Seen and Unseen

50 shades of transparency

Transparency is a major value in most companies today and this trend is reflected in many fields: the transparency of a company to its investors and employees, its market value, in the content that the company produces and even physically when designing their office space. This has been obviously affected by the availability of internet and the Open Source age.

Cultural and social changes in organizational structures also change the dynamics of the company space. A quick turnover and an increase in the number of employees and also selling or merging of the company directly affect the visual content and the arrangement of the office space. An organization that has a dynamic office that can respond quickly to these changes has a significant advantage in the long run and usually this brings a financial advantage as well.

Therefore, the use of glass walls and partitions in offices becomes more popular. But like anything good – it’s all about the right balance. Using only glass walls can cause over-transparency and the lack of privacy. From our experience we witness these feelings when we are present at the transition phase between the old and the new offices.

When dealing in an open space the challenges may differ and our job is to find the right measures. We use the frosted decal that simulates a sand blasted texture and provides a sense of privacy and screening.

The frosted sticker can be widely manipulated and it performs as an additional layer in the overall design, expressing the company’s values. Therefore it provides a technical solution and can also be a major instrument for expression and content.

As a leading studio in the field we are always looking for new and innovative solutions to offer our clients. We heard a lot about “smart glass”. Shortly – it’s a glass panel that is able to change its opacity using an electrical current.

That’s how we discovered Gauzy, an Israeli company and one of the world’s leading manufacturers of smart glass. We found that along with turning a glass panel from transparent to opaque in a press of a button; the smart glasses can also block sound or even be used as a projecting surface and take part in the overall design layout.

The smart glass has great potential and we predict that it will become a major player in the field in the next few years.