Project 7 - WOED Field Trip

I enjoyed our trip to West Office Design in Oakland. The first thing I noticed at West Office was their air of professionalism. It was interesting after experiencing the smaller, more colloquial Mauk Design, to see how a larger firm might function. It seemed to me that West Office was proficient at structuring and organizing work processes while still maintaining a certain openness that allowed the development of creative ideas.

What I really like about West Office design was their commitment to concept. If you looked at their library, there were very few books on design in relation to books on every other topic. I don’t feel it makes sense to say, “I got this commission to design the Plains Indian Museum. I’m going to research this project by reading a bunch of design magazines,” and it seems West Office agrees with me, being that they had an entire shelf of books on plains Indians.

And they have a cool building! It’s this crazy industrial factory turned design firm. On top of that, the building is in a sweet area. China town is maybe 5 blocks away from their office. If I worked there I could get like 10 BBQ pork buns on my lunch break, and that would be sweet.

Oh, and the models were insane!