What’s on Your Desk: Miep Keller

With so many different creative minds under one roof, we all organize our work in a different way. I spoke with Miep Keller, one of PAYETTE’s designers about her work space. Miep works on one of our co-located projects, so she has two desks; one at the job site and one in the office. At PAYETTE we have an open plan office with similar table / desk setups for each staff member to facilitate collaboration. We have the ability to make our workstations mobile – moving to a new station should be seamless with rolling filing cabinets (many equipped with cushion tops to make a quick stool) and the same resources available at each station.

Miep and her team have been co-located for the past two months, working 2 days per week in the office and 3 days per week on site. When at the job site, Miep spends approximately 80% of her time at her desk and 20% of her time walking through the site. In order to accommodate the time she spends walking through the construction site, Miep keeps a change of clothes in her desk on site along with her site gear – the requisite hard hat, reflective vest, gloves and goggles. She finds it helpful to always be prepared. Given her love of color, it is no surprise that Miep populates both desk with splashes of color – from a funky coffee mug to a plant and other memorabilia. Miep described her desk as full of color and humor, thus her oversized tape dispenser nicknamed, “mix tape” shares space with her mustachioed coffee cup.

Miep’s desk here in the office holds samples and a brick from the original structure of the project. In her five years at PAYETTE she’s worked on the same project the entire time. While in the office she likes to keep her ears open to her team’s discussions around as there are so many interconnected, complex components to the project.

What’s on your desk? Where do you find inspiration in the workplace?