In living color

I challenged myself to a modest virtual photo exercise before sitting down to assemble our May portfolio of contract installations, one of this magazine's most important yearly appointments with the design industry. I tried to conjure up, as an imaginary film still, the office of the past, a space that in not-so-distant memory seemed a truly appropriate setting for any activity corporate or professional.

True confession—I promptly surrendered to that pop view of oversize shoe boxes filled with worker bees toiling away at manual typewriters and rotary phones, sitting at rows of steel desks in a hellish marriage of brave right angles and muted palettes of color (or none whatsoever).

Albeit a caricature, this imaginary rendezvous with contract design's Paleolithic period speaks volumes to anyone endeavoring to assess the astonishing evolution that this issue represents.

From Pixar's animation realm in the Bay Area to the hip-hop arsenal of J Records in New York and the Ross School's meditative haven on Long Island, contract proves to be the flash point for new creative solutions and one of the vital engines building unique, living interiors. It's time to get down to business.