Haley McLane were engaged by venture capital firm, Accel, to design their new offices located in London, England. Accel is a pre-eminent venture firm, with a very tight knit partnership. They wanted a design that was both classy and welcoming. It was important to the team that we emphasize their new home as a place where entrepreneurs and investors could collaborate in an open or confidential environment. The space needed to maximize the opportunity for impromptu conversation and feel welcoming to guests.

The design has an anti-office aesthetic, leveraging the use of custom furniture and emerging designers. This allowed us to step away form the mainstream standards of a high class office space and build a space that is uniquely Accel. The space is sophisticated and edgy, and provides all the amenities a team this hard working deserves. The Accel office caters daily lunches in the massive custom kitchen, their board rooms are filled with top of the line tech, and just for good measure we provided a fully equipped private gym.

The Accel partners are often on sensitive and private calls, which require private offices. The challenge was to pair accessibility and visibility to the rest of the team, without sacrificing privacy. We managed to do this by positioning the EA stations within sightline, but not within ear shot, of the private offices. This allowed the EAs to signal to the partners when a guest had arrived or when a meeting was beginning without intruding on a meeting or call.

The Accel team wasn’t afraid to push the boundaries on color and pattern. We have a lot of warm “feminine” colors mixed in with some hard hitting masculine materials and strong lines. We felt this mix represented the Accel team perfectly!