©2009 The Monday Morning Quarterback · the company’s Santa Monica showroom and went on to cre-ate Steelcase’s space in the Merchandise Mart. “Steelcase was looking for someone

©2009 The Monday Morning Quarterback

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So you are designing an office. You check off what you need: desks, seating, storage and...a bar. In designer Joey Shimoda’s world, nothing brings people together like a

bar.Shimoda’s idea of an office is shaken and stirred compared

to traditional spaces.“We like to put in big bars in all our projects,” said Shimoda,

who has become one of the hottest office designers in recent years as principal of California-based Shimoda Design Group. “Bars are very communal and I like to put them front and cen-ter.”

If you want a space created with row after row of cubicles, look elsewhere. Shimoda has a growing reputation for creat-ing unique office spaces that make the most of furniture that fosters collaboration.

Shimoda has strong connections to the office furniture in-dustry. Shimoda joined Keating Mann Jernigan Rottet (KMJR) as a project designer. KMJR later merged with Daniel Mann Johnson Mendenhall (DMJM). For a total of eight years, his position as a senior design associate allowed him to be a key figure in the design and execution of projects worldwide. His last project at DMJM was the building renovation for Rolex in Beverly Hills. Since its completion, this project has garnered four design excellence awards.

He is probably best known in the industry as the designer of two of Steelcase’s award-winning showrooms. He designed

the company’s Santa Monica showroom and went on to cre-ate Steelcase’s space in the Merchandise Mart. “Steelcase was looking for someone to work with their design team and I had a lot of experience,” he said. “I understand how to get those large office projects done.”

Shimoda met Steelcase’s director of design, James Ludwig. It turned out the two had a lot of friends in common and both are about the same age. The two designers clicked. That’s when Ludwig laid out Steelcase’s vision of focusing on design in its furniture and its showrooms.

“Our prime directive at Steelcase was integrating a forward thinking space for the new furniture they were developing,” he said. “It had to be distinctly different from what everybody else was doing. A lot of the other guys lean on the work of old designers or dead designers that are not contributing to the conversation right now. Steelcase wanted a more global space that would pull from new ideas all over the world so they could build a network of design inspiration that translated back into the spaces. I think that’s a great dialog. And Steelcase has a very top down attitude, from the bottom all the way to (CEO) Jim Hackett.”

Shimoda is sought after for his experience designing offices. He recently spoke to the Configura Users Conference in Las Vegas. Configura is a company Shimoda said he greatly re-spects for its use of technology to create offices.

“What I saw that was helpful to me is the way they are de-

ShimodaShimoda’s idea of an office is shaken and stirred compared to traditional spaces BY: ROB KIRKBRIDE

Current Design©2009 The Monday Morning Quarterback


a building entrance on Sunset Blvd. in LA



Steelcase showroom in Chicago


16 The Monday Morning Quarterback November 23, 2009 www.mmqb.com

Current Design

veloping software for dealers to utilize,” he said. “Configura is creating a product that is almost an extension of our design team. Their ability to create quick drawing and pricing is such an amazing plus to our clients. It gives us the ability to create very fast cost estimates and diagrams. Configura allows small groups to do big things.”

Overall, he said the office furniture industry is doing a good job creating products that respond to different workstyles that are emerging. “People are working different hours, only work-ing one or two days. There seems to be a lot more flexibility in that,” he said. “We are working with a lot of entertainment and creative clients. Our focus has been to create offices that don’t feel like offices, but more like an extension of the home.

“When you look at the products coming out of Coalesse, Vitra and Herman Miller for the Home, you are seeing some of this softer touch in the office space. I think a lot of companies are really interested in that style.”

An example of this changing workstyle can be found in the space Shimoda created for MTV in Santa Monica. He calls it a “California-kind-of-living-thing.” While researching how MTV employees worked, he found that the separation be-tween work life and home life was blurring. So he created an office space that felt more like a home. The individual of-fices don’t have desks. Instead, there are fireplaces and living rooms. Workers in the open office area all face each other. And there is a giant kitchen that acts as the hub of the space.

While a space like that probably wouldn’t work for an ac-counting firm or law office, Shimoda is pushing the boundar-ies of what and office is supposed to look like based on the new ways in which people are working.

Still, he believes there is a time and place for more tradi-tional furniture in more traditional settings. Shimoda’s firm is working on a project in Texas that will use more traditional office furniture. “You’ve got to create the office for the space,”


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MTVN in Santa Monica, CA


18 The Monday Morning Quarterback November 23, 2009 www.mmqb.com

he said. “It’s not one size fits all anymore.”Sustainability has gone from being a buzz word to being

a baseline for designers like himself. The use of sustainable products is a given. In fact, Shimoda said he is trying to create office spaces that don’t require the use of electric lights at all. He likes the idea of natural light bathing a space rather than the harsh glow of light bulbs.

“The goal is to use the comfort found in the environment,” he said. “We don’t want to put too many things in the design. We are finding that budgets are shrinking and people are fo-cusing on the simple.”

Shimoda has a wide variety of experience that has shaped how he feels about office design. He earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo in 1988. In 1985 he interned at Morphosis Ar-chitects in Santa Monica, and was instrumental in the design and execution of drawings for the Kate Mantilini Restaurant and the Sixth Street House. Both projects received Progres-sive Architecture Awards for that year. In 1986, Shimoda was awarded a year of study in Florence Italy with Christiano To-ralda di Francia of Superstudio. In 1987 he moved to London to work for Peter Wilson of the Buros von Bolles + Wilson. He worked closely with Wilson to design the winning entry for the annual Shinkenshiku competition, “Comfort in the Metropolis.” He also contributed as project designer for a six story office building in Tokyo. Shimoda returned to Los Ange-

les in 1989 and worked for Marmol & Radziner Architects and Johannes Van Tilburg and Partners. The primary emphasis of this period was categorized by the design of Type 5 single fam-ily and multi-family housing projects throughout Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

In 1991 he spent a brief time in the office of Frank Gehry working on a design development package for the Olympic Village in Barcelona and schematic design for the Disney Con-cert Hall in Los Angeles. In 2000, he founded Shimoda Design Group, a studio founded on a multi-disciplined platform that seeks to bring quality design, innovation and technical excel-lence in projects of every scale. In addition to the core staff of six, the studio has the ability to assemble an optimum team of design professionals according to each clients needs. They in-clude planners, landscape architects, graphic designers, light-ing consultants and marketing professionals.

In addition to his professional pursuits, Shimoda has served as Commissioner on the City of Los Angeles Affordable Hous-ing Commission from 2004 to 2005 and as a board member of the board of directors for the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He continues to be actively involved with the AIA and in academia. Shimoda has taught at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC) and has participated as a guest lecturer in symposiums and student reviews at USC, UCLA, SCI-ARC, Art Center, New School of Architecture and Woodbury University. 6

Current Design

Conceptual design for TOMS


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Noka Chocolate in Dallas, TX


©2009 The Monday Morning Quarterback · the company’s Santa Monica showroom and went on to cre-ate Steelcase’s space in the Merchandise Mart. “Steelcase was looking for someone

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