At Evernote in Redwood City, California, the strict budget and swift pace of construction helped determine the direction of the design. Evernote is an online data storage company that allows its users to save (and retrieve) everything from Post-It notes to photographs to formal documents in the Cloud. With the company moving into a much larger building than it had previously occupied, and with business booming, Evernote needed to be up and running in its new space with a minimum of downtime. Our challenge was to design an office commensurate with Evernote’s soaring profile on what was essentially a start-up budget and schedule.
We began with the concept of making the process of construction part of the aesthetic. In a clean and modern context, construction materials may acquire the design impact of richer finishes. Evernote’s coffee bar and break areas are clad with Douglas fir plywood, the texture and grain of which provides its own graphic patterns. Forgoing expensive interior branding, Evernote instead hired chalk artist Dana Tanamachi to draft a wall-sized representation of the company’s identity, complete with its tagline, “Remember everything,” and elephant logo. Low-maintenance, water-conserving plants on an adjoining wall contribute to the reception area’s look of unforced spaciousness.
