The Karma Group

THE KARMA GROUP MOVES AND GROOVES IN NEW DIGS
New space works harder

Green Bay, WI, July 14, 2008 – When The Karma Group moved into its new offices in Howard in mid-June, it was really more of a shift than a move. For the national award-winning brand development and advertising firm, it was a shift away from a traditional office environment toward a more dynamic workshop venue.

“We took a step back and asked ourselves where true innovation and creative thought happen in our culture,” said Steve Meyer, Co-President and Executive Creative Director. “And we quickly realized it happens in garages, workshops, kitchens and laboratories. It happens where people are not afraid to make a little noise, spill paint on the floor and take risks.” That’s when The Karma Group knew it couldn’t build just another office.

To accentuate the difference between office and workshop, the agency put a kitchen right in the front lobby. Meyer, who did the space planning, explains there are two reasons for this. First, the firm wanted to establish a relaxed, open coffeehouse culture where people gather, share ideas and collaborate. Secondly, it wanted to send a clear message to staff when they enter the front door each morning that this is not a place where people can simply show up, crawl into comfy offices and hide out. This is a place where people are expected to roll up their sleeves, dig in and create things together. “Every good party ends in the kitchen,” Meyer explains. “So we thought we’d start there. Ideas flow freely and people have good dialog in kitchens. It’s how we’re wired.”

Throughout the environment, open collaboration and brainstorming spaces are stationed adjacent to employee workspaces. The design encourages staff to casually and spontaneously interact and share thoughts about projects. The intent is to foster more conversations and fewer meetings. “Email is a great convenience and we’d never want to be without it,” said Lynn Douville, The Karma Group’s Co-President and Business Operations Director. “But email is a poor substitute for just sitting down and eyeballing someone. We wanted to create a work culture that encourages people to just talk to each other.”

The interior design, led by two of the firm’s senior art directors, Tracy Noyes and Helen Carpiaux, provides an intentionally raw and unfinished look. Materials normally used for substrates were chosen for finished surfaces. These include OSB “chip board,” corrugated galvanized metal, raw plywood and concrete floors. “The surface materials illustrate our belief that excellence is always a work in progress. It’s never finished,” Douville explains. “We wanted to create a dynamic in which work is a verb, not a noun; active, not passive”

All four elements of creation are worked into the design. Fire is represented by red walls and accents, earth by exposed wood, water by the ripples in corrugated metal used throughout, and wind in the horizontal lines of slat walls as well as open spaces with easy air movement. In addition, ceilings are left out and the exposed joists, ducts, and surfaces are painted black to symbolize the infinity of thought, ideas and creativity.

In reflecting on the new space, The Karma Group’s founder and CEO, Mike McKenna, is quick to point out that the building is a means to an end, not an end in itself. “It’s all about the caliber of work we’re able to produce for our clients,” McKenna said. “Steve (Meyer) and Lynn (Douville) had a vision for a facility that would foster excellence in both the culture and the work. It’s been exciting to watch it come to fruition, but it’s been a lot more rewarding to see the level of work being produced. When you see the creative coming out of here, it’s easily some of our best ever.” That is a high standard considering that The Karma Group already has hundreds of industry awards to its credit, including a prestigious National Gold ADDY.

The Karma Group is a full service brand development and advertising firm located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Clients include the Green Bay Packers, Kimberly-Clark Corporation (Cottonelle, Kleenex, Huggies), Oshkosh Corporation, Cellcom, Aspirus Healthcare, and Schreiber Foods among others. For more information, contact Steve Meyer (920-432-6685, sjmeyer@etkg.com).