STELLA & DOT’S NEW DIGS
Brisbane office extends the comforts of home.
Commuting to a corporate office park south of the city might not sound sexy at first, but one look at the idyllic setting overlooking the Brisbane lagoon and it becomes clear why women’s fashion social selling community Stella & Dot chose this location for its new company headquarters. The company traded its previous digs (Burlingame, San Bruno) for 360-degree waterfront views of an adjacent marina and towering palm trees that feel more Orange County beach than Bay Area. “We’ve been slowly moving north,” says founder and CEO Jessica Herrin. “I never thought we would pick Brisbane, but every day we walk into the office, we look out at the views of the boats and bike trail. It feels like a meditative spot.”
Herrin had a distinct vision for the space. She was looking for function as much as form and wanted to make sure she found a design partner who would really think about how her team works and collaborates. So she chose Kendall Ermshar Design, with offices in Napa and Oakland. The firm was recommended by Minted founder Mariam Naficy after having designed the online design marketplace’s retail pop-up in San Francisco. To start, Ermshar and his design team sat in Stella & Dot’s office for an entire week to get an understanding of Herrin’s vision and what the team needed in an office space.
She wanted an open, collaborative environment with a lot of public lounge areas. At its core, though, the project presented a challenge: working around the confines of a cold, industrial shell to create a warm, inviting ambience. To accomplish this they brought in metallics and faceted shapes that fit the company’s brand identity, and then softened them up with textured layers of light fabrics and materials also representative of Stella & Dot’s aesthetic. Herrin was highly involved with the project, helping pick out everything from furniture to wallpaper.
The result is an office that’s fiercely feminine and kick-off-your-shoes casual, even though it’s highly designed. Emphasis on details — from a thoughtfully decorated mother’s nursing room to scented candles in the bathrooms — make employees feel valued. Ermshar and his team even custom designed and fabricated smoky gray Lucite panels laser-cut with a pattern from Stella & Dot’s collection to be used as screen dividers that create a sense of privacy and separation throughout the open space. “We finally have an office that feels on-brand,” Herrin says.