Way back when, over a whole decade ago, if someone wanted to share an article or photo with you, the poor sap had to go through the laborious task of either faxing (look it up, kids) or actually mailing you the documents. And not just average folks had to do this: no, even famous entertainers had to be sure to drop a press kit – a tidy package of sassy black and white photos and detailed performance information – to all local media outlets as a main means of promoting that your city would be a stop on their tour.
Throughout our massive CMI Office Overhaul, most of the old junk that has been collecting for decades has been removed to make way for the stellar new Knoll furniture from Spaces of Memphis. However, thanks to our insatiable office pack rats, not all artifacts of such aforementioned press kits have been lost. See here a few of my favorite photos from past concert and comedy tours that have been uncovered during the rehab. Surely, I can’t be the only one who remembers the illustrious musical career of John Tesh?!
Readers, it’s been a while since our last update on progress here at the offices of Contemporary Media. But we’ve been busy; we took our first large-scale installation in January and are finally getting settled in.
For this Rehab group, we focused on our editorial, design, and ad sales spaces. Carol Johnson and the staff at Spaces Group Memphis designed the space and chose the furniture, and our friends at Versatech once again handled the installation. Enjoy the slideshow!
Over the past few months there has been quite a commotion around Contemporary Media, Inc. as we renovate our offices. New paint and carpet has meant decades worth of beloved wall art, clutter, desk and table junk being relocated all around, moving people out of their comfort zones both figuratively and literally. There have been loud disruptions, strange smells, and a general feeling of chaos in the air. Though most people would react negatively when their environment is quickly changed, I must give kudos to my fellow coworkers for embracing the crazy with – for the most part – grace and understanding. We all realize that we are in this together, and regardless of what may be occurring behind the scenes, we still have a business to run and therefore have been sure to help each other through the transitions. Not to say that it has been easy, but we have all managed to keep the bloodshed and tears to an acceptable minimum.
And surely part of the reason we are all so happy (read: not giant, sobbing, violent babies) to rattle the norm and chunk out the old has to do with the fabulous upgrades we will be receiving: thanks to Spaces of Memphis, we will soon have a selection of Knoll office furniture that is sure to put a smile on any disgruntled worker’s face. Each time my concentration is broken by the “whiirrr” of a drill or the “bang!” of a filing cabinet being hauled off, I simply picture myself saying “aaahhh” as I settle into a ReGeneration by Knoll task chair
pulled-up to a sleek Upstart Table
bathed in light from a Copeland Task lamp.
“Aaahhh” yes, indeed!
It certainly helps to weather temporary disorder when you know you’ll eventually be getting a non-zip-tied-together chair or be able to sit at a desk under which you can cross your legs, for example. Swank new furniture in a lovely environment is the silver lining of our disruptive storm cloud, and focusing on this greatly helps put the entire process in perspective. There have been extremely helpful design boards around our office to show what improvements are to be made and products we will receiving, and I’d say us employees have managed to get along without any major drama thanks to these tangible examples.
If you haven’t ever played around with your own “dream” or “inspiration” board, I highly recommend for helping to concentrate on a concrete strategy. With a clear idea of what’s to come we should have no trouble keeping an upbeat attitude through the changes, as with any task for which you have a defined goal. Just focus on the payoff and you’re sure to stay positive.
The day after Christmas our intrepid Contemporary Media, Inc. operations team was up at our office to accept delivery of our very first phase of furniture.
After completely painting and recarpeting our space here in downtown Memphis, we’re now on to the really fun part: new furniture! With the help of the folks at Spaces Group and Knoll Furniture we have now started to see some real progress with this first phase install.
Check out the slideshow below to watch it all in action. Special thanks to everyone at Versatech Office Solutions who installed our new furniture for us, and in under two hours!
Our Office Rehab elves have been very busy the past few weeks at the Contemporary Media offices: we’ve repainted and recarpeted almost every space.
While we’ve recarpeted our offices within the past ten years, none of us can remember the last time the entire office was repainted. And in the intervening years, our staff has taken it upon themselves to paint their offices in many different shades, a few pictures of which we’ll share now:
Our distribution manager’s office pre-rehab, a lovely robin’s egg blue
Tennessee Street in 1983, facing south. Contemporary Media offices are the gray building on left side of the picture.
Here at Contemporary Media, Inc., publishers of Memphis magazine, The Memphis Flyer, Memphis Parent, and MBQ: Inside Memphis Business, we’re quite proud of the creative writing and design we engage in every day as we create our print and digital products. Our office, however, has not necessarily matched our creative output, as our last full-scale interior update happened when we moved in, in 1984. So, on November 1st, 2012, Contemporary Media, Inc. embarked upon a renovation of our company offices.
Since 1984, we’ve been located in a three-story former coffee warehouse situated at the top of the South Bluffs of the Mississippi River, in downtown Memphis. Before downtown “came back,” we were right here on Tennessee Street, and we’ve seen enormous amounts of downtown growth in the intervening 25+ years.
When we moved in, instead of million-dollar homes across the street from our office as are there today, there were turn of the (last) century era unused warehouses. Instead of a trolley running every twenty minutes on the street in front of our offices, we had a gravel parking lot and gravel side roads all around us.
Things have changed downtown, and we’re glad they they have. And now we’ve decided to renovate and rehabilitate our office interiors to match the progress and modernity that we see all around us every day downtown.
We’re working with a commercial furniture dealership, Spaces Group, and we’re also utilizing the interior design services of Carol Johnson and Myra Deyhle, principals at Spaces Group. Carol and Myra have helped us envision our office space as it could be, and are working with us every day to develop, execute, and complete this rehabilitation project.
Follow us on this blog throughout the rest of 2012 and all of 2013 as we post before-and-afters and chronicle the rehab experience: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
And to kick off this project, here’s a short video of our CEO and Publisher, Kenneth Neill, telling us about downtown in the early 1980’s and the changes we’ve seen since.
