Music industry behemoths Island Records and EMI have unveiled the redesign of their London headquarters following an 18-month renovation. Interesting Projects partnered on the redesign with the labels’ in-house creative agency Studio Eye to translate each label’s identity into a distinct material and color language. “This project sits at the intersection of our practice. We design spaces that encourage creativity and exchange, and we bring exhibition thinking to workplace environments, shaping them as curated, narrative-led experiences,” says Interesting Projects directors James Mason and Joana Filipe. “For Island Records and EMI, the office became a spatial expression of musical legacy, where materiality, colour and art function both as an archive and as a foundation for the labels’ next chapter.”
Housed within the Pancras Square development, upgraded offices are punctuated with more than 70 historic and newly commissioned artworks including photographs by Annie Leibovitz and a handpainted mural by artist and singer Jorge Jacobs. Island’s signature yellow hue of Pantone 109C is paired with a vivid Pantone 671C pink in reference to its progressive and folk era in the late 1960s. EMI’s English roots are reflected via a deconstructed palette of the Union Jack, embedded with color-matched ALPI wood joinery, stainless steel wall fabrication, and bespoke art framing for a cohesive architectural framework. At the heart of the workplace is an immersive listening room outfitted with bespoke studio monitors as well as a customized breakout area, rounding out a spatial narrative honoring nearly a century of musical production while supporting a new generation of UK artists.
