January 22nd, 2013 – “Four perfectly curved openings are placed symmetrically, which gives the entire space a funny ‘sacred’ feel,” says Pinkeye’s Creative Director, Ruud Belmans, about the company’s new headquarters. Not in a church-like way, but a childhood filled with building tree houses sort of way. There is something really cool about getting a glimpse of a space designed by a team of designers, for themselves. Designing for your clients is one things, but actually designing a space for yourself is a whole new ballgame. When the office space adjacent to Pinkeye’s Antwerp headquarters became available, the growing firm rushed at the chance to takeover and expand their workplace.

“We are a multidisciplinary design studio, with various in-house specialisms – product developers, graphic designers, interior architects, marketeers – so our way of working is very dynamic and our output is highly diverse,” Belman explained. With all these in house specialists, the need to have a strategic spacial layout is pertinent, along with small and large communal spaces.

Belman understands how crucial a functional space is to the creative process – “under the right conditions they enrich one another, which leads to novel solutions that you wouldn’t normally come up with.”

The 6,500 square foot space is divided by a long wall full of diagonal wooden beams that runs central through the entire workspace. Half moon shaped cut-outs make for windows that reveal more intimate rooms, an intervention to create quiet, private work spaces in the overall open office design.

“We had the ridges painted the same matte black as the metal sheets which clad the curves in the wooden wall, ” Belman explained. At the near end of the room there are two spaces set behind glass doors: a rather sober conference room and a more decorative creativity room.

An elongated office table houses 18 monitors, mice, graphic pads and keyboards for as many creative heads. The interior design is a mixture of design and no nonsense. Black-and-white hanging lights hover above the central work table like UFOs.

The spacious lunch area, a space that could equally serve as a bar, is set to the rear. The bar itself is clad in gold, with diamond-shaped cut-outs outlined in black. “I thought it was important for us to all be able to eat and sit together,” Belman added.

 (Photography by Frederik Vercruysse)