March 28, 2007

Long Table Agencies

by Piers Fawkes

A few weeks ago Hemal Vasavada-Gill of The Eight Fold came by for a chat. One of her observations was about the long tables we sit at alongside the folk we share the office with (Anomaly). Hemal told of us her theory that today’s most creative agencies sit at long tables and pointed to Long Table agencies like Mother, Naked, Brooklyn Brothers and Strawberry Frog.

Noah Brier just started working at Naked and he made this observation on his blog:

One of the coolest things about Naked is the long table we all sit at. While at first a bit intimidating and at times somewhat loud, the pros far outweigh the cons. Being able to overhear conversations and interject where appropriate is where a lot of good ideas come from.

We followed up with Hemal and she mailed us this:

The “long table” is a physical manifestation of networked culture. Information is less driven by hierarchy and process and more driven through connections, collaboration, transparency and as Noah aptly put it in his blog, moments of serrendipity. Long table work environments help achieve this. Regardless of title, everyone sits together, pitches in, hears everything and can be inspired by seemingly unrelated moments or conversations around them.

Does the Long Table impact creativity? Any other examples? Thoughts? Comments?

Article categories: Advertising & Branding, Architecture

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11 Responses to “Long Table Agencies”

  1. Tony Jones
    Posted from: 68.161.197.197

    March 28th, 2007 at 10:46 am

    Mostly praise for the long table. But for me it was sometimes too easy to bounce ideas off my CD who sat nearby. The idea is a little more refined when you have to prepare it for a (albeit informal) meeting.

  2. Seni Thomas
    Posted from: 208.120.109.84

    March 28th, 2007 at 12:03 pm

    Check out Metropolis magazine a month or two ago. Great article on the design of research labs and how innovation occurs. Very relevent.

  3. STEPHEN RUTTERFORD
    Posted from: 68.160.66.226

    March 28th, 2007 at 2:45 pm

    At The Brooklyn Brothers they have 2 long tables. Does that make them twice as creative?
    They also happen to be made from white board so you can write on them. Crazy I know.
    So how long does a table have to be before it starts being creative?
    and surely there’s a cut off point if the table grows too long where communication becomes
    inaudible.

  4. hvgill
    Posted from: 69.86.227.110

    March 28th, 2007 at 4:08 pm

    Piers - Thanks for the shout out. I love Stephen’s comment.

    Can you tell everything about an agency by the size of its table? Noah was telling me growing agencies are playing with how to scale the concept. So if someone cracks the code, the best long tables will be infinite.

    Btw love the white board idea. Don’t know about the Brooklyn Brothers experience, but I think it breaks the monotony of power point and reminds us to scribble.

  5. Ian
    Posted from: 74.73.174.165

    March 29th, 2007 at 6:35 am

    I’ve become a fan of the ‘long table’ … probably due to my work with Naked in the UK. I think it’s very compelling for management to be at the table as well … not only does it humanize management (especially to really Jr. staff) but it also allows management to keep their finger on the pulse of day-2-day activity.

  6. pi
    Posted from: 219.79.154.141

    March 29th, 2007 at 12:58 pm

    all the quoted benefits seem achievable on a round table - how’s a long one different?!

  7. TV
    Posted from: 63.139.109.226

    March 29th, 2007 at 5:31 pm

    Having worked at multiple agencies, a long table is only as good as the people around it.

  8. :: eric pakurar ::» Blog Archive » links for 2007-07-29
    Posted from: 69.65.19.204

    July 28th, 2007 at 11:26 pm

    [...] Long Table Agencies on PSFK “The “long table” is a physical manifestation of networked culture. Information is less driven by hierarchy and process and more driven through connections, collaboration, transparency and as Noah aptly put it in his blog, moments of serendipity” (tags: business marketing space design long table seating hierarchy) [...]

  9. Employees Leaving The Office To Find "White Space" on PSFK
    Posted from: 72.47.211.46

    December 19th, 2007 at 1:10 pm

    [...] PSFK Articles: Long Table Agencies TBWA/Hakuhodo’s Green Brainstorm [...]

  10. Reconsider your Workspace | Michael Karnjanaprakorn
    Posted from: 64.202.165.131

    April 2nd, 2008 at 5:47 pm

    [...] creativity like put pool tables on the creative floor. As you can see from this post on PSFK about long tables, this post about agency architecture and of course aintnodisco.com; it’s a hot topic.  [...]

  11. Doug Cooke
    Posted from: 76.27.212.250

    August 21st, 2008 at 5:13 pm

    Regarding the Long Table…

    I have worked at many “all in one room” design and strategy firms for years. Some times the togetherness was more a budgetary necessity than a planed interaction strategy. Yet, in general I would agree that the interconnections and “ambient information” resulting from being all together is a boost to creativity on the whole. An even stronger solution is to have spaces where the Buzz of being in the hive is balanced by “nooks and cubbies” where creatives can go do some solitary thinking and potentially extend the diversity of thought away from the pack. There are also individuals who have mental and emotional difficulty thinking independently in aural and visual proximity to others.

    cheers,

    Doug

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