Picture this: it’s 1975, and you’re walking into your new office job. Fluorescent strips buzz overhead, casting a sickly and annoying relfection over endless rows of identical desks. The carpet is burnt orange shag, the walls are wood-panelled with a cold green hue, and your “workspace” is defined by shoulder-high fabric partitions in varying shades of brown and beige. Welcome to the golden age of corporate conformity. Here at No More Boring_, we use the above hero image to remind us that while we’ve certainly evolved from the days of brown on orange on brown and wood-panelled walls, too many modern workplaces still carry echoes of the 1970’s aesthetic. It serves as both our guiding light and our rallying cry – because in 2025, no one should have to spend a third of their life surrounded by boring walls.
Looking back from 2025, we should count ourselves extraordinarily lucky that workplace design escaped the gravitational pull of that era’s rigid thinking. Yet paradoxically, as 1970s aesthetics make a comeback in home design—think mushroom lamps, terracotta tones, and macramé wall hangings—it’s worth examining what we’ve gained (and what we might have lost) in our journey toward today’s human-centred workplaces.
The Era of Corporate Conformity
The 1970s workplace was built on industrial efficiency principles. Employees were viewed as interchangeable parts in a well-oiled machine, and office design reflected this philosophy. The infamous “pod system”—clusters of identical workstations surrounded by low partitions—epitomised this approach. Privacy was minimal, personalisation was discouraged, and the message was clear: you’re here to work, not to express yourself.
“The 1970s office was designed for surveillance and standardisation,” notes workplace historian Dr. Margaret Chen. “Managers could observe their entire team from a central position, and every workspace looked identical to reinforce corporate hierarchy.”
These environments prioritised cost-effectiveness over human needs. Natural light was blocked by heavy drapes, indoor plants were rare luxuries, and ergonomics hadn’t entered the corporate vocabulary. The result? Workplaces that felt more like factories than creative environments.
The Aesthetic Irony
Here’s what’s fascinating: while we’re rightfully grateful to have evolved beyond pod-based office design, many 1970s aesthetic elements are having a moment in residential spaces. Earthy colour palettes, natural textures, and organic shapes—all hallmarks of 1970s design—are being reimagined for modern homes.
The difference lies in intention and humanity. Today’s interpretation of 1970s style emphasises comfort, warmth, and connection to nature—values that were largely absent from corporate environments of that era. We’ve learned to separate the aesthetic wheat from the organisational chaff.
What We've Gained: The Human Revolution
The transformation has been remarkable. Modern workplace design recognises employees as complex humans with varied needs, work styles, and preferences. We’ve moved from one-size-fits-all to environments that offer choice: quiet zones for focused work, collaborative spaces for team projects, and informal areas for spontaneous conversations.
Biophilic design has brought nature indoors, improving air quality and mental well-being. Natural light is now prioritised over artificial illumination. Flexible furniture allows spaces to adapt throughout the day. Most importantly, we’ve acknowledged that physical environments profoundly impact creativity, productivity, and job satisfaction.
The Lost Art of Boundaries
Yet there’s something we might learn from that rigid era: the value of clear boundaries. The 1970s office, for all its faults, maintained a distinct separation between work and personal life. When you left at 5 PM, work stayed behind. The physical office contained work in a way that today’s flexible, always-connected world struggles to replicate.
Those fabric partitions, however aesthetically challenged, provided psychological boundaries that many open-plan offices fail to deliver. Sometimes constraints can be liberating, defining spaces for different types of thinking and interaction.
Gratitude for Evolution
We’re incredibly fortunate that workplace design broke free from industrial-era thinking. The shift toward human-centred environments represents one of the most positive developments in corporate culture. Today’s workplaces recognise that happy, healthy, inspired employees drive business success.
But as we embrace this evolution, we can appreciate aspects of earlier eras—not the surveillance and standardisation, but the clear structures and defined boundaries that helped people navigate their work lives.
"The 1970s taught us what we don't want. The decades since have shown us what's possible when we design for humans, not machines."
