Chait/Day: Los Angeles

image courtesy of arcspace.com

                Lee Clow has been a fixture at Chiat/Day for quite some time.  In an interview with Clow, when about the late Jay Chiat, Clow said, that “Jay was a high-energy, passionate New York guy in a California culture. As we started to grow, he was always trying to find the next best way to do stuff” (Cuneo, p.58).  The intimidating character that was Jay Chiat was seen by many as always being on the offensive.  He would constantly challenge people to do their best and expected no less from his employees who Clow, jokingly refers to as Chiat’s “disciples.”

image courtesy of architectureweek.com

                This need to be the best and to constantly push to find new and better ways of doing things is easily seen in the Chiat/Day headquarters.  Advertising City, as their building is known, is housed in what used to be a 120,000 square foot warehouse.  People are given room to be creative.  One would find it difficult to find the typical “cube farm” of cubicles so common in today’s businesses.  Instead employees are free to roam around this community with cell phones and PowerBooks so that they feel free to be creative whenever and wherever the mood strikes them.  There’s a gatehouse shaped like a surfboard and even a hardwood floor basketball court that the company uses for Tae-Bo classes and company parties.  They want their employees to have a life at work.  Not just a life and work.   

                Team is stressed in everything that the employees there do.  All the departments are divided into “neighborhoods” that are easily reached by walking down “Main Street.”  Chiat/Day feels that, "You can't force people to be creative, but you can create an environment where creativity is more likely to happen" (Ransdell, p.1).  This environment is quite the recruiting tool.  Lee Clow claims that this Disneyland effect takes over people who walk in the door who immediately ask how they can get a job working for Chiat/Day.