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Studio Other is a team of industrial designers and engineers. With over 25 years in the industry, we specialize in creating bespoke furniture for our clients through a process of co-design and investigating end-user behavior. At our core, we’re makers + builders with an obsessive attention to detail and a passion for good design.
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Let’s make cool sh*t.
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It’s more than a logo.
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The Art of Branding in Design.
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Studio Other means it when we say we can customize anything. Whether a company wants their logo laser-cut into their workstations or more of a quiet nod to their brand with a unique design element, we can make it happen. Here are a few examples of custom branding we’ve incorporated into our clients’ workspaces.
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The office should feel as personalized as a home. Every piece you curate for your own home tells a story about who you are, and your office should do the same. By having intentional colors, branding, and little touches tied throughout an office, you’re creating a personality for the space that speaks to who the company is. It doesn’t have to be loud or in-your-face, but subtly can go a long way in building company ethos and getting employees to feel like they are a part of something bigger.
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Devil’s in the Details
A case study on Shamrock Capital, where design details mean everything.
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Shamrock Capital is a Los Angeles-based investment firm with a rich history of investing in the media, entertainment, and communications sectors. Working closely with Shubin Donaldson and Shamrock Capital, Studio Other codesigned 40 private offices, 22 workstations, 1 boardroom table, 2 built-in banquettes, 3 meeting tables, and ancillary furniture for Shamrock’s new office. The co-design process kicked off with a workshop with Shamrock Capital’s leadership team to understand what they needed in their new space. Additionally, we hosted a variety of staff — 2 Partners, 2 Executive Assistants, and 2 Associates — in our DTLA office to workshop how they’re using their current space and strategize on how the new space will meet their needs better. We gathered the info from this workshop and synthesized it into a report for the client to review along with a plan for their new space. A private office workstation that accommodates up to 4-person meetings We learned each private office workstation needed to be able to accommodate a collaborative meeting with 3-4 people. The biggest challenge was how to deliver a workstation that spatially fits in the office with enough clearance on all sides while still
comfortably housing multiple people and laptops. Also, how do we ensure the user is still oriented with a line of sight towards the door and allow for heads-down work without feeling overwhelmed by the size of the desk? Unique desk shape The desk shape was specifically designed to ensure multiple chairs would comfortably fit around it. Additionally, the unique shape allowed for each partner to maintain a direct line of sight with their Executive Assistant when they weren’t hosting a meeting. Under desk computer dock maximizes desk real estate We explored how to maximize your desk surface when you have four people sitting at it for a small meeting. How can the desk feel clean and uncluttered to allow for more surface area for the meeting participants? As a solution, we made a docking station drawer to house wires, a laptop and miscellaneous papers, which allows for a clean and uncluttered work surface. Executive Assistant workstations that allow for adjustable privacy We met with the Executive Assistants and asked them about their current setup: What works and what doesn’t work for you, currently? They previously had panels that were about 48” tall, which they liked for
heads-down work and privacy, but when they needed to talk to their coworkers or check on something for one of the Executives, they had to stand up. So, we made high felt divider panels that slide open to allow each EA to quickly chat with their neighbor or have eyes on their associated private office, while maintaining privacy for heads-down work. A boardroom table that accommodates both large and small meetings The boardroom presented a unique challenge: the large all-hands meeting the company holds each week needs to accommodate a large group of people – the room accommodates 32 people, and the table itself accommodates 20 people – but on any other given day, the boardroom sits idle because the table is too large for smaller 4-6 person meetings. In order to avoid a large, empty, and awkward space for smaller meetings, we designed the large boardroom table to transform into 3 smaller tables. While the center tabletop is made of stone, the two end pieces of the table are made of wood and are on casters, so they easily unhook and rotate around to dock to banquettes, forming a few small meeting settings. As an additional detail, we intentionally designed the legs to be more substantial with a rolled panel feel so that you could lock the caster in place without the tables looking like cheap training desks.
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Function meets form with these ceramics.
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Meet Mary Moen, Studio Other Design Consultant, who is getting acquainted with clay as she learns ceramics from the ground up. Inspired by the midcentury ceramics movement in the French countryside, Mary makes mostly hand-built functional objects that she would want in her own home (although she has a habit of gifting most of them away).
What are some of your favorite pieces you’ve made?
Where did you draw inspiration from for your work? Last fall, I visited Accolay, a city in the countryside of France, known for the colorful ceramics that became popular in the midcentury. The movement began with four young artists who escaped Germanoccupied Paris in 1944 and began an experimental pottery studio in an old factory in the little village of Accolay where they started by making ceramic buttons. Their breakout moment came when Christian Dior ordered 300 of their ceramic buttons for his New Look collection. Accolay Pottery blew up from there and thrived until the mid1970s while Accolay became a destination for Parisians heading to the Cote d’Azur on holiday during the 1950s and 60s.
I fell in love with Accolay pottery because the pieces are hand-thrown and many feature unique textural details. Also I love that while the pieces are sculptural in nature, they’re still functional. Many of the forms are inspired by classic shapes of urns, and others are truly unique. Some are rustic, others are more refined. How long does it take you to build it? From a couple hours to days, weeks, years... What materials are used? Clay, tools, wheel, kiln, glazes What was your greatest obstacle in the process and how did you overcome it? The biggest obstacle is giving the work the time and patience it needs. That’s why I dedicated myself to taking a college course — it kept me accountable.
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How did you first get into ceramics? I’ve always been interested in ceramics. In college, I’d always be trying new classes and workshops in my free time. (I didn’t own a TV until I met my husband). But I decided to kickstart it when Studio started the Passion Project series and signed up for a class at Santa Monica College. Luckily, the team supported my Friday 5-hour class for a semester where I learned ceramics basics. The rest is history.
I like functional things. I love burning incense so I made an incense holder and vessels to burn Palo Santo.
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Turning a Crystal Ball into Concrete How a workstation co-designed with Pegasystems changed the way their employees work.
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When Pegasystems (Pega) began planning for a new office during the beginning of the pandemic, they worked with senior leadership to establish early expectations on how and when employees would come back, making some initial assumptions on how the office would be used in the future. “We needed to be able to send a message that we had listened to employees and that the way they worked in the past was not going to be the way they were going to work in the future, and that the office should reflect that new way of working,” says Dan Ryan, Vice President, Pega Real Estate and Facilities. Together with architecture firm Visnick & Caulfield, we were eager for the chance to co-design a workstation that was unlike anything we’ve worked on before. Design Challenge 1: Designing a unique workstation that supports “me space” and “we space” all in one In initial discussions with Pegasystems, they referenced a charmed space in Harry Potter called “Room of Requirement,” a room that transforms into any space the wizard needs at that moment. Simply put, the company wanted a workstation that adapts to each user based on their needs that day. A daunting initial idea, we decided it would best be tackled by first learning what exactly those needs are. We began by surveying teams of five people—one supervisor and four team members— from every department that had been identified as high-performers.
Through these surveys, we learned they wanted: • A private desk where they could also collaborate with teammates • A big display, but they don’t want anybody to see what’s on the display • The ability to stand, but not have direct sight of everyone else who is seated Through weekly live design sessions with Pega and Visnick & Caulfield and full-scale cardboard mockups, we landed on a solution that provides every user with a whiteboard and an integrated desk surround that can also be used as a collaboration area. From this surround, users can pull out rigid felt screens that not only provide a sense of privacy and improved sound absorption but also subtly announce that the team member is in heads-down mode and would prefer minimal distraction. Lastly, the unique shape allows for users to never directly face another team member and be spaced out enough to give a sense of ownership over one’s own space. “When you set up a mockup and look at how you’re doing it, all of a sudden, you start to realize the possibilities, and in this case, the 2nd and 3rd priorities could be accommodated along with the first,” says Ryan. Design Challenge 2: A unique layout that allows for more space and agency “For years, we had very traditional space designs because real estate is expensive
and people wanted what they were used to. We wanted linear, but we also wanted our employees to have more space,” says Ryan. “That was the hard part, we needed the same thing, but we needed it packaged and perceived differently.” The Studio Other team, led by Nicole Zywiec, Industrial Design Lead, initially came back with a standard row setup perpendicular to the windows, which we collectively decided was too traditional, and didn’t accomplish the spatial requirements. We went back to the drawing board and put each component on a 45-degree angle, which completely changed the look and feel of the entire space. Because of the unique desk shape and layout, it created a zigzag pattern that allows each user more individual space and visual privacy by eliminating the elbow-to-elbow setup. “It was a simple thing, but it transformed the design from traditional to completely new and different,” says Ryan. A traditional desking layout will have a sixpack of desks lined up with people facing each other, shoulder-to-shoulder, and power running down the center. Because Pega wanted more from their seating arrangement and wanted greater space and privacy for each user, Studio Other developed a yin-yang power beam that follows the non-traditional desk arrangement with a serpentine power system at the base of the structure that feeds power to all of the desks.
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Glassblowing, Blacksmithing, & Graffiti Art
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Our team stays creative with the help of local artists.
“These events are important for many reasons, but fundamentally they are the ethos of Studio Other. We are makers at our core in the work we do for our clients and what drives most of us. Most of the team got into this line of work because we all enjoy making things. Many of our Monday conversations
Charlotte Wiederholt, Studio Other, President Studio Other
Studio Other is a team of makers – not only is this statement inherently tied to our brand identity, but also our personal identities outside of work. This is a shared value within our organization and it’s important that we cultivate our collective creativity, especially through new crafts. From blacksmithing to glassblowing to graffiti art, we’ve partnered with many local artists to keep our maker minds and hands agile so that we can enter each project with ever-evolving innovation.
about our weekends consist of ‘what did you make this weekend?’ It’s a common language for us all. Because we all have this common passion, events are a great way for us to bond together. Also learning a new skill in the realm of making helps us be better designers, engineers, and builders. Exposure to new mediums helps our brains look at things differently and keeps the creative juices flowing.”
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