Inside Conscious Minds' Offices in a Century-Old Portland Home

We chose a craftsmen house for our office in Portland, Ore., for a few reasons. 

First, it’s the embodiment of our family-style culture we have with our clients, employees and community. No one’s a stranger, everyone’s known by name, and we keep a true open-door policy with friends and clients. 

Second, the house is over 100 years old, which speaks to our souls. To many, we’re a disruptor-type agency that’s redefining what the creative agencies of the future will look like. Although our model, structure and services might be untraditional, the essence of our stories and creativity is as old and timeless as this house. There’s no shortcut to telling a good story. It takes time, craft and ingredients that have been the same for thousands of years. This house reminds us of this process and grounds us in the tradition of what we do. 

Finally, we got the house to be a more functional space for our L.A.-based team to stay when working out of Portland. It gives us more flexibility and perks to offer our employees to visit and integrate more closely with the Portland team. We’re even letting different clients and vendors stay at the house when traveling to Portland. So it’s become a true community space for friends of our agency. 

Our L.A. headquarters is much more of a traditional office space with a bigger footprint and robust production, editorial and creative facilities. Portland is a boutique experience by design to match the culture, creativity and focus of that team. The house has lots of nooks and crannies for creatives to ideate, collaborate or unplug on a more intimate level than a typical office. This serves those who are more focused on content innovation and prototyping new platforms. It’s much more of a hands-on space with lots of inspiration. 

The main room of our house is quintessentially Portland. Sometimes referred to as “the bullpen,” this collaboration station is where the team spend the majority of their time together. There are no bad ideas at the table. Everyone has a seat and voice as we workshop the task at hand. 

Just as important as finding a good place to work with your head down and headphones in is a place to kick your feet up and chill for a minute. We’ve kept the front room of our “houffice” (that’s house plus office) as a cozy team lounge where we watch sports, share laughs over beers, and unwind from the grind when we need it. 

We all know a hungry creative is about as useful as a glass hammer on a construction site, so we keep our crew fueled up and ready to go with healthy lunch options. Clients and partners often join us during the lunch hour, as there’s no better way to build relationships than over a nice home-cooked meal.

From the works of 16th century playwrights to old baseballs, you’ll find an eclectic yet curated array of knick-knacks donning the shelves of Conscious Minds PDX. Hang out for more than an hour and you’ll surely hear someone start a sentence with “I roll a 12…” There’s no telling how it’ll end or who will be at the mercy of the die, but it’s always a fun injection of energy for the squad.

Everyone on the team is encouraged to add their own flavor to their workspace and the house. After all, you rarely draw inspiration from inside the office, but rather from your experiences out in the real world that you later pull into your day-to-day creative process. 

From dawn till dusk, we’ve got the brew to match your mood. Start the party with a caffeine-packed cold brew when you get into the office, pour a refreshing kombucha after you dust off Chef Jenny’s meal of the day, and wrap up the day with a “damn-right-I-earned-this” Pacific Northwest beer.