Key Publishing Group’s Vancouver Offices

  • Client Key Publishing Group,
  • size 4,500 sqft
  • Year 2011
  • Location Vancouver, Washington, United States,
  • Industry Film / Media / Publishing,
  • Key Publishing Group publishes magazines and produces trade shows for make-up artists in motion pictures, television, fashion and theater. Their office were designed in-house by Founder Michael Key and the company’s art department. It embodies industrial, mid 20th century style with a twist.

    “The comfortable creative space that houses Key Publishing Group—producers of Make-Up Artist magazine and the International Make-Up Artist Trade Shows—was once a dingy 4500-square-foot warehouse/office hybrid located in Vancouver, Washington. But the company’s founder, Emmy Award-winning make-up artist Michael Key, put his years of on-set experience into play to give the building a Hollywood-style makeover.

    Without a professional designer, Key and his staff pooled their creative ideas. Aided by his art department and inspired by hundreds of design photos, including photos posted on Office Snapshots, Key set a plan in motion. It began with a Photoshop design for color schemes and graduated to a full three-dimensional mock-up. Construction began on April 1, 2011.

    The Key Publishing office now opens onto a curved reception desk and stained concrete floors. During the construction phase, several of the building’s original walls and doors were removed, or in some cases, replaced. Movie-style set dressing—including 800 Plexiglas rivets and retrofit lighting fixtures, all aged to perfection—created a distressed, industrial look. Posters for films Key worked on, as well as vintage movie posters, adorn the walls, as do clocks showing the time in various countries where the company hosts trade shows.

    On June 7, 2011, Key and his staff had a finished product. They held an open house to share the refurbished space and celebrate with friends, family, press and colleagues from the make-up industry, including a branch governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.”