Two Minutes With // M Moser

Hello! We are excited to release our recent interview with Charlton Hutton, of M Moser. Known for creating workplaces for global businesses, M Moser specializes in creating effective workplace environments; designing and delivering office interiors, architecture, corporate campuses, and R&D facilities. To optimize the use of space and budget, M Moser’s project professionals focus on developing workplaces that support our clients’ business goals and management objectives. Check out their website for more great projects.

Images courtesy of M Moser.

VT: You were featured in Interior Design Magazine for the Tough Mudder U.S. Headquarters because the project truly embraced the culture of the company. What kind of preliminary research goes into your designs so that you know the final product will be authentic?

CH: We hold kick off meetings and visioning sessions at the beginning of every project to best understand how the clients are currently working and the direction they are headed. We use this information to interpret the vision into the design of the future space. Tough Mudder gave our design team the opportunity to participate in an obstacle course challenge to gain a true understanding of TM’s culture and inspiration for the 35,000 square foot Brooklyn Headquarters at 15 MetroTech Center. We were able to prove we are team players and form an amazing bond with the team. This experience paved the way for us to fully understand TM’s mission and to build the space for this quick evolving company to showcase TM’s culture and brand identity.

VT: A lot of your projects feature bold graphic or sculptural expressions. How have you found that art can be used to successfully convey a concept or make a subtle nod to a client’s brand?

CH: Environmental branding and graphics is an important aspect of design for our clients to connect them to the space. The abstraction of art allows the design team to convey the client’s mission and values in a non-literal sense. We use the application of graphics and art as a means to connect to the local community. By engaging local artists, we are able to develop a regional residence within the space that makes it unique to the location while supporting the brand with customized installations.

VT: Your clients come from cities all around the world — London, New York, Shanghai, and Bangalore — just to name a few. How do you see people working differently from culture to culture?

CH: Absolutely. M Moser is a global company and we encounter cultural differences between our 16 offices worldwide. I’ve worked with teams in all the locations mentioned above and have had the opportunity to learn a lot about the different cultures that has helped me build success in my designs. Our teams are connected through our underlying cohesive vision of how we approach our designs and the individual designers that communicate that vision with their personal touch in every project. We find our global clients want to create spaces identifiable to their brand, with a unique, innovative expression of the specific region of that office.

VT: M Moser was one of the winners of the “Serving Hospitality in the Office” Design Competition in 2014, providing an innovative solution that incorporated hospitality elements into workplace design. How can spaces benefit from taking cues from various areas of design expertise and applying them to an office environment?

CH: Hospitality has influenced commercial trends to push for a more residential design. We create spaces that are more human — relating to the individual to make the space feel comfortable and fun, yet still professional. By designing workplaces with an open plan environment to create a sense of community and balance between the work settings to accommodate personal workstyles allowing employees to be flexible and best suited to complete a variety of tasks.

VT: What advice do you have for students who are interested in a career in workplace interiors?

CH: It’s an exciting industry! Make sure you are passionate about design. It can be extremely challenging but equally as rewarding and gratifying to create spaces for people. I always am so happy to hear clients tell me “I love to wake up and come into the office.”