Tonic expands in new office

The agency, which recently has won several new accounts and added a number of talented people to its staff, worked with office furniture company and Tonic client, Bafco, to design and furnish its dynamic new 4,500-square-foot space at the Gold & Diamond Park on Sheikh Zayed Road.

Key design features include open shelving, a 'communal hive' and an open ceiling with cosy pendant lighting that provides a warm ambiance. The office also has been enhanced with help from another Tonic client. Legrand, the world's leading manufacturer of electrical switches and sockets, provided its latest Synergy range.

"We asked Bafco to create an office environment that would reflect and nurture our culture of cooperative teamwork across disciplines," said Tonic Managing Partner Arnaud Verchère. "Also, the space needed to embody Tonic's passion and fun in pursuit of creative work that delivers business results that our clients have come to expect."

Four times larger than its former digs in Karama, the new office is expected to accommodate the three-year-old agency's growth for several years to come. There is also enough wall space for its growing collection of awards and recognitions, which already include a Cannes Gold Lion, a Gold Pencil at the One Show in New York City, the Grand Prix at the first annual Campaign Awards, inclusion in the Gunn Report, and being named a finalist at the D&AD awards in London.

There will be linked but distinct areas for all five entities that make up the Tonic Group of Companies: Tonic Communications, Tonic Design, Tonic PR, Tonic Research and Tonic Media.

"Tonic's mission as an agency is to turn the marketing industry on its head," Verchère said, "so it is important that our office mirror that commitment to doing things in an original, creative and unconventional way."

Bafco's head of interior design, Hania Kabbara, said that Tonic recognised the potential in the raw industrial space and had a vision of what it could be. It was Bafco's job to transform the vision into reality.

"My goal was to turn this industrial space into a lively office with a young, spirited and friendly atmosphere that also was executive and professional," said Kabbara, who heads Bafco's interior design team responsible for providing full turnkey solutions, from design and layout to furnishing, for all types of offices.

"Everything from the epoxy concrete floor to the colour scheme of white and silver with Tonic orange as an accent colour was chosen to reflect the energy and creative nature of both Tonic's business and its team," he added.

He said he furnished the office with the Net Working office furniture system because of its smart, youthful and space-saving style. He also selected a newly designed ergonomic staff chair with a black mesh back and orange fabric seat to enhance the eclectic office feel.

Founded in 1991, Dubai-based Bafco has become an industry leader offering a wide range of productivity-enhancing, space-optimizing office furniture and interiors solutions, often with an added ergonomic advantage. Because of its commitment to office spaces that promote excellence, Bafco specialises in great looking ergonomic furniture that helps employees work better and space-saving furniture that ensures workers feel more at ease at their workstations.

With showrooms in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Tehran, Bafco offers an extensive range of system furniture goods, home office furniture, sofa and theatre seating, storage options, flooring and fabrics to serve the medium to upper end of the market.