<5000, ediburgh, tech, software it, <7500 Vincent Hartman <5000, ediburgh, tech, software it, <7500 Vincent Hartman

A new office for Calero Edinburgh

Veropath, headquartered in Edinburgh, helps large companies optimise their expenditure on telecoms and have recently been acquired by US software group Calero Software for further expansion. Calero manages more than $7 billion of annual telecom, mobility and cloud spend for over 3,000 customers operating in more than 50 countries globally.

The acquisition meant the company was moving from Castle Street to 40 Torphichen Street, near Haymarket Station, the heart of Edinburgh's financial district. The building has undergone a major refurbishment to provide high quality open plan offices and a new entrance. Calero were taking space on the 4th floor and Amos Beech were engaged to fulfill this project from design creation through to the fit out and furniture.

Office fit out and furniture for calero Edinburgh

The interior needed to be in line with the new status of the company within a global group and there was a tight budget and timeline to work to.

It was important that the open plan office had several collaboration and break out spaces as well as 45 workstations. To enable the data team to have their daily meeting, the new office space now has a town hall seating area with 20 seats alongside a writable wall and surrounded by acoustic screens.

A further breakout area was created and this has a double function as a cafe as it is located next to the tea/coffee prep area. It features pendant lighting with laminate oak veneer shade, rich in tactility, providing warmth to the area. Obviously, key to the success of this space, and any organisation for that matter, is the fresh bean coffee machine!

Operable Moving Wall

An acoustic operable moving wall between the boardroom and a further meeting room or client area, gives the space the flexibility to have either two meetings at the same time, or one large meeting space with great views over the surrounding area. The wall is the ultimate in terms of acoustic integrity, achieving the highest possible sound ratings whilst leaving the floor free of any track or obstruction.

Date of publication: Nov 14th 2018

Text & Images: Vincent Hartman

Read More
tech, ediburgh, 5000-10000, software it, 7500-15000 Vincent Hartman tech, ediburgh, 5000-10000, software it, 7500-15000 Vincent Hartman

Interior design, fit out and furniture for Blackcircles Edinburgh

I suppose if you are an internet based company you are going to use the internet to find your own suppliers and that is what BlackCircles did when they embarked on an office relocation and fit-out.

We were contacted and arranged to meet with the senior management team in one of Edinburgh’s coffee shops to discuss their plans away from the eyes and ears of their staff as it wasn’t yet public knowledge.

Interior design, fit out and furniture for Blackcircles at Tanfield in Edinburgh

As is often the case, we went through a couple of potential locations and then settled on what seemed like the ideal space only to then hear that the company who was moving out of the suite was now staying.

First interior design pencil sketch

So back to the drawing board and the next door suite was selected. To be fair, the space was a much easier shape to work with and it is also larger so the cloud had a silver lining but other challenges were looming. A bigger space but no more office fit out budget!

So maximum creativity required – step forward the design team and bring about a functional, minimalist space with just enough accents to keep Nick happy – whose eye for detail and nose for a bargain is the stuff of legends.

Some pretty clear lines were drawn and making the best use of space as well as planning for their future growth, a design emerged. Making sure that the natural daylight was allowed to filter through from reception whilst retaining some privacy for the office staff was achieved using some material more associated with conservatories, but the result is spectacular.

Allowing the staff the opportunity to work away from their desk was another consideration and various spaces have been incorporated to include quiet/concentration space, more open collaborative areas and a town hall space with tiered seating where the staff can gather for company announcements.

BlackCircles parent company is Michelin and another component of the project was branding – the desire to have it but not in an overt way. Using the original inverted M design from Michelins first tyre design, we have created window manifestation for the meeting rooms. 

Shared components on the Samuel Bruce Team Bench desk design kept the cost per workstation down and allowed BlackCircles to specify the award winning Drumback from Viasit for all their operator chairs.

The making of the new office @Tanfield in #Edinburgh:

(click on the play button in the image..)

The biggest talking point though goes to their wall mural in the reception and something that our Interior Photographer was the most pleased with – a line drawing of an iconic vehicle that he drives himself, the one and only Land Rover Defender 110 with the proper engine (and if you don’t know what he means – that’s not the Ford one!)

Publication date: September 17th 2018

Text: Sam James

Photography and time-lapse: Studiovhf

Read More
tech, other scotland, <5000, software it, <7500 Vincent Hartman tech, other scotland, <5000, software it, <7500 Vincent Hartman

Interior design and office refurbishment Stirling

Little did we know that when we started working on our own corporate video way back in 2017 that we would be filming some frames in the winter of January 2018 at the offices of CitNOW in Stirling. We had just finalised the details for the interior design and were planning to start the office refurbishment in Stirling the week after.

CitNOW is a provider of video services for the automotive industry. They have recognised that customer behaviour has changed dramatically over the last few years as the information required to make a buying decision is available online which affects showroom visits. That is where video comes in. CitNOW, who's product development team are based in Stirling, have developed a range of simple to use video applications that really make it easy for their clients to use video effectively. We perhaps should have known this earlier, but nevertheless are chuffed that their online research led to us. Amos Beech were initially approached by CitNOW along with a couple of other potential suppliers and we quickly differentiated ourselves by providing a level of service that gave them the confidence that we were the right partner to engage with for this interior design and office refurbishment project.

Interior design office refurbishment and fit out stirling 

The initial space that they were looking at was surveyed. From this we were able to give them a trial fit to demonstrate how much room for expansion they would have as the company is looking to grow significantly over the coming years. Whilst this space worked in principle, the location was not perfect, and we were then asked to assess the space they actually moved into a couple of weeks later. Once again, our interior design team carried out a space survey and produced a trial fit along with some high level costs to compare against the previous space. Their preference initially was to have air conditioning but whilst nice to have, this was going to be difficult to install as the building is listed and in a conservation area.

The project quickly progressed and the new space won CitNOW’s approval. Amos Beech were instructed to carry out the design and build of their new offices.  A full drawings package was created, and our construction team moved on to site and got the build program underway.

For the interior design, the office furniture and finishes have been kept minimal by using light oak, whites and greys to keep the area feeling light and airy.

We installed a ‘clear erase’ backwall to be painted on. This allows the surface to become dry erase, therefore can be used with white board and chalkboard pens. By making the wall a writable and wipeable surface, it supports  innovation and creates opportunities.

  • Capturing Impromptu Ideas

  • Leave messages and notices

  • Out-breaking brainstorming

CitNOW were concerned to make sure that the furniture they ordered for their new offices was going to meet the ergonomic needs and workplace wellbeing of their staff.  After careful consideration of the various options they selected the Viasit Drumback chair for their operator seating which is winning awards for its new and innovative features.  For the desking, they selected the Samuel Bruce UP2U electrically adjustable sit/stand desks with full cable management to keep the environment clean and clutter free. In the boardroom Wilkhahn's new meeting chair, the Occo, is paired with Actiu’s innovative Cool500 table system – a tool free flexible table system that allows quick and simple reconfiguration.

Break-out areas, collaboration zones and quiet areas are all included in the space as well as a great meeting room where we installed astroturf on the floor and paired this with a glass table and some great informal meeting chairs. 

Vinyl graphic of Old Man of Storr made from image taken by CitNOW employee Robert Fyfe.

Date of publication: February 27th, 2018

Text: Sam James

Images: Photographer Stirling

Understandably, CitNOW are delighted with the result and we look forward to spending some time with their team at the office launch party!  more photos.

Read More