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Daily Harvest has been a saving grace for the veggie and fruit averse. Backed by big-name wellness pros like Serena Williams and Gwyneth Paltrow, the plant-based food subscription service has made a name for itself with produce-packed farm-to-frozen soups and smoothie bowls. The startup’s nutritious motto and Insta-worthy aesthetic served as the primary inspiration for Homepolish designer Ashlie Broderic, who was tasked with redesigning the brand’s new office in Manhattan’s Flatiron District.
“It has a really strong brand identity, which I found really appealing as a designer. It has this great packaging and a great Instagram account. I was really attracted to its clean, minimal aesthetic,” Broderic tells Domino.
With no cubicles in sight, the designer approached the brand’s 3,400-square-foot office space with the intention to introduce punchy decor that spoke to the brand’s values and visual aesthetic while creating a functional and easy place to be productive. After divvying up the office into separate work zones—including a large common lounge, two phone booths, five conference rooms, and a 25-foot test kitchen—Broderic turned her attention to the decor.
“There’s, of course, playful pops of art everywhere. We’ve got fruit art, fruit-shaped tables, neon chairs, and then each conference room is named for a different fruit. There’s the pineapple conference room, the grapefruit conference room, the banana conference room, the dragon fruit phone booth… that’s how we started to make it feel like Daily Harvest,” explains the designer.
Far from theme-y, subtle touches like neon banana lights in the kitchen and brass pineapple tables in the lounge complete the edible look in a way that feels organic. We recently caught up with Broderic to learn more about how this delicious office came to life, plus her tips for cooking up a healthy and inspiring workspace.
Daily Harvest is a unique brand. What was it like translating its values—and its passion for food—to a space that felt stylish and cohesive?
So the Daily Harvest brand is white. The cup is a black-and-white vessel to hold this bright product that it has developed. I developed a design concept around that. So the aesthetic that I wanted to go for was black and white with brass accents and pops of color. For instance, you’ll see graphic white-and-black wallpaper on the walls. In the lounge, we have black-and-white side tables by Anthropologie. I sourced all the best graphic food art that I could find and bright colorful chairs. But the last real driving element of the design is the plant life. Daily Harvest is all about freshness. I think plants speak to what Daily Harvest is: It’s about health and wellness. Plus, having plants around an office just makes it feel more pleasant.
What are some of the essential elements of a great office?
I think a balance of different workspaces really creates a great office. I don’t want an office to just be desks in a room where an employee walks in and that’s there one space to be. I think the great thing about the Daily Harvest office—and a lot of great office designs—is that there’s often a lounge space away from your desk where you can go and sit and have a casual meeting. Think of it as a playground for work. Playgrounds don’t just have one element to play on. There are a lot of different elements to interact with and move around. As a creative person, I know that sometimes my best work doesn’t get done while I’m sitting at a desk.
I know that the kitchen was a crucial part of the renovation. Did you face any challenges during this phase of the project?
At the beginning of this project, we had not planned to make the kitchen as big as it ended up being. We ended up taking out a whole conference room and a bathroom. But it’s really an important element in the space and the heart of what Daily Harvest is all about. Was it challenging to design a kitchen? No, but it was something that came up that was unexpected. Honestly, the most challenging thing was that we decided we were going to hang 1,000 bananas from the ceiling of a conference room. We ordered 1,000 bananas from eBay, and they never shipped—they came in late after the contractor had finished. The great banana ceiling conference room, unfortunately, did not work out.
Daily Harvest’s Instagram is so fresh and fun. How were you able to channel some of that into the space visually?
Rachel, the CEO, wanted an Instagrammable moment when you first walk in. That’s something I have never done before. So we decided to make a human-size Daily Harvest cup and blew it up to four feet tall so a person could stand inside and pose for a photo. I’ve never had to do something like that. It turned out beautifully, and we’re all super happy with it. Rachel is very fun and had a lot of great ideas. Nothing was too crazy. We really wanted the space to be fun and different.
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