Neutral is the New Black: A Fashion Tech Startup Finds Space for Style

Clique Media Group at the Pacific Design Center (PDC) in West Hollywood, California. Designed by Felderman Keatinge & Associates (FKA). Photography: courtesy of Felderman Keatinge & Associates

Modern workplace design is now commonly being tailored to a client’s desire to give both employees and guests a sweeping/embracing experience of the culture and life at that company.

Rooms for private phone calls and small meetings.

With companies that create specific products, that “company culture” must blend well with whatever they’re creating and selling. How does company culture mix best with product in a physical workspace?

Clique Media Group is a global media, marketing and consumer brands company overseeing several brands, including Who What Wear, My Domaine, Brydie, College Fashionista and Obsessee. Founded by two women who previously worked at Elle Magazine in NYC, the women’s fashion company creates content and products that Millennial and Gen Z females are looking for in a marketplace with countless options.

And while the young tech company was indeed seeking a workspace with panache and a particular point of view, it wanted its new space to serve primarily as a neutral, equable lens through which people can experience their work.

“They were looking for a very clean, very neutral space that would be a counterpoint to their different domains in women’s fashion – almost like a backdrop for their content,” said Stanley Felderman, co-founder and partner at design firm Felderman Keatinge & Associates (FKA). Co-founded by Mr. Felderman and his wife and business partner, Nancy Keatinge, FKA designed all interiors for the project.

One of only 15 private offices

90% of the space is black and white, and color is used primarily in decorative elements, such as art, with an occasional furniture piece and objects found in the workspace serving as contrast. In contrast to many startup tech firms’ preferences ceilings and walls are all painted a clean white.

“As a firm, we came from a background of using very neutral aesthetics, and that’s how our home is as well,” noted Mr. Felderman. “Then years ago, we did a project for MTV Network and used 52 colors in that space. Since then, we’ve been more diversified. But that black and white and neutral setting is in our history.”

Great views of the Hollywood Hills

When FKA began working with Clique Media Group, the project spanned one full floor at the Pacific Design Center (PDC), a 1,200,000 square foot multi-use facility for the design community located in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.

Clique Media Group was growing so fast, however, that halfway through the project, the job expanded to 24,000 square feet spanning two full floors. Original capacity was at 200, and that number grew to 250.

“That they grew so much during the project was a big challenge,” noted Ms. Keatinge. “And we had a very strict budget. So, the simplicity was going to be the trick to it.”

Most of the 250 employees at Clique Media Group work in open plan workstations.

The layout of the building provided its own challenges to achieving an integrated workspace for everyone at the company.

“The building itself looks great, but the plan was difficult to work with,” said Mr. Felderman. “It was a very long and narrow floor, and we needed to find way a to create continuity, between the two sides of the building, and between the office interior and the outdoor terraces.”

Around the floor plate, dark inset carpeting creates a pathway through the office, linking workspaces and common areas together while guiding people through.

Around the floor plate, a dark inset carpeting creates a pathway through the office, linking workspaces and common areas together while guiding people through. The carpeting lighitly taps into the idea of a fashion runway.

“The inset carpeting taps into the idea of a runway in the fashion world, but with a neutral, black and white theme rather than the classic red carpet runway,” said Mr. Felderman.

The office includes just 15 private offices, with the remaining workspaces occupying open plan workstations. In the open plan area FKA installed lower paneling and removed much of the individual storage and instead created specific product storage spaces – a makeup product room, clothing product room – to lend a cleaner look to the office, while still giving guests a sense of the size of Clique Media Group’s different entities. The storage rooms feature double doors that open into the larger office.

Aside from the neutral backdrop aesthetic form, Clique Media Group articulated a general sense of aesthetic taste with the help of social media tools.

“They had made a Pinterest page, but a lot of the things they had found and liked were residential, so we had to translate that to an office space.”

Kitchen and dining area

The neutral backdrop theme extended to lighting design choices as well, with a strong trend toward fixtures of simplicity.

“The lighting is very simple and very clean,” noted Mr. Felderman. “We wanted the light fixtures to blend into the architecture. The only light fixtures that stand out are placed in shared spaces.”

Supporting the primary workspaces are phone rooms, a town hall gathering space where the leadership can bring everyone together, kitchen, mothers’ room, and outdoor patios with lounge seating, umbrellas and fire pit.

An extensive outdoor roof patio includes lounge seating, umbrellas and a fire pit.

“A lot of it was about proximity to views,” said Ms. Keatinge. “Wherever you are, you’re aware of the views. The outdoor terrace was a very big draw for them.”

Clique Media Group occupies a unique space in the tech startup world – that of the feminine, style-oriented female mogul.

“Surprisingly, it doesn’t have a lot of the bells and whistles that a lot of startup tech companies ask for,” noted Mr. Felderman. “But, they’re right in the middle of West Hollywood, so the idea of getting away from the office and into the neighborhood was kind of appealing to them.”

FKA provided a workspace built on “productivity for the creative eye” – a space for a quickly growing company to continue growing in both business prowess and creative output.