I wish Marissa would be a bit more literal in her communications around the proposed office redesign. She’s like a human mood board, emitting a selection of impressions without explaining exactly what form they should take, how to put them together and what to emphasise. I’m sure that’s because she doesn’t know the answers herself, which is fair enough, but what am I supposed to do with it?
I suppose my role is to translate it to an office designer. Melbourne must have plenty of those, given the number of offices around, so I guess I’ll just call a few up and bat some keywords at them. Maybe they’ll know what to make of ‘fearless distinction’, ‘bright gravity’ and ‘sweeping lightness’… let’s hope so, because Marissa is quite insistent that those qualities be incorporated.
You know, she’s not a human mood board after all. A mood board, at least, illustrates nebulous concepts pictorially. If Marissa could do that, it might be a bit easier to understand what she’s on about. As it stands, she’s more like a human version of a diagram scribbled on a bar napkin by someone who’s had one too many cab savs. There’s no detail, colour or clear direction to any of it.
Here in Melbourne, office fitout companies might well have the capacity to interpret such a diagram – I’m sure they’re well accustomed to just this sort of thing. Perhaps ‘sweeping lightness’, for example, translates neatly to sheer curtains as room dividers, and ‘fearless distinction’ to terracotta planters embedded in the floor. ‘Bright gravity’ still has me at a loss, but that probably maps onto something as well… I dunno, I guess it could be to do with smart lighting.
May I’ll try making a mood board and bounce it back to Marissa for her approval. At least that’ll let me know if we’re vaguely close to being on the same page.