Mayborn Group, are a leading international, much loved baby company, behind well-known baby brand Tommee Tippee. Ben Johnson Interiors began working with them in 2018, when they wished to relocate to a new global HQ in the Northeast. The award nominated scheme was ahead of it time in terms of workplace trends, and we have supported the team to evolve the design with the business, most recently by adding more informal meeting pods, teams rooms and meeting spaces to meet post covid challenges of encouraging staff back to the office. 

The original brief was to create a colourful and creative environment that would attract ‘Millennials’ and support the vision to become the world’s most loved baby company. The environment was designed to drive creativity and facilitate cultural change, from a traditional formal factory setting to a collaborative culture.

Upon entry into the building you should instantly understand the Mayborn brand and the atmosphere should put a smile on your face. The building was arranged over 3 floors and 6 wings. The ground floor wings are utilised with meeting rooms, breakout areas and agile workspaces while the 1st and 2nd floor wings focused on team working environments, with each wing arranged in neighbourhoods and customised to the teams working requirements. Minimum tea making facilities were also provided to encourage teams to come together and use the main breakout space.

Feature flooring was used throughout the scheme to create agile zones and neighbourhoods. Bespoke joinery and clever furniture solutions were integral to the scheme. The reception area incorporated a bespoke reception desk, joinery merchandising display unit and a unique fun bespoke chandelier of recycled baby bottles.

From the reception you are taken into the left building wing, which is a fun “play and park” informal meeting and work area with a gazebo, feature trees, picnic tables and swinging chairs. The design concept included a feature centrepiece using a giant, illuminated Tommee Tippee logo made from 800 recycled coloured baby bottles. Our team also installed a swing and tree to complete the park experience, bringing the outside in!

All the spaces were designed to be agile with integrated technology. The circular party pods were perfect for informal meetings, with plug and play electrics and balloon lights which you simply switch on to communicate that the pod is occupied.  From soft lounge sofas, to flexible stools with handles, the space was dynamic and fun. The theme ran through to the flooring and wallpaper with wooden wallpaper and green moss selected for the feature walls and carpets.

The meeting rooms were themed around toddler activities and the global locations where Mayborn operates, these included a Chinese tearoom, American diner and British lounge. Bespoke joinery was utilised throughout these areas to achieve the required look and feel. The China room contained a particularly high level of joinery with customised display storage and feature lighting, it also included sliding partition doors, opening the room up to be part of the open plan brew area, allowing the space to be utilised for events. The American diner room demonstrates our ability to work with the client to source the weird and wonderful. A collaboration of fun graphics, feature lighting and our ability to source distinct furniture and flooring made the American diner room concept possible.

The right hand wing, dedicated to staff wellbeing, was designed to be comfortable, with lots of colourful seating zones to offer maximum flexibility. Zones included a café area, pool table and gaming area, a relaxing lounge and tiered joinery seating. The space was designed to support informal meetings, group presentations and to allow teams to relax together during breaks. Wall finishes included chalk boards to communicate company messages, brick slips and feature textured wall paper. Feature vinyl’s and carpets were also utilised to aid the zoning.

Post Covid, we returned to site and installed acoustic tiles in all the meeting rooms to meet the demands for more teams calls. The tiles were still quirky to maintain the theme of the spaces. With employees doing their more focused work at home and returning to the office to collaborate, the library space was changed into a Love Island style fire pit to meet the demand for more collaboration space. Informal space was further increased by the addition of some bespoke booths in the style of garden sheds. We designed these new spaces with the original brief in mind, so any additions still maintained the original workplace theme. It was fantastic to return years later and make some small additions, discussing new strategies on how the Mayborn workplace can attract Generation Z’s. 

The Finished Project

The Mayborn office was and remains a great place to work. The design and fit-out proved it is possible to future proof your office design to achieve a flexible platform you can then build upon. Investing in a quality scheme that can last will reduce future facilities costs and help towards your organisations carbon neutral initiatives.

The Mayborn brand is linked to future generations and so the interior design was developed with sustainability at the forefront of its design. All manufacturers used for the project were ISO14001 accredited. Where possible, recycled products and sustainable materials were used within the scheme. The designers worked with the delivery team to ensure minimal material wastage in the build process and any site waste was managed in line with ISO14001.