We believe great design serves a purpose. That means the brand environments we create not only look good, but they also do work—generating interest, telling a story, creating connection, sparking conversation and inspiring action.
We take that same on-the-job dedication to design function and apply it to the places we do our jobs. We can’t help ourselves. We see each office as an opportunity to represent our people, our work and our brand as well as support our family culture.
So it’s not surprising that when we open or redesign an office, we put ourselves through the same paces we put our clients through. Because office space—like exhibit, event and retail space—has to serve its audience. Which, in our case, is the employees who work there and the clients who drop in to say hello.
Each design project starts with finding out how the space will be used, what it needs to achieve and how it should feel. We then scout out the floor plan, looking for opportunities to push new concepts, cultivate collaboration, showcase our brand and incorporate company history and location-specific vibes.
Designing Plano
The driving force behind our office designs is to create spaces where people can come together. So it makes sense that the goal for our new Plano office was to produce a comfortable yet professional environment for employees and clients to enjoy the moment they step in it.
A symmetrical layout with low-backed furniture and glass partitions helped us achieve this goal, allowing visitors to become instantly familiar with the space while feeling encouraged to make themselves at home.
The large, open kitchen beckons visitors to grab a cup of coffee instead of waiting to be served. It also acts as a gathering place, hosting meals as well as meetings, presentations and events.
With the Texas landscape serving as our design inspiration, we paired concrete with leather and other natural materials to create a warm and authentic atmosphere.
And, to keep folks mixing and mingling after hours, we established Club Czar. Secret doors hiding in the kitchen and conference room grant access to the clandestine speakeasy, and specially branded drinkware, coasters and apparel make it a distinctly Czarnowski experience.
Redesigning Orlando
While Plano was a new construction buildout with a clean floor plate, Orlando was a preexisting building—challenging us to take our big, bold ideas and scale them to fit an established floorplan in the most cost-effective way.
Orlando was already undergoing a transformation, converting a new property into a state-of-the-art production workshop. So while we were designing spaces for painting, carpentry, metal-working, storage and more, we also took a fresh look at the existing office space to establish a cohesive look.
We take pride in being able to create what we design in-house. And with Orlando’s upgraded graphic capabilities, it became a testing ground for our new branding—giving us the chance to experiment with how to best showcase our new clean, modular look.
Corrugated metal crate icons and bold “Stories That Move” messaging combined with heritage and present-day photos chart the path from where we’ve been as a company to where we are headed.
Relocating Boston
With Boston outgrowing its existing office and moving into a new space, we had the chance to update its look and functionality.
The goal was to design a workspace that served employees across generations and job functions. We wanted to increase collaboration while bringing a stronger sense of community to an office whose employees travel a lot.
So we moved away from private offices and created dedicated work areas, including phone booths, huddle rooms and lounges—each designed to accommodate different seating, privacy and focus needs. This flexibility empowers employees to work the way that suits their style and deliver the best results.
We also continued to experiment with new treatments and branding graphics, with a shipping container wall featuring a metal Czarnowski “C” serving as the office’s focal point.
Designing our evolution
Our company, like our design philosophy, is about doing work. Our number one focus is to serve our clients and our people.
While our look and our capabilities have changed a lot over the last 70 years, the thing that remains constant is our values.
That’s why they are thoughtfully displayed in each of our workspaces—encouraging engagement, reconnecting us to our culture and reinforcing who we are and how we got here.