A comprehensive guide to building the perfect work atmosphere with music.

Here at AdSpark we do a lot of designing, a lot of writing, and a lot of program intense work. Needless to say we do the majority of our work with music pumping in the background.  That being said the fine art to music selection for the office can be an arduous task. Over the past 4 – 5 years I have been the resident “DJ” wherever I worked, therefore I have developed a good idea of how to create a solid work playlist. The most important thing I learned is that the selection of type of music is dependent upon the time of day. Here is a quick guideline to setting a perfect atmosphere with music according to the time of day:

8:00 AM – 10:00 AM

­Easy does it. It’s pretty early in the morning, people are grumpy, ease them into the day with a nice cup of coffee and some easy listening music, here are my go-to’s:

Bon Iver, Simon and Garfunkel, Avett Brothers, Ray LaMontagne, The XX, Kate Nash, The Shins, Coldplay, Hey Rossetta and Blind Pilot

10:00 AM – 12:00PM

Caffeine has begun to kick in so it is time to kick up the beat a bit. Be careful not to go overboard typically I like to mix it up with a couple of old classics, slow paced hip-hop, and ambient rock. This is what I’m listening to between 10 – 12:

Kings of Leon, Smashing Pumpkins, M83, Goldfrapp, Genesis, The Black Keys, Billy Joel, Radiohead, Prince, Frankie Valley & the Four Seasons, and Electric Light Orchestra.

1:00 PM – 3:00PM

Beware the carb comas, people are notoriously tired after lunch, my suggestion: dubstep, electronic, and upbeat rock.

Skrillex, Tiesto, Bassnectar, Foo Fighters, MSTRKRFT, Justice, SBTRKT, and Young and the Giant.

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Time to wind it down, the post lunch dubstep gets the ball rolling but 5 hours of electronic trance can take its toll.  I move to some up tempo hip-hop, stretch out with some classic rock or settle down with some indie rock.

The strokes, Cure, T.I., Lupe Fiasco, Metric, Lil Wayne, fitz and the tantrums, Awolnation, TV on the Radio, and Gorrillaz

-Chris

We’re big fans of creativity in modern advertising. Always on the hunt for edgy work, our team often finds really cool work that we can draw inspiration and new ideas from. This short article has some really neat ads that we’d like to share with you, and maybe inspire some ideas of your own!

http://www.dwsmg.com/42-creative-modern-ads-for-inspiration.html

When I tell people what I do for a living, the typical response is “Oh, you mean like Mad Men?”, at which point I usually chuckle and respond by saying “Ya something like that”.

Here are 5 reasons why working at an ad agency these days is not like Mad Men.

1)      Drinking alcohol or smoking in the office at 8:00 am (and then all day) is frowned upon. Productivity nearly always suffers. Eight whiskeys a day will not keep the doctor away, for long.

2)      The gender gap: The playing field is much more even these days. Nobody in our office is asking their personal assistant to pick up their dry cleaning, purchase gifts for their spouse or babysit their children. Yikes!

3)      Gone are the days of the last names in alphabetical or shareholder order. Marketing is about creativity and that starts with the name. “Yang, Roach and Haynee” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

4)      As stylish as SOME of the clothes were in the 50’s and 60’s, today’s generation of critical thinkers and creative minds are much more business casual, often leaning towards casual. P.S. Nobody keeps extra dress shirts in their desk.

5)      It is painstaking to watch a secretary type up an important message, put it in the mail and then hope that a response is returned in a timely fashion. In today’s society, when we want something we want it now. Whether this mentality is right or wrong, thank goodness for e-mail!

I am always on the hunt for good tips and advice on not only design but also growing intellectually as a designer.

Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth has some good things we can all think about and learn from. Here are a few from the manifesto I want to highlight, but take a look at the whole list on the Bruce Mau Design website.

Begin anywhere.
John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child).
Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

Capture accidents.
The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.

Think with your mind.

Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.

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