The office landscape had to feel like a real business card in which business-to-business customers get the experience as if they were standing in a fancy shop.
Fresh ‘n Rebel makes stylish headphones, earbuds and speakers. When this Rotterdam-based company relocated from a site in the middle of the city to their new location near Rotterdam The Hague Airport, we were asked to design and realise their new working environment.
Any relocation is not easy. After all, you don’t just change location, but also a certain feeling. Fresh ‘n Rebel was located right in the centre of Rotterdam, on Blaak. That location brought with it an energetic vibe. The new office needed to be an environment that would ensure that vibe was not missed. In fact, it had to become a place that was even more exciting than before in every way.
To create this, we could gratefully use a few fine ingredients.
The company uses beautiful slogans, stylish photography and distinct colours that also work well in an interior: mint green, indigo blue and dark red. The contrast of these colours creates a nice variation in an office landscape: sometimes the warmth of meeting each other, sometimes a fresher colour that facilitates focus.
Fresh ‘n Rebel’s office also serves as a location where customers can see, feel and, of course, hear what the company makes. The office landscape had to feel like a real business card where business-to-business customers get the experience as if they were standing in a fancy shop. Customers have that experience right on entering. Here, we designed a work café where you immediately fall head over heels: you can have a nice cup of coffee, meet each other and immediately get to see lots of beautiful Fresh ‘n Rebel stuff. The threshold for conversation here is extremely low.
We turned the top floor into a play area where you can play games or table football, for example. We deliberately separated work and meeting places. Throughout the building you will find various small places where you can meet or talk briefly. By separating these elements from more focused work, you take full advantage of the power of meeting, or of something you need to concentrate on.
On the top floor there is also a lounge and a large boardroom from where you have a great view of the airport, where you can see the planes taking off and landing. This is another key ingredient that contributes to the allure of the office. Thanks to an extensive lighting plan, we created with neon light lines that give colour to the spaces, suggest some kind of movement and let the whole place breathe, so to speak. That feeling gives energy. And that in turn ties in with the underlying idea of the design: this new office inspires. Not only employees, but also customers. Such that the old bustling environment is actually no longer missed.
Photography: Laura Emma
