Places to Work Part II – Mod Men Chandelier Creative NYC

Mod Men - First Appeared in New York Magazine February 22, 2009

I have been looking a great places in terms of creative spaces to work... this yet another office in New York City I found very unique and creative. Anyone who has seen my office...

A purple piano, a latex sofa, and a Ronald McDonald head make for a classic-kitschy mash-up at this former art studio, speakeasy, and morgue turned ad agency.

In New York, the Noho office (north of Houston Street) of advertising agency Chandelier Creative, the staff has china and crystal for their lunches. There are fresh flowers on the purple piano. Each employee's desk is different; they are found at flea markets and lacquered black for visual uniformity.

Founder Richard Christiansen who has been a creative director at art-book publisher Assouline and Suede magazine before he took out a second mortgage to start Chandelier Creative three and a half years ago. The space satisfies Christiansen's desire to make even the workday an event.

From the legendary Jerry Della Famina, early on, Mr. Christiansen got the chance to pitch the Nordstrom department stores—but at the time he had only three employees. So in order to appear impressively busy and important, he "staged" an office: hired fake staff off Craigslist, rented a space, and furnished it with flea-market tables and rented computers. It worked.

Since then, Chandelier's accounts—in this, his real office—have included the Mandarin Oriental, Parfums Givenchy, Old Navy, Morgans Hotel Group, and Liberty of London.