Instacart hired Blitz to design their new 45,000 SF office located in the heart of San Francisco to accommodate rapidly growing staff. Their goal in the design of the new space was twofold: to attract and retain talent while manifesting their core values of humbleness and quality. To address these goals, Blitz was tasked with the design challenge of creating a new workplace archetype centered on personal experience, social context, and serious fun.
The design of the new comfortable and homey space nods to both the company’s humble beginnings and the mission of the company. Two large work cafes, located on the 6th and 11th floors, feature cafe and bar height tables, comfortable couches, and residential design touches that provide spaces for concentrated work and informal collaboration/socialization. Both cafes provide a warm and inviting place for staff to work and meet with visitors in a retail-like experience with full coffee bars inspired by favorite neighborhood haunts near their original office, the founder’s apartment. The 6th floor work cafe is located adjacent to the office reception and provides an instant entrée into the Instacart culture of comfort and accessibility. Visual access between the spaces removes hierarchy and allows visitors to immediately feel “at home” in the space. The 11th floor work cafe serves as the all-hands and special events space for the office and is lined by windows on two sides with expansive Bay Views. Small conference rooms adjacent to the all-hands space provide opportunities for quick breakouts.
Cabbage wallpaper located in open-access work spaces and provide a vibrant marker for the more informal meeting spaces. A mix of both collaborative standing height tables and private focus booths provide flexibility for both group work and concentrated private work.
Workstations, located on the perimeter of the large floor plate, allow all staff access to windows, daylight, and views. Meeting rooms and phone booths, located in the center of the floors, feature strategic glass-wrapped walls that create visual access from one end of the office to the other while still providing acoustical privacy. All meeting rooms have a strong two-toned paint palette to express the sliced carrot which is so inherent to the Instacart brand.
Cheeky elements of the brand including clever carrot-themed quotes, veggie-inspired design elements and custom produce box displays transformed into office storage and standing heigh tables were key to achieving the layered and personal aesthetic.
The resulting office space was designed and documented in three weeks, which is considered a record time. The design team joked that it was an “insta-project.” The project was also delivered within budget, without sacrificing quality.
