The Fast Frog Marketing Firm is a young and progressive marketing firm that serves a variety of clients across a series of geographical regions. As the lighting designer brought onto the project, we wanted to mirror the firm’s agile and explosive marketing work through the lighting design. From the beginning, we were driven towards the actions of a frog: rapid, agile, precise and explosive. We looked to the metaphor of a leaping frog as the basis that drove the rest of the design. Essentially, we see this jumping frog as a metaphor for the style and workflow of the employees, which can translate to the building design. Looking at the building layout, the vestibule and reception areas are the “jumping off points” for people entering the office to pass through. From these spaces, visitors or occupants share ideas, collaborate on projects and communicate. The use of a wood slat architectural element to visually connect these separated spaces was employed. The wood slat feature begins as a floor finish that cascades up the wall in the vestibule to become a ceiling treatment (where the frog transitions from a stagnant position to a leaping position) as occupants make their journey into the building to share knowledge. This ceiling treatment continues throughout many of the most collaborative and user-driven spaces in the office.

From a lighting perspective, we used this wood slat architectural element to further enhance the concept of ideas flowing in through the building entry. In the vestibule, light emanates from the floor creating a gradient along the perimeter walls, encouraging vertical momentum. This vertical momentum is transferred throughout the building and pierces through the wood slats in areas of human interaction and collaboration. For example, in the reception desk area, circular pendants drop from the ceiling to create task driven lighting at the work plane to enhance user experience. Additionally, in areas where the wood slat interacts with an open ceiling, light pours out of the seam from a linear accent luminaire. Breakout spaces in the open offices are supported by low, eye catching pendants to reinforce a sense of place when meeting with other team members. This contrast between upward and downward lighting represents the transfer and ideas of information that permeate every day at the Fast Frog Marketing Firm.

Throughout the other spaces, flexibility and user comfort are of paramount concern. For example, in the reception area circular pendants with magnetic luminaire attachments are utilized to accommodate a variety of ever-changing tasks. In spaces like open offices, conference rooms and private offices, it can be noted that linear direct/indirect luminaires with louvered downlight components are employed to enhance user comfort and discourage reflections in device screens. Lower and softer lighting in the center open office helps to alleviate eye strain for occupants who are using devices most of the work day. Due to the close-knit nature of the firm, a glass partition was substituted for an opaque partition between the management office and the open office to encourage a feeling of cohesion and collaboration between owners and the workforce.