Motive

Cancelled. Sadly projects don’t always go to plan. Days of conceptualising and bringing to life incredible ideas often end up with nothing to show. Sometimes even after its been hung on the wall work can be x’d out. We wanted to share our heartbreak and shed some light on a couple of pieces we worked on a large project last year that ended up in a client’s ‘archive’ due to not getting clearance for the original photographs used as inspiration for these works. Overly cautious? Perhaps. But the client didn’t want to risk their professional relationships, so sadly these glorious interpretations of Jada Sezer and Daniel Craig are now hidden away. Dizzee somehow found its way home to Motive HQ 👀

Extremely proud to announce that Motive have won Gold and Silver in this year's BETTER FUTURE Awards London Design Awards for our Tide and Faculty projects. Huge congratulations also to AIS, MFive Consulting, Soul Spaces and Alexandra Humphreys. A lot of thought, love and tight knit collaboration went into both of these, so I couldn't be happier that both have been recognised at this level. Multi award winning baby!!

“You have to keep changing and evolving” Ludacris told me, via Vibe magazine, more years ago than I care to mention, where a simple rule for longevity became embedded in my mind. You cannot stand still. That’s the kiss of death. With leases becoming shorter and shorter and more flex space being taken than ever, tenant attraction is one thing, but client retention is now more important than ever. In that 3-5 year period where a tenant is safely housed, what goes on in that company? And what's being done in those in-between times to aid a tenant's journey? They grow, perhaps shrink, change their game plan, maybe even their name, rebrand, assess the effectiveness of both clients and employees, try to cultivate or retain culture, put in place methods to stir up inspiration and innovation and ensure people’s sense of belonging is as strong as ever. During any or all of those events, what is done to reflect the change of course in their working environment? For those companies to keep/get people on board, their values, mission, and motive must be present in the everyday physical environment to enable their team to all row in the same direction. For landlords with tenants at the end of their leases, for agents and PMs that want to retain positive relationships, for tenants in dire need of an upgrade, for fit-out firms put out because a tenant moved into pre-fitted space… why wait another 3+ years to get back involved? I’ve spent my lifetime, or at least since Ludacris’ first album, developing an understanding of brand, strategy, ownership, culture and belonging, so whatever change your client is going through, don’t wait years to come to their aid and get us involved. Disrupt the cycle, keep clients on board, empower them, and give those spaces a new lease of life.

Bring back play time. When curating office culture or working styles, very little is mentioned when it comes to 'play'. Maybe you'll get a dart board that people will fear using whilst everyone else is hunched over their desks giving you the side eye. I checked out the new Barbican Centre exhibit 'Ricochets' yesterday, which focuses on the ingenuity and essential nature of children's games through time. A lot of the content takes place in active war zones; from conkers to Haram football (a version of football invented by Iraqi children prevented from playing with an actual ball after children were lined up in the street and shot for watching Iraq vs. Jordan on TV). It had me thinking back to 'play time' at school- the short break early in the day before the longer lunch break, where if no one brought a ball you had to get inventive. We would create games about and with anything, games that mimicked, mocked or defied rules of adult society. These games magic'd from nothing helped remove us from whatever was going on in school, or life outside of it. So many kids lived for play time. Why as an adult is that seen as taboo? Playing is invention, it's freedom, it's creating room for thought or abandoning thought. It shouldn't be that radical to encourage everyone to play for half an hour in the day. How transformative would your morale and eventual output be if you carved out a moment for an office-wide game of hide and seek, or task-chair bowling? "The seed that doesn't get watered cannot reveal its ability to bear fruit."

Your values devalue your culture. While company values are intended to guide employees' mindsets, they can often be counterproductive if perceived as overly prescriptive. When employees feel they are being told how to act, it can easily lead to resentment and resistance and decreased engagement. Values are key in getting everyone rowing in the same direction, but plastering the walls with demanding rhetoric, as opposed to encouraging thought, innovation and belonging, tends to only inspire eye rolling. 🙄 Motive recently installed feature pieces for Faculty's new guiding principles that bring to life each value in a way that engages and allows for further thought, pride and ownership.. and maybe even a cheeky smile. Each Principle has its own installation, along with supporting book ends that feature each icon brought to life. Whilst all pieces are intended to spark conversation, the moon landing is a personal fav.. A moment in time that unified the world, the 3D printed micro scene set within a retro TV represents what's possible for the team in exploring new frontiers, truth and innovation. Check out the pics of how we worked together with Faculty in manifesting tools to encourage their team to feel engaged, think laterally, innovate and empower, whilst retaining authenticity to themselves and the brand.