Studio tour: Envelopments

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Name: Holly Jakobs
Company: Envelopments
Location: Santa Ana, CA

What is your aesthetic? Envelopments aesthetic is clean yet eclectic due to the number of designers and influences that wander across our path.  Our mission is to be able to speak to a wide audience with an incredible mix and match design system that will satisfy any soul.

How does your studio style convey your professional aesthetic? Because of our mission and diversity we have designed a work environment that is open and leaves room for the mind to wander. Our offices house every aspect of our business including design, sales and service, as well as manufacturing and shipping.  Because each Envelopments employee is critical to our success we are all connected by the fact we can see from one end of the building to the other.  Design, being the inception of turning ideas into reality, is at one end, next is customer development in the middle and then manufacturing and shipping at the other end of the building. Architecturally, certain walls and ceilings are designed with folds and shapes reminiscent of our products.  We also uncovered original artifacts of the building with sandblasting to show off a mix of raw wood, metal and concrete. Being mindful of our environment we opened the ceiling for natural light and busted down walls to open our conference room to the bamboo garden we created. We think a great reflection of how our facilities’ design aesthetic and our desire to be as green as possible is in the fact that we have received an award for our interior design from the AIA Orange County (American Institute for Architects), and have been written about in Contract Magazine’s Green Issue.

Favorite part of your studio? For us, coming to work everyday is a joy because of the special attention to detail at our offices. The calm of the garden creates the bridge into the pool of creativity we call work. Walking through the bamboo garden and into the offices always is a surprise for our visitors and we can hear it in their voices when they enter. They come in the front door and immediately we can hear…”wow, this place is cool!”  We love that.

Where do you go for inspiration? At the office inspiration comes from many places…from the lack of right angles; the stacks of colorful stocks in the warehouse; the textures found in the rock garden; the smell of jasmine coming in the windows; the kids art hanging on the walls; our resource library; or creating a fruit salad for lunch in the kitchen. Walking around our place can be a real head trip.

What tool do you use in your business that you can’t live without? In the office we have designed the ergonomics of our work spaces around the desk. Instead of focusing on the chair we wanted the option of being able to sit, stand or anywhere in-between while working.  So, we found beautiful desks that are adjustable at the touch of a button. If you were to do stop action photography throughout the day it would look like a merry-go-round with each employee picking a different desk height depending on what was more comfortable for them at certain times of the day.

Is there anything you’d upgrade to? With our growth we could use a little more warehouse space. We do have room out back to build if we absolutely need it.

Anything else we should know? Envelopments is a design driven company.  We feel that if we live our lives mindful of design and surround ourselves with inspiration it will be reflected in our products and how we interact with others. We love what we do and the relationships we have nurtured with each other and our customers.

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[images from Envelopments]