If you're ever looking for a trip back in time and a fun environment to work in, look no further than Edgar Allan's main offices in West Midtown.
Edgar Allan, a brand strategy and web design advertising agency based in Atlanta, moved into their "post-apocalyptic" campus in the spring of 2014 and has been making updates ever since, according to partners Mason Poe and Kendra Rainey.
The 2,100-square-foot space is located at the Goat Farm Arts Center, a 130-year-old collection of buildings and home to a working farm, chickens and goats in West Midtown. Prior to its time as the Edgar Allan home base, "The Farm" began as a Van Winkle Cotton Gin manufacturer until it was converted into a factory for ammunition and mortars during World War II.
"We chose this location because of its proximity to good restaurants for lunchtime, to be honest," Rainey said. "But we also chose this place because we could make the space what we wanted, including adding the wood-burning stove, which serves as our main source of heat (and stress reducer and way to blow off steam; you wouldn’t believe how therapeutic chopping wood is)."
The company's philosophy on work and their space comes from the idea of telling a story, Poe, who oversees design and strategy, said.
"We create narrative through all of our work," he said. "And stories are nice and everyone’s a 'storyteller' these days, but we like to think of it as less of a shiny surface thing, and more of an exercise in really making use of the parts and pieces of story to do good work for our clients."
The buildout itself was quite the process, according to Rainey, director of brand and content. Glass for the windows were scavenged from another construction site that ordered the wrong size. Most of the walls in the old building aren't square, so the team used an overlapping structure for the planks on corners. Facing for the cabinets are crafted from fallen trees around the campus. They installed a wood-burning stove when the walls let in the cold winter air. Everything, aside from tasks required by a licensed tradesman, were done themselves, Rainey said.
"We’re a small shop, but we take on global digital re-designs and big brand and content strategy work with a kind of 'just make the thing,' roll-up-your-sleeves-and-figure-it-out attitude," she said.
At Edgar Allan, which employs less than 20 people, it's all about brand and inclusion, giving employees and their guests a place to enjoy. The company has worked with a wide-ranging collection of clients, including Cartoon Network, Spanx, Hotel Indigo, Orderly and more.
"We talk about brand being this club you join — something you gravitate toward because you believe things in common with the other people, and like the feeling of belonging," Poe said. "So as we have built the EA brand and office, one of the best complements we get is people say it feels a little like a clubhouse. We open our doors to our clients to come work on-site during long engagements, we host 'steak night' and shrimp boils out in front of the big glass windows, and everyone rotates playing DJ, programming the day’s tunes."
Gallery
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
Whitney Ott
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
The Edgar Allan office is in a reclaimed industrial space in a building once used to transport whiskey, then oil, then ammunition to northern destinations. It later represented “District 12” in "The Hunger Games." Image Credit: Edgar Allan.
