Welcome Two New Designers to the ID Studios Family

We’d like to welcome Lauren Zinn and Holly Cogan to the ID Studios family!

Lauren graduated from SDSU in 2014 and has worked for the last four years gaining experience in the design industry, including the Hospitality arena. She believes the key to great design is to empathize with the client, so she can better understand how to provide design services tailored to their individual needs. She loves taking her two rescue dogs, Bud and Luna, to Dog Beach to burn off all their extra energy. They will be joining a thriving “dog loving” community at ID Studios!

Holly just graduated from SDSU this past June and completed her internship at ID Studios this year. Her friendly personality, sense of design, and work ethic fit perfectly with the ID Studios team. When she’s not searching out new coffee shops around San Diego, her favorite place to travel is NYC where she was lucky enough to do a summer interior design internship.

Give a warm welcome to our expanded design family!

ID Studios and Workplace Wellness

In the design world, trends come and go, however, one design trend we see sticking around is workplace wellness and health for employees. Over the past two decades the workplace has changed substantially. Prior to the early 2000’s, the typical workplace was an artificially lit cubicle farm surrounded by enclosed private offices that blocked all the natural light. Since then, designers and clients have embraced workplace trends from open planning concepts to game rooms and sliding boards instead of stairs. We think planning for the health and wellness of employees in the workplace is here to stay.

A workplace that promotes health and wellness has positive effects on both the employees and employer. Studies have shown that a healthy lifestyle and environment enable employee productivity, engagement and retention. Given that we spend up to 90% of our day indoors it is important that we are surrounded by an environment that supports our health and well-being.

We’ve found that the WELL Building Standard is a great guide for best practices to achieve a healthier workplace. The WELL Building Standard is the first standard with a focus on health and well-being of the building occupants. WELL is focused on seven concepts: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Fitness, Comfort and Mind. Below are some examples of how you can integrate some of these concepts to your workplace.

Air
Air quality issues cause respiratory problems, diminish work productivity and lead to sick building syndrome, below are few easy tips to improve the quality of air in your workplace:

• Select low VOC paints and finishes
• Have walk-off mats at the entry of your space
• Install operable windows/doors in your workspace for natural ventilation
• Use green cleaning products
• Install carpet tiles

Water
80% of the US is mildly dehydrated which can cause many health issues. It is recommended that men consume 125 oz and women 91 oz of water a day, below are a few ways to encourage healthy hydration:

• Provide safe filtered water within 100’ of regularly occupied areas
• Change and maintain water filters
• Test drinking water

Nourishment
Dietary guidelines for Americans recommend 4 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. In addition to nourishment guidelines the WELL Building Standard has recommendations to prevent food borne illness in the workplace. Below are a few tips to champion proper nourishment in the workplace:

• Provide disposable paper towels at sinks in lieu of hand dryers
• Provide .7cf of refrigerator space for each employee.
• Have an office garden with vegetables, herbs and edible plants.
• Provide plenty of spaces for eating, tables and chairs for 25% of employees
• Make fruit and vegetables available to staff

Light
Access to natural light is important to health and wellbeing, here are a few ways to achieve better lighting in your office
• Maximize natural light
• Control glare
• Select light paint colors for the majority of for walls and ceilings.

Fitness
It is recommended to get 30 minutes of activity per day, a few ways to encourage movements are below:
• Provide access and encourage use of stairs
• Storage for bicycles
• Provide areas for physical activity
• Height adjustable workstations
• Shower

Comfort
Comfortable, distraction free environments lead to happier employees who are more productive, here are several ways to support greater comfort in the workplace:

• Providing adjustable chairs and workstations for proper ergonomics
• Invest in a white noise system
• Provide employees with a choice of areas to work throughout the office
• Limit noise created from building mechanical systems

Mind
Interior environments at are aesthetically pleasing and that incorporate nature can enhance the employees experience, mood and happiness, below are some tips to promote emotional health:

• Bring the outdoors in with plants and patterns that evoke nature
• Provide opportunities for connections to the exterior
• Create collaborative spaces and areas to meditate and relax

At ID Studios, we are passionate above creating spaces that promote health and wellness as well as environmental sustainability. Reach out to see how we can help.

Bassline Table Charity Auction

This Spring, bkm OfficeWorks hosted a design contest and Charity Auction to benefit David’s Harp Foundation. The goal was to design a one-of-a-kind table top for the Bassline Table Legs made by Steelcase. This line is specifically designed to host a customized table-top for anything you can dream up.

David’s Harp Foundation uses the power of media creation as a platform to inspire, educate and empower “at-risk” and homeless youth to achieve academic success through music/media education, sound engineering and multimedia production.

Using music as an inspiration, we took lyrics to the next level by incorporating them into a beautiful graphic design. The result was a “Judges Choice” award winning tab table that also inspired a bidding spree at the silent auction.

Through the organizational efforts of bkm, over $5,000 was raised to support David’s Harp Foundation including table sales, event donations and a generous in-kind match by bkm’s owner, Bill Kuhnert. Thank you to everyone involved with organizing a fun, event that also provided another way for our designers at ID Studios to “give back” to the community.

Project Feature: Mission Federal Credit Union Headquarters

In 2018, we had the opportunity to work with Mission Federal Credit Union to help them transition from an office they had occupied for the previous 30 years, by designing a future focused home and headquarters that will ensure flexibility to live and grow for the next 30 years.

The design process started with an interactive Visioning session to help focus the extended team on the long-term strategic goals. Lisa Chappell, Vice President of Corporate Facilities for Mission Federal said, “The process was collaborative, fun and exciting, which is exactly what the final design achieved.”

The team then sought insight into their employee’s day-to-day work lives by obtaining feedback to validate data about their daily work requirements. With those results, the team created a design that fulfilled their need for greater collaboration and openness, natural light, flexibility, wellness-focused design, and a fun, inspirational environment.

The interest in openness and collaboration drove the need for private, quiet spaces that provided an environment for employees to focus and achieve heads-down work and open spaces that provided energy and collaboration. ID Studios was able to design a wide variety of spaces to fit all of these requirements. Utilizing architectural and finish elements to convey a message of strength and reliability was equally as important to Mission Fed as creating an environment that was welcoming and approachable.

Our Mission Fed Moment can be summed up by Associate and Senior Designer, Jill Russell when she said, “It was inspiring and a true pleasure to partner with Mission Federal Credit Union, Level 10 Construction, and Jones Lang LaSalle on Mission Federal Credit Union’s new headquarters.” We are very proud of what our whole team was able to achieve for such a forward-thinking company!

Happy Holidays from ID Studios

A Holiday Video Greeting From ID Studios

We hope Santa’s Elves deliver a NICE report to the Big Man this Holiday Season.

One of the greatest joys of this season is the opportunity to say thank you to those who have made our success possible. We wish you a wonderful Holiday Season and a peaceful, prosperous New Year.

Stephen Scirrotto Joins ID Studios

ID Studios is growing again! Please welcome our newest Project Manager, Stephen Scirrotto.

Stephen joined ID Studios with over 13 years of experience of Architecture, Design and Project Management, he is taking on a role as Project Manager at ID Studios where he will oversee all phases of the design process. Prior to joining, Stephen was an Associate, Architect and Design Manager with Gensler San Diego for over 7 years where he was the Design Resilience Leader for the Workplace Studio, as well as lead the Technology and Financial Services Firm Workplace Practice Areas. Stephen started his career in the Boston area where he worked with Okun and Associates in which his focus was on higher educational projects for Harvard University.  Stephen is a licensed architect and holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and a Master of Architecture Degree from Roger Williams University.  Stephen focuses on understanding client’s needs, which allows him to deliver effective design solutions. He believes that the biggest challenges bring out the best in an architect, as constraints drive creativity. Ultimately, building lasting relationships with clients that come back time and again is deeply satisfying to him.

Stephen, along with his wife and two children enjoy spending time together outdoors in nature, at the beach, mountains and desert.

Introducing our Hospitality Studio

YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE KNOWN __ ID Studios has a team of extremely talented hospitality designers within our multi-faceted studio. Project experience includes multi-family housing, restaurants, country clubs, event spaces, boutique hotels and even cruise ships! We are especially excited about the inroads ID Studios is making in the hospitality and senior living arenas. As we take on more senior living projects, our designers are integrating the resort and hospitality experiences into these projects that appeal to our retiring population. Hospitality design elements are also showing up in our corporate and creative office space. The common denominator in all of these design solutions is blending work, life, wellness and play. These unique spaces fit to our client’s needs, individual experiences and truly define a new genre of ‘place’.

Our industry partners know us as a trusted advisor in the corporate and higher education realm and we hope to inspire more introductions and connections in the hospitality and senior living world as our portfolio expands. We intend to provide the hospitality and senior living industry the same high standards, knowledge base and creativity that we have been providing since our beginning 14 years ago.

Stay tuned for more new and exciting hospitality and senior living projects from ID Studios. In the meantime, take a look at some of our latest projects in the works.

Please contact us  for more information.

Congratulations to Rich Guerena on his Promotion to Associate

ID Studios is pleased to announce the promotion of Rich Guerena, AIA to Associate. Rich received his Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Southern California and has worked in the Architecture industry for over 20 years. He joined ID Studios 4 years ago and has embraced a leadership role which now includes both technical leadership and mentorship alongside his role as Project Manager.

He finds one of the most rewarding parts of his job is to understand our client’s needs and work with real-world constraints such as building codes, constructability and bottom line costs. His ability to create results ultimately improves how our clients live, play and work and translates into beautiful and healthy environments.

Rich was raised in cities all over Southern California but seriously settled down in San Diego where he has gained an appreciation for good tacos! He and his wife have a busy San Diego lifestyle and two children who they intend to raise to be “decent human beings”. Rich also practices traditional Kung Fu where he is a 2nd degree brown belt and Tai Chi where he’s earned a black belt.

Be sure to reach out to Rich and congratulate him for a job well-done!

10th Annual Tables for Tots Charity Fundraiser

ID Studios was proud to be part of the 10th annual Tables for Tots Charity Fundraiser, benefiting Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego. Each year, designers from across San Diego take a simple, wooden children’s table and chair set and design masterpieces that are then auctioned off to members the community where the proceeds are donated to the charity. G/M Business Interiors has organized the event since 2009 and raised almost $500,000 to date. This year was their most amount raised for any single year at over $81,000!

This year’s theme was “Many Hearts Make a Home”. We know that dogs warm our hearts and are family members in many homes, so Jeni Champion and Mary Ford took the lead to design a house for our furry, canine family members. Spooners Woodworks did an excellent job at executing the design and Sherwin Williams provided the paint and painting supplies Dal-Tile and National Office Furniture sponsored other materials and accessories.

We think everyone knocked it out of the park and we’d like to thank the entire team!

Deborah Elliott and Amy Morway are finalists in the Celebrating Women Awards Program

San Diego Magazine is hosting an event to celebrate San Diego’s, “inspiring female leaders, movers and shakers, and entrepreneurs” for an event they call Celebrating Women.

We’re excited to announce that Deborah Elliott and Amy Morway, founders of ID Studios, are finalists in the awards program. As their employees, we’re honored to work with such wonderful leaders. A firm’s culture starts at the top and we believe that they have created a one-of-a-kind design studio with just the right mix of talent and personality. They inspire and promote an authentic approach to design and cultivate an amazing design experience for both our clients and our team. They deserve to be celebrated because of their relentless drive to improve the lives of everyone they encounter and have done so with style and grace.

Join them, and all of city’s most inspiring female leaders nominated this year, at the event on Sept 25 to celebrate their accomplishments.