7 Publications to Keep You Informed about Modern Office Design

1. Work Design Magazine

“Founded by Bob Fox in the summer of 2010, the work design got its start as a research project for a team of young interns at FOX Architects, Bob’s award-winning architecture and interior design firm. With the help of Stephanie Hay, a content and UX specialist, Bob and Stephanie put together several articles about the future of work and circulated them among local leaders in the workplace industry. From those humble beginnings, their readership has grown internationally to 32,500+ designers, architects, facility managers, manufacturers, dealers, workplace strategists, end-users, and consultants whom they serve with weekly content including, eNewsletters, in-person panel discussions, webinars, custom case studies, and Work Design NOW, a research series that brings together industry leaders to fully explore the goals, workplace challenges, and solutions driving modern corporate workplace decisions.”

With their extensive content stream focused on innovative workplace planning, case studies, and expert insight, Work Design has become a thought leader in the workplace design sphere. To stay up to date in the thought leading these industries, workdesign.com is an absolute must.

Source: workdesign.com

2. Contract Magazine

“Contract magazine is an interior design magazine recognized by architecture and interior design firms as the industry’s leading monthly publication dedicated to the commercial interior design industry. Contract provides full editorial coverage of architecture and interiors, including office interior design and other types of business interior design. Aside from featuring projects in the office design realm, Contract magazine also features many other project types, including retail design, hospitality design, healthcare design, educational design, and institutional design.”

With their emphasis on commercial design projects, Contract has the best insight into sweeping corporate design trends that have real influence on the industry they’re involved in. Beyond that, competitions hosted by Contract like “The Best of NeoCon”, “Inspiration Award”, and “Interior Award”—all judged by architects, designers, and industry managers responsible for selecting furniture and furnishings for their specific organizations—put contractdesign.com at the forefront of industry trends. Contract magazine will keep you ahead of the game and give you important insight into what styles and furnishings your industry has started to adopt and why they are doing so.

Source: contractdesign.com

3. Dezeen

“Dezeen is the world's most popular and influential architecture and design magazine, and the winner of numerous awards for journalism and publishing. Our mission is simple: to bring you a carefully edited selection of the best architecture, design and interiors projects and news from around the world. Dezeen was launched at the end of November 2006 and has grown rapidly ever since, with the addition of Dezeen Jobs – the internet's most vibrant architecture and design jobs board. Together, Dezeen and Dezeen Jobs attract over 3 million unique visitors every month.”

What can we honestly say that Dezeen’s reputation won’t say for itself? Boasting a massive audience, cutting edge design content from around the world, and an employment board that brings so many participants of the architectural and design world together, Dezeen is a publication truly at the heart of both communities.

Source: dezeen.com/

4. Metropolis Magazine

“Metropolis is a national trade magazine for architects and designers that attracts a wide audience. It examines contemporary life through design—architecture, interior design, product design, graphic design, social responsibility, planning, and preservation. Subjects range from the sprawling urban environment to intimate living spaces to the objects we use every day.”

Metropolis magazine looks at design through the lens of urban work and life. Though it has all the trimmings of other design publications (design case studies, interviews with influential industry members, etc.) Metropolis distinguishes itself with a host of culturally aware pieces that don’t just discuss design, but also asks why we design the way we do, and why we are drawn to particular designs.

Source: metropolismag.com/

5. Onofficemagazine

“Onoffice is the UK's leading publication for the commercial architecture and design community, featuring cutting edge workplace design, projects from the hospitality, education and civic sectors, interviews with leading industry figures, and the latest news.”

We like onoffice because it has an incredible amount of inspired content from the European design and workplace community. By listening to leading industry figures from across the sea, and seeing how they incorporate design and strategy into their work environments, onoffice offers some truly innovative and insightful perspective you might otherwise miss out on.

Source: onofficemagazine.com/

6. Office Snapshots

“Founded in 2007, we curate and publish new projects, highlight innovative products, and examine industry trends with the goal of improving the workplace, one office at a time. The founder, Stephen Searer, originally started Office Snapshots to take people behind the scenes of some of the world’s most interesting companies. Thousands of offices and tens of thousands of photos later, the site has grown into an inspiration and invaluable resource for millions of people around the globe.”

Boasting a massive, organized photo catalog of every office type you can imagine, Office Snapshot’s ever growing profile of offices around the world has become an essential resource for office designers. With each office profile including information on the firm, client, size, year, location, and industry of the touted office, it’s outrageously easy to find relevant examples on which to draw inspiration. Furthermore, their catalog is organized with designers in mind, including categories like office size, work space, support space, features, and so much more. To find examples and resources for any office design project, office snapshots will have you covered.

Source: officesnapshots.com

7. Pinterest: Office Design

Finally, as odd as it may seem to include a social media site into a post about key publications for the design side of an industry, Pinterest is actually pivotal in circulating information, design trends, inspired designs, and infographics about office space design that will ultimately go onto influence designers throughout their drafting process. Pinterest doesn’t discriminate between office size, corporate vs private, or design form; it’s simply a compilation of inspired design work and information that’s trending amongst its participants. By staying up to date on this circulated content, it’s outrageously simple to find content, and by extension, inspiration that focuses on each element of the office space.

Beyond that, designers and influencers use it as a tool for creating “mood boards” that revolve around a particular theme. Use it to create collections in certain color combinations or textures, or as a collection and presentation tool to align stakeholders in the early stages of the design process. From the personalized home office, ergonomic desk design, stylized piece of office furniture, or infographic that discusses optimizing a collaborative work space, Pinterest has it all and may even be the most effective search engine for finding office design inspiration.

Source: pinterest.com/explore/office-designs/

And there you have it! With these seven publications, regardless of your industry, design project, or knowledge base, you’ll find a resource that will help you grapple with the evolving discussion that is office design. And who knows, maybe the inspiration you find that transforms into a stunning office design will eventually grace the pages of these publications, to go on and inspire someone else in turn.