Office design has evolved over the years. 

No longer do you enter a small cubicle room, closed off from the rest of the world until the day finishes with just a plant to remind you the outside world exists. 

Today we design our offices to suit the people in them and add features, colours, and designs that enhance their productivity, creativity, and general mood. 

Below we discuss the main ways in which good office design can boost mood and creativity in the workplace.

Choose colours wisely

Different colours have the ability to influence our mood and wellbeing. To boost mood, productivity, and creativity in the workplace through the use of colour, it’s suggested that you should stay clear of shades of grey, white and beige that are a common theme in corporate offices. According to research, these colours are more likely to make you feel sad. Green and blue are known to impact creativity positively and yellow is thought to inspire creativity, innovation, and optimism. This doesn't mean you need to paint the whole office yellow, rather adding in subtle hints of the colour throughout the office does the job.

Provide space to move around

You should be encouraging your staff to stay active and healthy. This is because regular exercise releases serotonin (the ‘happiness hormone’), to help boost mood and can also help improve how staff cope with stressful situations- which the office will present from time to time. To incorporate some form of exercise and space to move around into the office design, consider the use of a sit stand desk alongside standard ones. You should also provide a "time out" zone with comfortable chairs that are situated away from the normal working desks. This gives people a chance to separate their work and break time, which is vital to ensure motivation and creativity. Remember that staring at screens for long periods of time, usually means we are slouched over. This can cause problems for our backs, thus making us feel uncomfortable. To help rectify this, you should invest in good quality office chairs for your employees.

Keep the office bright and open

You should aim to incorporate as much natural light as possible when you are creating your office design. Workplaces that have high proportions of daylight have been shown to have a 3 – 40% increase in sales and productivity. To achieve this, ensure desks are positioned towards windows, and if there is limited access to natural lighting, consider the use of skylights. To keep spaces open and bright, you should also eliminate partitions between desks, or try glass panels. These solutions help maximise the amount of natural light entering the room, whilst still allowing your employees to retain privacy.

Office design - where to find out more

If you're on the lookout for a high-quality company who can offer you advice on what office furniture is perfect for enhancing the mood and creativity levels in your office, then look no further than Benchdesking. We provide office furniture solutions as well as providing a full design, planning, delivery and installation service. We are there from start to finish (and after) to assist you.