Out Of (Paper) Office

London Design Biennale 2021Design in An Age of Crisis Open CallWork SocietyOut of(Paper)Brown Office Jon Abbott StudioOut of (Paper) OfficeOfficeOut-of-Paper-Office.pdf1

London Design Biennale 2021Out ofOffice(Paper)Design in An Age of Crisis Open CallWork SocietyThe Coronavirus lockdowns of 2020have accelerated two pre-existingsocioeconomic tendencies: remoteworking and the death of thehigh street.in vacant units across the country.And what should we now do withthose premises? Leave them vacant?Turn them into luxury flats? In theshort term at least, perhaps theycould still function as spaces wherecommunities interact.When lockdowns kicked in, officebased businesses rapidly adaptedto home working, with improvisedkitchen-table-desks and daily videoconferencing the norm. Much of thedesign conversation has, naturally,focussed on the inadequacies ofour domestic environments forthe demands of the working day.But what has been overlooked inthis analysis of WFH (workingfrom home)?‘Good morning, how are you? Howwas your weekend?’ For some,jettisoning everyday office small talkwas a welcome byproduct of the shiftto remote working. But at the sametime, being deprived of these dailysocial interactions can exacerbateisolation and loneliness. We can‘connect’ to colleagues and clientsall over the world but we miss out onthose moments of real connection:incidental office gossip, exchangedwhilst the kettle boils.Brown Office Jon Abbott StudioOut of (Paper) Office (OOPO) is adesign concept which attempts tofill the voids left both on the highstreet and in our working day. It willdo this by repurposing vacant highstreet units as not-working spaces.Spaces designed to encouragethose enjoyable moments of socialinteraction that pepper the workingday when we really should be butwe’re actually not working.Another casualty of the lockdown isthe long suffering British high street.The temporary shuttering of shops,cafes and restaurants has pushedmany to close permanently, resultingOOPO will resemble an everyday office,yet everything except the chairs anddesks will be made from paper. Anarray of archetypal office props will beprinted on A4 (by a laserjet liberated,perhaps, from a city centre workspacenow lying empty) and assembled withscissors and Sellotape. The objectsthemselves are imbued with the spiritof time-wasting – a clock withouthands, a calendar without dates,chats around the water-cooler andtea breaks a plenty. Inherent withinpaper as a medium is the ability forevery surface to be doodled upon.Moreover as a community focussedproject, paper is cheap to use andeasy to recycle.Out of (Paper) OfficeOut-of-Paper-Office.pdfMore than being just the physicalspace and its contents, OOPO isitself a PDF document, ready tobe printed and installed by willingvolunteers anywhere in the world.Once assembled, OOPO can beoperated as a community not-workingspace. Visitors will be encouragedto join a conversation by writing ona wall, assembling a paper objector simply having a friendly chat.Over time the space can act asa community noticeboard of sorts,accumulating personal messagesand announcements.Accessible and lighthearted in tone,OOPO offers a makeshift vision of thenear future high street as a placewhere people can come togetherto interact without purpose and askeach other ‘how was your weekend?’2

London Design Biennale 2021The KitDesign in An Age of Crisis Open CallWork SocietyOOPO is a kit of printable templates,freely distributed as a downloadablePDF document. It can be assembledwith the following standard officeequipment: A4 printer Scissors Sellotape Blu tackOut ofOOPO should be set up in a vacanthigh street premises and will need, inaddition to the above: Tables Chairs Kettle Tea Biscuits Sharpie marker pens(Paper)OfficeAssemblyThe kit is assembled as either:1. Tiled A4 sheets applied to a wall,using Blu tack or Sellotape2. Foldable 3D objects, assembledwith scissors and SellotapePrintable template kitV1.000Brown Office Jon Abbott StudioOut of (Paper) OfficeOut-of-Paper-Office.pdf3

London Design Biennale 2021Design in An Age of Crisis Open CallThe KitWork SocietyExample templateThe office title, ready for tiling.LayoutO U T(PAO FPER)O F F I C EBrown Office Jon Abbott StudioOut of (Paper) OfficeOut-of-Paper-Office.pdf4

London Design Biennale 2021The KitBrown Office Jon Abbott StudioDesign in An Age of Crisis Open CallWork SocietyExample templateA 3D mug, ready for customisation.Out of (Paper) OfficeOut-of-Paper-Office.pdf5

London Design Biennale 2021Design in An Age of Crisis Open CallWork SocietyOut of (Paper) OfficeOut-of-Paper-Office.pdfFig 1. Elevation viewBrown Office Jon Abbott Studio6

London Design Biennale 2021Design in An Age of Crisis Open CallWork SocietyOut of (Paper) OfficeOut-of-Paper-Office.pdfFig 2. Elevation viewBrown Office Jon Abbott Studio7

London Design Biennale 2021Design in An Age of Crisis Open CallWork SocietyOut of (Paper) OfficeOut-of-Paper-Office.pdfFig 3. Template assemblyBrown Office Jon Abbott Studio8

London Design Biennale 2021ActivitiesDesign in An Age of Crisis Open CallWork SocietyDoodle on anythingCreating the installation completelyout of paper invites visitors to drawwith carefree abandon on absolutelyeverything. The templates are createdas simple archetypes that leaveroom for detail to be added usingSharpie pens.Water cooler chatA specific area around the Watercooler is dedicated to gossipand anecdotes. Here visitors cancontribute to an ongoing Q&A bywriting within a paper speech bubbleand adding it to the wall. Capturingthis dialogue on paper allowsconversations to amass over timewithout people neccesarliy having tobe in the space at the same time.Paper modelingUsing simple origami foldingtechniques visitors are invited to buildtheir own 3 dimensional office propsincluding mugs, laptops and potplants. Using an office sharpie theycan add personal touches to the itemsthey build.Brown Office Jon Abbott StudioCommunity whiteboardA neighbourhood brainstormingsession for ideas to improve the localcommunity. From this, groups couldbe formed to bring the ideas to life.Waste paper basket ballLines are marked on the office floor,one, two and three metres away froma waste paper basket (bin). Discardedpaper should be crumpled into a balland thrown from behind one of thelines and into the basket bin. Points areawarded by distance – one point forone metre – for each successful shotinto the bin. The loser has to make thetea, the winner gets two biscuits.Simply take a breakThe Out of (Paper) Office is proposedas a local destination that provides asense of escapism from the daily trialsof working from home. At its mostbasic it’s about taking the pleasure indoing nothing for a moment or two.Out of (Paper) OfficeOut-of-Paper-Office.pdf9

London Design Biennale 2021DesignersBrown Office Jon Abbott StudioDesign in An Age of Crisis Open CallWork SocietyBrown OfficeJon Abbott StudioCollaborationBrown Office is a London-basedstudio founded by Dean Brown. Theydesign and make objects, installationsand interiors with a dedication tomateriality and narrative - deliveringprojects for clients including Google,Uniqlo, Nike, Sèvres, Depop andSchloss Hollenegg for Design.Their work has been exhibitedinternationally at the Milan DesignWeek, London Design Festival, theVictoria and Albert Museum andAram Gallery, London.Jon Abbott Studio is an independentdesign practice founded by JonAbbott. The studio develops flexiblegraphic design systems whichare realised through a variety ofdesign disciplines including printand editorial, environmental andexhibition design, typographic andtype design, and design for digitalplatforms. Clients include the V&A,Tate publishing, The Design MuseumLondon, Turner Contemporary, andThames and Hudson.Out of (Paper) Office is acollaboration between BrownOffice and Jon Abbott StudioDean studied Product Designat DJCAD, University of Dundee,Scotland (2003–2007) where heserved thereafter as Designer inResidence (2007–2009). His researchand communication driven approachto design is informed by a residencyperiod at Fabrica CommunicationResearch Centre, Treviso, Italy (2010–2014) and currently as ResearchFellow within the InteractionResearch Studio, GoldsmithsUniversity of London (2017–).Jon Abbott studied Graphic Artsand Design at Leeds MetropolitanUniversity (now Leeds BeckettUniversity) (2001–2004). Aftergraduation, spells at studios inLondon and Amsterdam werefollowed by ten years at JonathanBarnbrook’s eponymous studioBarnbrook during which time projectsranged from creating a bus-mountedmuseum at Banksy’s Dismaland toexecuting the global brand identity forArt Basel.Out of (Paper) OfficeOut-of-Paper-Office.pdf10

London Design Biennale 2021Design in An Age of Crisis Open CallWork SocietyT H A N KY O UBrown Office Jon Abbott StudioOut of (Paper) OfficeOut-of-Paper-Office.pdf11

Brown Office Jon Abbott Studio Out of (Paper) Office Out-of-Paper-Office.pdf 3 The Kit OOPO is a kit of printable templates, freely distributed as a downloadable PDF document. It can be assembled with the following standard office equipment: A4 printer Scissors Sellotape Blu tack OOPO should be set up in a vacant high street premises and will need, in addition to the above .