Office Design (Design Books)

At the beginning of the 19th century, Charles Fourrier observed that citizens’ lives were marked not by the home but by the office; 200 years later, this somewhat eccentric statement expresses the reality of post-industrial society: In Western countries, one of the consequences of the globalization of the economy has been the concentration of workers in the tertiary sector; more than half of the population works in offices. Offices have become domestic, the relationship between workmates has become closer and their workplace seems increasingly like a club or house in which they spend the greater part of the day. All presented projects feature inspiring ideas of designing more efficient, modern and more pleasant working environments.

The Not So Golden Arches

I don’t know if you noticed, but the golden arches of the McDonald’s logo are not always “golden”. McDonald’s allows for a surprising range of color variations, like this green logo that was necessary to downplay the shameful existence of Mickey-D’s in an uppity Sedona community. They even planted a shrub to hide the logo.

A fine example that might explain the failure of the The Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention is the sinister looking logo on the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. The color harmonizes with the silhouette of A-12 Blackbird above on the deck of USS Intrepid.

By the way, I always thought that Grimace was chicken nugget gone bad. As it turns out, I was wrong about the chicken nugget part, but was right about the gone bad part. Grimace used to be a four-handed villain hellbent on stealing shakes. My favorite quote from one of the number of the Mystery of Grimace websites: “Grimace wasn’t marketable as a fat ass purple thief, but is marketable as a fat ass purple nice guy“. Well, at least the Hamburglar is continuing his life of crime. And I am afraid Ronald might join him soon enough after being fired in Japan.


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