panels, for example, make all areas of the office conducive to calculation, formula development—and spontaneous birthday greetings. 

Color plays a big role.  At Reputation the sportive use of color contrasts sharply with the utilitarian quality of the spatial and structural elements.  Thus individual phone rooms provide ample space for private communication—behind doors painted like the store fronts of a Caribbean market town.  The kitchen, a study in stripped-down efficiency—gains warmth and energy from finishes in walnut and tangerine.  And the entry lobby, a minimalist prototype of corporate reception, is cast in paradoxically welcoming shades of frost.