M&C Saatchi

Creative advertising heavyweights, M&C Saatchi pride themselves on bolstering connection and change – creatively, commercially and culturally. M&C Saatchi have impeccable brand consistency across all their channels, their brand experience seamless and considered from head to toe. Our work for M&C required that we spatially and experientially match the expression of their brand. Modern, leaning tech, but ultimately functional and never over complicated.

M&C Saatchi’s workplace design was informed by considering the company’s own core values. Following the workshopping phase with the client, we landed on developing a design that would hero the brutal simplicity of geometry, led by a grid driven layout. Through a progressively paired back spatial approach, the design created opportunities for ownable moments of colour, texture, and finish.

This manifested in an open plan approach to the design with minimal built form, encouraging moments of connection and serendipity in the space. The final design is almost free of boundaries, connected through materiality, natural light and organic movement in the space, unifying this core element of connectivity. Lustrous materials are balanced with soft and bold toned upholstery and joinery, di-chromatic window film as the floating boardroom block, balanced by translucent corrugated sheeting framing the murals.

In line with pursuing a progressively paired back approach, we embraced many pre-existing elements in the space. If we were to remove an existing condition (ceiling, floor), we needed a compelling reason why. For instance, the white ceiling tiles throughout didn’t speak to the brand, but the cost of relocating all the services and grid was both too heavy, financially and environmentally.

We left the grid in place, removed the tiles allowing them to be re-used on other fitouts within the building, and sprayed out the ceiling a muted green ‘beyond’ the grid. In a world of sprayed white, black or bold colours, we felt a highly muted green spoke to the level of restraint required by the very best in creative industry, capturing the essence of never going too far. By using some raw construction materials, the naturalness felt equally well harnessed, acting as a point of contrast to the refined and tech-like feel of the space.

We engaged mural artist Mitch Walder to work on visual translations of M&C’s core values; walk in other worlds, run towards the fire, roll as one, be excellent to each other, make uncommon sense. We considered these murals right down to the framing, placing corrugated sheeting on top of the finished murals. Obscuring the artwork with additional materiality acted as a vessel to deeply consider these values, inviting people to physically engage with the work to view it in different ways, as well as broadly reflecting their current branding which is playful with always at least one element that offers something deeper.

“We wanted to nail this combination between really sleek and modern, balanced with pared back, raw elements – we felt like that captured the essence of what the M&C Saatchi Melbourne team were.”

Mitchell Jones, Creative Director – Made For.