Samitaur In the News
March 2001
Tunnel Vision – Interior Design
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You Are Where You Work. At least that seems to be the current thinking among media types. Ad agencies, which are increasingly expanding beyond broadcast and print to the Internet, are among those foregoing the status of Madison Avenue-type offices in favor of warehouse life. Ogilvy and Mather, founded in 1948 as one-man firm by David Ogilvy and now part of WPP Worldwide, has joined the burgeoning trend of rejecting more traditional quarters in favor of open-plan designs. For agency personnel, the move signaled “a shift from exclusion to inclusion,” says Joe McDonagh, O & M’s co-vice president and creative director who is also responsible for initiating the change. “It’s not about a new place to work, but a new way to work,” he told staff members during preliminary meetings. “You won’t be able to retreat to an office.” Following interviews with many of Los Angeles’s high-profile design firms, McDonagh opted for Shubin and Donaldson, because, he explains, “I wished they worked for my company.”