What do you listen to while you work?
In the office we have a bit of a music ritual. Early mornings tend to be fairly mellow, picked by whoever comes in first. Then, at 10am we tune in via iTunes radio to the KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic radio show. That lasts until 1pm and we usually go the duration — unless the guest in the last hour is driving us crazy. At 1pm we go into a rotation and we usually get a bit loud from 1 – 3pm while we’re trying to get a bunch of shipping done before the UPS pickup.

How do you listen?
We listen through iTunes via Airplay, connected to a fairly vintage thrift store find Yamaha receiver, connected to some old, but very nice Infinity speakers. It’s a handy system because we can all connect via iTunes or Spotify, etc. When I really need to focus and get a lot done, I’ve got a pair of Aiaiai TMA-1 headphones I’ll put on to shut out distractions.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers?
“Favorite” might be a stretch, but we do listen to Spotify in the afternoons a fair amount.  And naturally, we keep an eye on Pitchfork and the usual locations.

Does music influence your work?
I tend to think music influences everything but it’s often in a behind-the-scenes way. More directly, I know that if we have a lot of shipping to do, some A Place to Bury Strangers might be just what we need to make it go fast.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste?
Most of our new music is introduced via a collection of friends around the country on a small music email list. Usually once a week someone on the list sends out a new band for us to check out. It’s a mix of folk, so we end up with rap to sad-sack music and everything in between.

Do you have Herman Miller pieces in your studio, home, or office?
In my house I’ve got a Nelson Platform Bench and an Aluminum Group Lounge Chair. My daughter usually capitalizes the lounger (“it spins well!”) but my longtime favorite is the bench. Simple, clean, classic. [My partner] Jedd has a few more pieces at his place, he has an Eames Lounge Chair in leather — and I’m not convinced he ever sits anywhere else. His dog, Pinto, is usually found on the Ottoman. He has an Aluminum Group Lounge Chair as well — he found both his and mine at a local vintage shop.

Ideal place to sit and listen to your playlist is on a black leather Eames Chaise. It starts off slow so you can relax a bit, and then about the time you doze off it picks up — at which point, no more sitting. That means it’s time to get up and move. 

Mark’s Playlist:
1. Life’s a Beach, Django Django
2. One More Time, Psychic Ills
3. Don’t You Forget It, Allah-Las
4. Love Vigilantes, New Order
5. Let the Day Begin, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (“The original by The Call (his dad) was great, too.”)
6. Borrowed Time, Parquet Courts
7. Build, Destroy, Rebuild, Hanni El Khatib
8. Electric, The Men
9. Anxiety’s Door, Merchandise
10. You Are the One, A Place to Bury Strangers

Mark adds:
This list represents what we’re listening to now with a few throwbacks that seem to pop up in rotation. It’ll likely be different in a few months.

Photos: Mark Hansen

1. “Cut and Paste: Paper Became a Passion for Designer Irving Harper” from Interior Design magazine.

2. Hipstamatic’s office, as reimagined by design firm Envelope A+D, at California Home + Design.

3. The Los Angeles Times’ coverage of Toyo Ito, winner of this year’s Pritzker Prize, the most prestigious award in architecture.

4. Japanese architect Shigeru Ban’s temporary pavilion made from cardboard tubes at the IE School of Architecture and Design in Madrid (via Dezeen).

5. 10 inspiring quotes from the Eames family at Dwell.

6. News from PSFK that Amsterdam’s DUS Public Architecture is set to develop and create a house using a giant 3D printer.

7. The New York Times‘ feature on the 14-year renovation of the home of Scott Omelianuk, editor of This Old House.

8. “Don’t Write off the Poster,” Eye Magazine‘s look at the collaboration between the UK’s V&A Museum and the Royal College of Art seeking to prove that the poster has not been killed off by digital media.

9. “Steve Jobs: Architect” at Design Observer.

10. The opening of artist Christo’s “Big Air Package” in Germany, reported to be the most expansive indoor sculpture ever created (via designboom).

Featured in photo: Eames Molded Plywood Chair, SAYL Chair, Nelson Platform Bench

Created to fill the basic need for storage and display with beautiful, simple details, these cabinets and cases are a refinement of Nelson’s ongoing research into storage furniture that started with his pioneering “Storagewall” modular concept featured in 1945 in Life magazine. A practical, standardized system of casegoods that can combine and adapt to a variety of uses, the series’ versatile combination of drawers, shelves, and cabinets may stand alone or be securely stacked atop another landmark design: the Platform Bench. One of the most flexible and useful units in the series, the multipurpose piece may function as a high base for deep and shallow cases, as a low table, or as extra seating (always a plus).

To see various configurations of the Nelson Basic Cabinet Series in action, check out the photos below. And for more organizing and storage ideas, visit store.hermanmiller.com.

1. East Rock Park – If you’re looking for a little New Haven nature (and are willing to brave the elements), East Rock is the area’s largest park, complete with nature and hiking trails and even a bird sanctuary, Take a winter’s stroll to the summit of East Rock for an unmatched vista view of Long Island Sound. East Rock Park is located on the New Haven / Hamden border, roughly bounded by Livingston Street, Davis Street, State Street, and the Mill River. Visit New Haven Parks for information.

2. Atticus Bookstore + Café - After the park, grab a book and coffee break in Atticus, an independent bookseller that’s been serving New Haven for more than 30 years. With an extensive selection of books, Atticus also features art exhibits and a formidable café menu. Atticus, 203-776-3719, 1082 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT 06510.

3. Yale Center for British Art - Designed by Louis I. Kahn and completed in 1974, the Center is home to the largest and most comprehensive collection of British artwork outside of the UK. Through March 10th, explore the paintings of Mark Leonard in “Reflections on Constable’s Cloud Studies.” Yale Center for British Art, 203-432-2800, 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT 06510.

4. The Cask Republic - Wet your whistle on the Crown Street strip in this tavern featuring a broad, ever-rotating selection of beers along with well-crafted pub fair pairings. Cask also barrels and bottle-ages beer on site, showing its ales that extra bit of affection. The Cask Republic, 475-238-8335, 179 Crown Street, New Haven, CT 06510.

5. Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library - If books or history are your passion, don’t miss visiting the Beinecke. The striking library, designed by Gordon Bunshaft, serves as Yale’s “principal repository for literary archives, early manuscripts, and rare books” and celebrates its 50th year in 2013. The library features a variety of events, and if you have research to do, check the library’s visitor guidelines. Beinecke Library, 203-436-1254, 121 Wall Street, New Haven, CT 06511.

6. Zinc - Go from modern American design to modern American food with a meal at this farm to table bistro. Just across from the New Haven Green, Zinc’s menu features sustainable foods from the surrounding community, perfect for a post-Nelson gathering. Zinc, 203-624-0507, 964 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT 06510.

“George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher“, through January 26, Yale School of Architecture, 203-432-2288, Rudolph Hall, 180 York Street, New Haven, CT, 06511.

Photos linked within text.

What year was TP1 established? What led to that point? TP1 was founded in 2005. Up until then — and for most of his career — our founding partner Jan-Nicolas Vanderveken had been a freelancer. It has been suggested that he launched TP1 because he was tired of working alone in his basement.

Along with fellow founding partner Joseph Blauer, he assembled a team of 35 strategists, designers, and techies who combine their strengths to communicate in new ways — and inspire others to do the same. TP1 stands for “Tous pour un,” which is French for the Musketeers’ motto, “All for one!”

Tell us about TP1: what you’re passionate about, what inspires you, and where you’re going. We love great design, new ideas, and cowboys. We like vintage posters, architecture, retro video games, playing Rock Band, Lego, karaoke, drinking beer, and jamming with the TP1 band (we’re music lovers, as you probably guessed). We also really like fearless clients.

Last year, we organized the agency into teams. Instead of being grouped by specialty (strategy, user experience, design, project management, and technology), TP1 is now organized into five small, multi-disciplinary teams comprising a variety of talents to deliver great products. The teams even have names: Shaolin Racoons, Apaches, Right Clique, Magic, and The Jedis. This structure greatly influenced the way we designed the space.

Tell us about that space. What do you like or dislike? What would you change? We wanted a space as creative as we are. That is, a space that could feed — and accommodate — the creativity that fuels everything we do.

First, we selected the building. We wanted an older, but well-maintained location with a lot of natural light. We found everything we wanted in the Castle Building, located in the heart of downtown Montreal. The owner is great to work with, and we even got a rooftop patio.

Despite the very tight turnaround time, the design team at Moureau Hauspy (MHAD) proved up to the challenge. The proposed design concept was resolutely transparent, with well-lit open spaces. Apart from a few closed, but glassed-in offices, the rest of the workspace is entirely open, with five distinct areas for each of our five teams.

The walls are mainly white, although a few are black slate for functional reasons (to display various projects and activities, and for brainstorming). The concrete floor has been left untouched, other than a simple tarnish. This gives the space an urban, industrial look, which is complemented by touches of wood for a warmer atmosphere.

Most of the furniture was custom designed by the MHAD team. A few of the wooden tables, including one in the conference room, were made ​​from recycled bowling alley wood. A “pixelier” — or a three-dimensional flipboard with multi-coloured sides — was installed in the entrance to the agency. It establishes a connection between the visitors’ waiting area and the rest of the workspace. Employees create original images by spinning the small cubes according to colour, making the “pixelier” a unique way to showcase our potential for innovation.

Special attention was given to lighting, both natural and artificial. Workstation lighting is avant-garde and flexible. We installed a system of pulleys, coloured cables, and sockets above each workstation, enabling each employee to adjust their own desired level of lighting.

The layout also includes a large lounge and dining room with kitchenette. Comfort was one of our priorities. And although TP1’s DNA is firmly digital, ideas are still born from old-fashioned words and images. To help keep the creativity flowing, MHAD created an “atelier” room with walls you can write on. Blackboards and white boards cover three of the walls, while the fourth is partially converted into a floor-to-ceiling cork board. The conference room is also primed for productivity with just-right ergonomics and a style that retains the building’s original cachet.

We wanted to create an open, uncluttered, minimalist, functional workspace capable of expressing our collective identity and supporting the team’s vast creative potential.

What we like the most about it? The rooftop terrasse, windows that actually open, the natural light, the “pixelier,” the fact that it can be turned into a great party space (awesome speakers and central sound system) and our amazing Simonelli Appia espresso machine.

There’s not much to dislike. After using the space for a few months, there were a few adjustments that needed to be made, such as the acoustics in one of the conference rooms and a lack of storage space for coats and boots during our Canadian winter.

You have SAYL Chairs in your space. Why did you choose them? The SAYL Chairs are probably the first thing we selected for the new office. There was a demo at MHAD, given to them by Herman Miller’s Montreal branch, and we found the chair to be extremely comfortable and surprisingly well priced. We were also impressed by the fact that the SAYL won a Core77 design award. The Google Montreal office might have even copied us — we spotted a few SAYLs in their new space!

We like that they’re very comfortable and firm, perfect as a work chair, and offer good value, an amazing warranty, and original design. We’ve recommended it to others, and even loaned a few to one of our clients while they waited for delivery of their own.

Do you have other Herman Miller pieces in the office? Eames Aluminum Group Management Chairs (mesh model for the boardroom and leather model for Jan-Nicolas’ office). Great, timeless design. There’s nothing not to like about them. We also have a couple Nelson Platform Benches and some Eames Molded Plastic Chairs.

Lastly, are there any gadgets, desk accessories, or apps that TP1 can’t do without? An orange Link task lamp by Pablo, a Tivoli Model One radio, TODO Blackboards by Erratum Design, the beer fridge (always stocked with McAuslan’s beer, a local brewery). As for apps, we’re avid Foursquare users (don’t forget to check in when you visit). And post-its!

Click here to see a video on TP1’s move into this relatively new space in October 2011.

Photos: Cindy Boyce