By Daniel Dessinger
February 14, 2007
How many people do you know that live like robots, trudging off to the office every day, to do the same thing over and over and over while trapped in their own personal 4′x4′ cell. Office Space became an instant cult classic for a reason: millions of Americans feel trapped with no way out.
Once upon a time, corporate executives sat down and asked themselves how to orchestrate the office environment to promote productivity. First, they had to determine the obstructions to productivity and then design to prevent those horrible things. Sadly, these schmucks thought that face to face interaction with one’s coworkers and personal conversations were a bad thing, so they threw up some cheap walls and required personal conversations be restricted to the lunch hour and other scheduled break times.
Do what? Someone actually thought this was a good idea. Of course, someone also made millions on the conveyor belt, which brought the need for specialization in a way that required one person to turn a bolt the same direction the same number of times a thousand times a day. How wonderful! Capitalism in action!
I was part of the madness just a few years ago. I was held captive. But by the grace of God I broke free. My wife loves me so much that she insisted that I take a risk and throw myself into a full-time copywriting internship that was available. The company I interned at actually split in half within four months of my joining the team, so I didn’t actually make it on staff there, but I did get the chance to escape the evil office cubicle.
This place occupied office space in Addison above the photography studio for a national hair salon chain. I walked through some funky, post-modern decorative art every day I went to work. Upstairs, we all sat at metallic tables with curves and cool designs. They never did finish decorating the space, but it felt like a creative think tank, not a stuffy office building. Watching cool photo shoots through the second story windows and listening to the photographers choice of alternative and pop music all day didn’t hurt, either.
Granted, the company was pretty much a flop, but there were some redeeming qualities to the place. As I was saying to a friend of mine the other day, the goal when searching for or building a company is to find a balance of creative expression and organizational structure. The first is chaos without the second. The second is dead without the first.
© 2007 – 2010, Daniel Dessinger. All rights reserved.
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What’s even worst is the cubicle of the mind… now that’s evil!
How did you get into copywriting? This is something that I’m looking into but have no idea where to start. I’m also thinking about taking some journalism classes. Any advice? You know how much I love to write. I really think this is something that I could pursue.
That’s a good question. Wow… where to start? You’ve obviously given me the topic for at least one post if not several.
Short answer: I got into copywriting by being long time family friends with a guy who did web design for an internet marketing company. He introduced me to his friend, the creative director of the small company. They gave me my first gig which was re-concepting and rewriting all the copy on their own site (which they proceeded to toss out like absolute garbage).
A lot of stuff happened which I can fill you in on later, but it was this one friend who made several friends at one company that made it for me. I met a couple of these friends. That company fell apart, as did the next, until all these contacts now branch out into 4 or 5 different web design and/or marketing companies across the DFW metroplex.
I’ll give a more complete answer to the story in a blog post. Look for more this weekend. I’ll do my best to give you some info soon.
One more thing, Office Space is one of my favorites.