I haven't seen a workplace like this in a really long time. I personally love dark workspaces, but they seem to have become uncommon - substituted for "bright and airy" fluorescent lit hellholes. I wonder how / why Pixar went with it.
That whole area with the garden shed, as well as the render farm, look great!
The workspaces are dark because a lot of the work is very color sensitive. A good number of people can't have any ambient light around to do their jobs correctly.
I found the phrasing of the first page a little misleading - "...is a hive of self-expression; this employee, for example, is working out of a garden shed." suggests that this specific employee decided that he wanted to work in a garden shed, and it represents his self-expression, and the picture is framed to make it look that way like it's the only one to enhance that impression. When in fact there are other pictures out there showing that there are many of these. E.g. http://www.flickr.com/photos/veerles-blog/461586084/
Not that they aren't cool, but the text is misleading.
Andy Baio (waxy.org), said that Pixar has the right of first refusal when it comes to employee projects. If an employee wants to work on something of their own, they have to go to Pixar management and tell them about it before starting. In case Pixar would be interested. Usually they say 'no' and get full approval to work on their own project (at home).
Contrast this enlightened approach to employee IP agreements and other murky waters at typical companies (even startups).
And by the way... minus the darkness and you'll get a really cool work place. Bright light is always good to work in. The photos above show guys working isolatedly.
That way, I like Google's work place. Lots of toys and very vibrant(never been there, but their photos clearly show that).
But is there correlation to creativity, productivity, and creative environments like this. I can (and have) see people getting very distracted with all the funtertainment around.
Without wanting to be a joykill, it really only works where you have highly driven and motivated people/team(s) who use it to fuel them.
After seeing this and other Pixar movies that include their workspaces, I've decided that any companies I start in the future will have a 'no white wall' policy. I'll give employees a budget to use as they wish, or if they don't, I'll bring in someone to "decorate".
I haven't seen a workplace like this in a really long time. I personally love dark workspaces, but they seem to have become uncommon - substituted for "bright and airy" fluorescent lit hellholes. I wonder how / why Pixar went with it.
That whole area with the garden shed, as well as the render farm, look great!