Globally recognizable for brands such as Yo Gabba Gabba, Inspector Gadget and Slug Terra, DHX Media is a proud producer of award-winning children’s animated and live action television and online content. A rapidly expanding company, with major offices in Toronto, Halifax, Los Angeles and now Vancouver, DHX employs some of Canada’s most talented 2D and 3D animation artists, many of which call the recently completed Vancouver animation studio home.
The initial brief was ambitious and called for a vast, consolidated studio space that would house its 750 Vancouver-based visual artists and management staff within a 5-storey, 75,000 sq.ft. building in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. This brief identified the need for a balance between efficient, low-light production areas, a mixture of spaces for collaborative creativity and of course zones that would enhance employee well-being and the studio community. In response, Evoke utilized the naturally darker, core areas of the building for production and surrounded these with a network of contrasting breakout and meeting spaces that enabled areas for group work or simply a coffee break. Maple wall panelling, wool felt with pops of bold colour were used extensively throughout these areas to create warm and stimulating alternative environments for the hard-working staff.