Courtesy of @__________office.
From shimmering skyscrapers and astro-turf carpets to monotonous rows of grey computer boxes offset by dusty pink walls, the Instagram account @__________office has all of the workplace tropes we grew up seeing in movies and on TV, but didn’t get to experience ourselves. Dedicated to the documentation of the ostentatiously retro interior design of the late ’80s and early-mid ’90s—the Microsoft 95 era—this account offers a passage through time to the corporate scenery of the late 20th century. Thet archivist behind the account—they would prefer to remain anonymous—scans images from an array of vintage books and magazine sought out from second-hand book shops; a second-hand market in the curator’s small home town in Italy is another creative source.
Having always harboured an interest in “interior design, retro-computing and the ’80s in general,” the curator started the account in the late summer of last year out of pure enthusiasm and attraction to “the corporate elements of interior design.” Careful to include varying environments such as home offices, corporate offices, lobbies etc., the curator experiments with colour and presentation to create a quirky showcase of clunky screens, colourful graphics and spinning office chairs. As per its bio, @__________office is truly “a love letter to the golden age of corporate kitsch,” a niche that has garnered a caché of over 26k followers. Archiving almost claustrophobically small and garishly decorated spaces alongside open-plan offices with flashy furniture and lush ferns, it is a unique catalogue of the good, the bad and the ugly of the corporate era.