By Craille Maguire Gillies
Extreme Group’s Halifax headquarters – this marketing/multimedia firm also has a satellite location in Toronto – was originally in an old brewery that was, at turns, a firehall and dance studio. Before moving in three years ago, they stripped the space back to its bones and removed the mirrored walls throughout (maybe so graphic designers and account execs wouldn’t practise pliés during client meetings). “We wanted to put a firepole in when we redesigned the space,” King admits. Insurance adjusters quashed the idea.
They didn’t quash Extreme’s creativity. Campaigns include Great Reasons to Smoke, a series of commercials featuring the doofuses from the movie Fubar giving real people’s doofus reasons they won’t quit smoking. “We tried to make smoking very uncool by using unaspirational characters,” says creative director Shawn King. Example: If you quit, how will you meet people?
King, a partner, vice-president and closet Metallica fan, deconstructs Extreme’s “team lounge.”
Photo by James Ingram
1. The pool table used to double as the boardroom table; that’s why it has glass on top. It was always our agenda to make the space inspiring. People sometimes hang around on Friday nights or come in on weekends and play pool.
2. We got the slushie machine one summer because our old office wasn’t air conditioned. It got super-hot in summer. We used to have a Red Bull fridge, but we got rid of it. When Red Bull came and refilled it every month, it was empty the same day. People went crazy.
3. That’s a keg in the back. We have beer-o’clock Fridays at 4 p.m. We have a keg fridge underneath. In our executive lounge upstairs we have a pop machine filled with beer. We don’t charge for it. What kind of beer do we serve? Moosehead. They’re our client.
4. We call the shelves along the back the library. Those are mostly industry books on photographers or illustrators, along with awards annuals. On the right are awards. The regional advertising awards show here is called the ICE Awards. Throughout the office we have close to 50 ice buckets.
5. What you don’t see in the picture are couches and a high-def TV with satellite. People will come down and watch stuff at lunch. Usually big sporting events. There was a time when everyone was watching The Price is Right.
Things We Like About Extreme
Critical Faculties: Idea boards are posted throughout Extreme's office. Photo by James Ingram
+ The best things at Extreme are fun, but also functional. Take the magnetic dry-erase whiteboards throughout the office where staff post mock-ups of new work for people to critique or work by their competitors.
+ The gym. “One of the issues we have isn’t recruiting talent to the agency but recruiting talent to Halifax. We wanted to make the space more appealing, so we put the gym in.” (The only spot for a shower was in a former broom closet. “People seem to have gotten over that.”)
+ An open work area where staff are divided not by department but by client. Graphic designers, account execs and everyone else working on the same account are grouped together.
+ Brick walls, high ceilings and loads of natural light.
+ Extreme is a big-time agency located not in Toronto but in Halifax, which has one of Canada’s most respected design schools, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
+ Did we mention the beer-o’clock Fridays?
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