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Question of the week:
Posted by Patrick Burgoyne, 11 July 2011, 15:18 Permalink Comments (68)
We're just finishing off our August issue here at CR and couldn't help noticing that, in two of our major features, lunchtime arrangements are cited as a key factor in maintaining the right kind of studio or agency culture. So what do you do for the mid-day meal?
Our August issue (out July 19) includes a lengthy profile piece on illustrator Marion Deuchars. In the piece, Deuchars talks about the importance of maintaining a place in a busy studio rather than working as a "lonely artists in a garret". In particular, she cites the importance of lunchtime: “The thing that’s crucial in our studio,” she says, “is that we have a big communal table and we all eat lunch there, we don’t eat at our desks.
I think it’s something that a lot of people are giving up in favour of munching a sandwich alone but there is a lot of cross-fertilisation that takes place..." The inference being that it is at lunchtime that all this cross-fertilisation, as well as stimulating discussion, comes about.
Lunch time at the Total Design offices, as featured in Unit's new book on the seminal Dutch design firm. Note all the milk bottles: the last time we saw that many pintas being drunk was after a 1970s FA Cup final
Then, later on in the issue, we have an extract from Unit's new book on Dutch studio Total Design in which Ben Bos talks about the culture of the place, some of which they adapted from that of UK studio Fletcher/Forbes/Gill, the precursor to Pentagram. "Another practice copied from Fletcher/Forbes/Gill was taking lunch together every day," he says. "This was the moment when the management team mingled with all the staff without formality."
Pentagram preserves this tradition to this day. In advertising too, some agencies place great importance on the communal repast – staff at Mother, for example, are encouraged to sit at long tables together just inside the agency's main entrance (shown above).
The feeling seems to be that having lunch together is vital in maintaining cohesion and an internal culture. That it saves time on formal meetings. That it helps new staff to integrate. And that it's so much nicer than everyone munching a take-away sandwich at their desk.
So where do you stand on all this? Big family lunch or sandwich of solitude?
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68 Comments
bagel at desk then a lunchtime of tweeting, facebooking, blogging and of course tabloid gossip
2011-07-11 15:52:28
I'll probably login to Gsick and post what I'm eating
2011-07-11 15:53:15
I eat a Marmite sandwich whilst reading CR's Tweets. If I wasn't an intern without any friends in London, I'd like a Sex and the City type lunch, meeting with trendy friends in trendy places.
2011-07-11 15:54:52
All eat together because it will be more interesting and joyful if you eat with someone and you'll eat more and more :$
2011-07-11 16:00:43
Well in our office it's not mandatory but it's encouraged to eat together. We're a small firm so our conference room doubles as our lunch room. When we expanded a few months ago the partners bought a new table so everyone can sit together. To top it all off we have a little continental breakfast of muffins and crescents every monday morning followed immediately by a meeting to overviewing the tasks for the coming week. Meanwhile Fridays we go to a local restaurant for lunch, that is optional but encouraged. I think it really does help create bonds in the office, when you spend more time during the week with co-workers than family I think it's important to have some sort of friendship with those you work with.
2011-07-11 16:08:21
Unfortunately my lunch breaks are seldom and unfulfilling. Today, for instance, I held a sandwich in one hand and my mouse in the other trying to clear some emails before I had to get back to serious work.
I think it's time for a change...
2011-07-11 16:09:37
As I only live round the corner from work, I usually pop home, make a concoction of whatever's left in the fridge and stroke my ginger pussy (cat) for 20 mins before heading back to work. But that's really because there is nowhere communal to eat at work - would be up for that!
2011-07-11 16:10:01
JB Communications are winning my prize for "most awesomest lunch" so far. Currently doing a month with them and they cook lunch every day and eat around a table like a small family. Oh and not to mention they have an unlimited chocolate cupboard...
2011-07-11 16:11:51
Aldesko. Unfortunately.
Jonathan
2011-07-11 16:14:51
"Where management and staff can mingle without formality"??? Do they base their studio structure on a call centre or something? I'm not sure I like the idea of basically replacing your lunch break with a huge staff meeting, even if you only get a few minutes to grab a sandwich and have a quick look at the news or something, I think it's necessary to have even the smallest of breaks from the grind… You already donate so many of your evenings and weekends to your employers for free, I think a little lunch break is a nice gesture without having to involve the working process in yet another part of your personal time. Ooh you can tell I've had a busy week – is it only Monday?
2011-07-11 16:19:03
If the lunch room looked like Mother's I'd eat there.. the lunch room where I work is not quite so grand.
2011-07-11 16:41:37
At Edenspiekermann in Amsterdam we always have lunches together. We've done that ever since the merger of BRS and Premsela & Vonk back in 1987, predecessors of the present office. And BRS used to lunch together too before that. It's an important aspect of our agency culture and I wouldn't want to miss the fun and insightful conversations for the world!
2011-07-11 17:25:08
A good Sandwich never goes a miss, whilst checking twitter banter and blogs
2011-07-11 20:44:34
At la comunidad ba we have lunch together every day. We have an excellent cook named martita. Who make the best apple crumble in the world. Lunch it's the perfect time to talk and share what we are listening, what movie we saw yesterday and to discover that the accountant guy it's funny, and that actually would be good to use his joke in the script you been working on.
2011-07-11 21:08:40
A great ritual for every design studio! so much better than eating alone in front of a blinking screen while going click click click. In my studio I also find that late pub dinners also help keep the spirit alive.
2011-07-12 00:10:16
I eat a toasted sandwich from the place down the street and watch financial news (?).
2011-07-12 06:05:51
It's important to get out of your office for lunch; go for a walk, stretch your legs, clear your head. By all means do it with company, do it as a group, but just get out.
2011-07-12 07:38:43
:(
Catching up on notes and reading for MA
2011-07-12 09:23:52
There seems to be a distinct split between the types of design company that sit together for lunch and the ones that don't—one world is about company mergers, cooks, continental breakfasts, unlimited chocolate cupboards, working on scripts, 'agency culture', grand offices etc. etc. My bet is that the other world that doesn't lunch together is a world of heavily client-led jobs, an abundance of artworking (only not having the luxury of employed artworkers to hand that stuff over to), chasing printers, photoshopping 72dpi images grabbed from the internet by your client to try and get it to look remotely decent for print, projects that use istockphoto instead of commissioned photography, where an 'engaging public event to help promote the campaign' means two pop up banner stands and a student in a branded t-shirt.
2011-07-12 11:24:40
At HTA we are really lucky to have a cook and we all sit down together at the lunchtables everyday to enjoy a yummy lunch cooked by either Jane or Christina! Lots of fruit and bread are always piled high on the tables - its a really good tradition and it spawned our blog: http://www.lunchtables.co.uk/
2011-07-12 12:09:11
I know he'll be avoiding the work's canteen and enjoying Spam & Ribena smoothie.
2011-07-12 12:16:19
Think I might start a campaign for working community lunches, lets tweet #workinglunches
2011-07-12 12:16:52
Get out for some fresh air and exercise, walk up to Pret or Starbucks and get some peace and quiet!
2011-07-12 12:21:39
Non of the above posts were posted at lunch time.
So i guess CR can take themselves off of the menu.... ha!
lunch alone and definitely away from the desk is great. Cycle to regents park and hang there!
2011-07-12 12:22:41
@Johnathan H
If you came up with 'Aldesko', you should totally patent that :)
I always do my best to nip out for a bit beforehand, but my lunches are generally in front of the Mac, either working or reading the online newspapers.
2011-07-12 12:25:01
I'm lucky enough to be liberated at lunchtime! Our agency has recently disbanded our office & staff work virtutally from home, but keep connected via Skype & Oovoo for daily meets. This means I can make a sandwich & go walk my chocolate brown labrador who is very happy & so am I! Saving money, fresh air & nature & a canine companion is where it's at for blowing away the cobwebs & coming back to my desk refreshed.
2011-07-12 12:26:29
On a Im feeling healthy day, lunch maybe a banana sandwich with honey on brown bread and a glass of OJ.
On a "I need for food' day its Cornish pasties heated in the microwave for 45secs with a splodge of tomato sauce fits the bill, washed down with a mug builders tea.
2011-07-12 12:27:21
usually at my desk, everyone goes up to town at lunch break as we're a small firm based in a small town. I personally would love to sit down with my colleagues and chew the fat, we all get on really well but usually we have a little task to do or want to stretch our legs. One day, I hope to have a communal lunch area and communicate with people in a friendly rather than work orientated way. But then it's a bit like school, isn't it?!
2011-07-12 12:28:10
Currently eating a lemon and chicken baguette made by myself for myself as know one else here seems to believe in good food or lunch breaks...
2011-07-12 12:28:48
Well this is a working printshop where everyone designs their own work, both as a finished piece and as a production schedule. Today is as typical as any - Claire Robinson is dissing 12pt Gill Sans from a performance piece of her poetry that she has been turning into a booklet here that will be sold at her shows, Christopher Anagnostakis is setting a Robert Louis Stephenson poems in 18pt Lectura as a broadsheet for his grandchildren, Mike Tregear is tipping sheets into our book about the German type designer/book artist E R Weiss, and I'm printing one of the tip-ins for it of a 1931 example from polymer plates, while Kathy Whalen is folding and collating. Everything is handwork, and as usual we'll sit down to lunch around one o'clock, the only time the music of the press falls quiet and we get to talk to each other; freshly made bread, soup, coffee, with shop-bought cheese and biscuits. We take as long as we each need to. And the sun is shining.
2011-07-12 12:32:07
On a Im feeling healthy day, lunch maybe a banana sandwich with honey on brown bread and a glass of OJ.
On a "I need for food' day its Cornish pasties heated in the microwave for 45secs with a splodge of tomato sauce fits the bill, washed down with a mug builders tea.
2011-07-12 12:35:39
Up to 12 of us (not everyone in the office at one go) can sit at a communal lunch table at Applied Information Group, we talk about everything from personal subject to projects on the go. It's great. We also have to take lunch from 12:30 to 2:30 so that we're lunching together and not by ourselves. Tea and Coffee runs made by interns, designers or directors all day long and a general pack of biscuits left on the table to share by someone in the office most days of the week (usually dark chocolate digestives or hob nobs).
2011-07-12 12:48:28
Sambo or soup. Used to go to BLT deli and enjoy a big dirty wrap.
Whatever is for lunch theres no such thing as a lunch hour...just time to check CR blog while the file is saving and keep working...
2011-07-12 13:08:41
2.5 pints of lager, a fish finger sandwich and a watery eyed stare into the middle distance
2011-07-12 13:11:23
We like to get away from the computer screens and eat in our meeting room which has a round table. A walk to stretch the legs is also a good thing, when it's not raining!
NB: cross-fertilisation means well but sounds soooo sterile.
2011-07-12 13:12:39
I find it so sad that people feel the need to fill every minute of the day tweeting, intagraming, blogging and general surfing. By looking after your online self you are not looking after your physical self.
Lunch time at your desk is a sad state of affairs. Mix this with unhealthy food and you only have yourself to blame for that afternoon slump. Getting out for even 30 minutes, stretching your body eating something healthy will boost your work flow massively. It will also reduce your stress levels, help you to metabolize food properly, reduce strain on your eyes and help with any back ache you have from sitting at a computer for so long.
People need to think bigger picture, if you carry on like this for the next 30 years you will have all sorts of problems, the most important thing you have is your health.
2011-07-12 13:12:59
Usually I lunch alone with a doodle pad for free scribbling, either at home or in town cafe.
2011-07-12 13:36:34
We throw ourselves into a competitive game of table tennis, great for clearing the head. Usually followed by sarnies...
2011-07-12 14:04:07
One of us at Raw makes something every Wednesday and we make the effort to all sit down together and have a proper catch up. It's something we all look forward to and we're hoping to compile all of the recipes into a book. You can have a look at some of the dishes here http://www.weareraw.co.uk/blog/design/ladies-and-gentlemen-that-lunch/
2011-07-12 14:25:56
Used to be BLT but now home-made broad bean salad (in season) etc, in office while snacking on Guardian. Graphic Design being a somewhat sedentary occupation I find I need to watch the calorific values. Cycling to work helps too.
2011-07-12 14:28:08
I'm an English designer working at a studio in Oslo, Norway. It's normal for many Norwegians to have lunch earlier than we do in the UK — about 11.30 is the norm at my office (I've just about got used to it and I quite like it really). Each week, two people are paired together to make lunch for those five days for the 12 staff at the office, and every Friday a "special" lunch is made, as chosen and cooked by that pair. We all eat around a big table together in the kitchen, or if it's a nice day (as it has been a fair bit recently), we sit outside in the courtyard on the garden furniture. Yep.. it's good in Norway!
2011-07-12 14:49:51
Sambo or soup. Used to go to BLT deli and enjoy a big dirty wrap.
Whatever is for lunch theres no such thing as a lunch hour...just time to check CR blog while the file is saving and keep working...
2011-07-12 14:52:10
I like to turn my chair into the corner and weep quietly for about 5 minutes. Really sets me up for the afternoons.
2011-07-12 15:29:45
For lunch today, like the lost boys in Hook I will be pretending to eat a large feast!
2011-07-12 15:39:22
uhm, we have a bit of lunchtime anarchy here!
2011-07-12 15:41:21
I generally stare at Reeder whilst pushing Graze nibbles into my head.
Best creativey lunch anywhere is at Media Training in Waterloo – they always have an AMAZING spread of healthy looking bits followed by an unhealthy looking selection of cakes.
2011-07-12 15:43:15
Run down the street for a smoothie and some kind of bread-ish item. Then off to a secluded table or patch of grass outside to eat, read and tan while people watching and avoiding people I know. Then maybe visiting the fountain before heading back to the newsroom.
2011-07-12 15:44:34
Sambo or soup. Used to go to BLT deli and enjoy a big dirty wrap.
Whatever is for lunch theres no such thing as a lunch hour...just time to check CR blog while the file is saving and keep working...
2011-07-12 15:47:06
I hide under my desk and scream at my knees until everyone leaves the office, then rock out with super loud music on.
2011-07-12 15:48:11
2.5 pints of lager, a fish finger sandwich and a watery eyed stare into the middle distance
2011-07-12 15:58:32
Run down the street for a smoothie and some kind of bread-ish item. Then off to a secluded table or patch of grass outside to eat, read and tan while people watching and avoiding people I know. Then maybe visiting the fountain before heading back to the newsroom.
2011-07-12 16:00:01
At my last employer: An hour's bike ride.
Now I'm freelance: Much longer bike ride.
Haven't got two quid to scratch my backside with, but by god it's muscular.
2011-07-12 16:10:58
Have lunch at my desk while pretending to do work, then leave the office to "have lunch" and stare at things in the distance to prevent imac induced blindness
2011-07-12 16:11:01
Out for a 30 minutes walk.
2011-07-12 16:11:10
We'll get some burgers, sausages, maybe some corn on the cob, fire up the gas barbeque and have ourselves a feast. Everyone loves it. Might even have the odd glass of Pimms.
2011-07-12 16:22:02
Friday ritual of Fish & Chips (sans 'scraps' w/Mushy Peas + Ginger beer) communally round the meeting table.
During the week at the desk (catching up on mails/reading news etc.), or at the meeting table reading the design press.
I wish we could hire our own chef, and eat Total Design style round a table but that would be a bit odd as there are only 3 of us...
2011-07-12 16:29:09
We'll get some burgers, sausages, maybe some corn on the cob, fire up the gas barbeque and have ourselves a feast. Everyone loves it. Might even have the odd glass of Pimms.
2011-07-12 18:53:59
Lunch? Just about to launch a social network 'Lunch Box' for a foodie client... lot of things going on in that one hour slot (too long/short?!)...
2011-07-12 18:58:22
We are a small company of 6 and someone cooks lunch every day. We have a proper kitchen overlooking our roof terrace and make it a point of eating healthy and wholesome food. We feed our bodies and feed our minds. It's made a real difference to the way we all get on. As the title of the page on our site says we are 'taking an everyday approach to team building'.
This is what we do and we love it!
http://www.mangionlightfoot.com/lunch
2011-07-12 20:57:49
We pack up a lunch of sammies and fruit and some chocolate and walk the dogs down to the beach. Tennis ball hunting and swimming for the pups and sitting on the sand fending off a determined chocolate labrador for us. Mapua, Top of The South island - New Zealand
2011-07-12 21:56:24
Lunch breaks? In most places I've worked they're treated as compulsory unpaid overtime...
2011-07-12 22:21:25
food is the best way to get know to people, and who better to know than your colleagues? family lunch is an excellent idea : )
2011-07-12 22:37:51
There's only one of me, and as I'm often based at home I sit in the garden with yesterday's leftovers watching the fish in the pond. More often than not on the phone or ipad, as I like to be sociable. Yesterday I had spicy meatballs with spaghetti and salad.
2011-07-13 09:34:56
Right now we are 5 girls working together. Our boss leaves for lunch and we stay at the office. We shear this time to talk about lots of topics but never about work. Its about having fun and relaxing for a while!
I really enjoy this and it creates bonds between us and helps newcomers.
2011-07-13 20:26:16
How do companies have time to cook for everyone / sit down altogether?! I work in small London agency of ten people, and we're lucky if we can get more than two of us to the pub for a pie and back within the hour.
Also, fella who coined 'aldesko' - I am in awe.
2011-07-13 23:17:22
Well weapon- this is just another ruse to squeeze more cash out of immaterial workers? Eat and work- brilliant. Just Like Mother's precariat open plan concrete workspace. The tacit message being: don't believe you can get your feet under the table, you are not indispensable, there are plenty more like you, you are a resource. Fight this hard and soft architecture people. WAKE UP FLATLAND!
2011-07-14 21:31:51
I'd hate to feel the pressure of communal lunchtimes. Even though my office get on, I like to gather my thoughts, go for a walk, read, run errands, explore new areas and cafes. We go out for lunch once or twice a week which is nice, but every day would be way too much for me.
2011-07-15 21:12:08
We have no lunch room and our boss looks like he's about to have an aneurism if we venture too far from the phone so a lunch of solitude at our desk is the only option.
2011-07-18 03:14:29
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