About Elle

Elle Communications provides public relations, marketing and events services to a variety of clients in the lifestyle space, many of whom mix business with philanthropy. Elle also produces THREAD, a quarterly shopping event that highlights the best in indie fashion. In 2011,  944 Magazine named Elle Comm’s founder, Danielle Gano, one of San Diego’s “Innovators Under 30,” and San Diego Magazine chose her as one of the 50 People to Watch in 2011.

I know how much your environment sets your mood and inspires (or uninspires) you throughout the day. Creating a work environment that is clean, comfortable and creative is vital to setting the tone of the company and providing my team with the tools they need to accomplish their goals. – Danielle Gano

What inspired the space and decor?

Our offices in LA and San Diego are quite different and reflect the focus of the different sides of the company. In San Diego, we’re lucky to share a space with world-renowned architect, Graham Downes, a beautifully-crafted contemporary space in San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood. Our team in San Diego focuses on a lot of our business and lifestyle projects, which is reflected in this simplistically high-tech space. We have personalized the predominately white and metal space with splashes of Elle Comm green through vintage furniture (from great San Diego stores Nest Vintage and Mid Century) and succulents (from Tend) throughout.

In LA, our office has to house a lot of clothes because all of our apparel clients are managed through this office. In this creative space we focused  create a creative space and, again, you’ll find loads of mid-century furniture (our favorite is our white conference table upstairs where we all work together 90% of the time) and gardens of succulents on our patio.

How do the spaces reflect Elle?

I have had a wide range of work experiences, ranging from beautiful, luxurious spaces to dark rooms without windows and (gasp) cubicles. The design of the offices certainly reflect my personal love of vintage furniture and plants that I’m capable of keeping alive. We use splashes of our signature green without overwhelming the space. Ultimately, it was my goal to create an environment with a lot of light, creativity and organization (there is nothing more distracting than trying to work in a messy or disorganized space). Much like our team, our space is welcoming and inspiring.

Here’s my bit:

Crosby Noricks, founder of PR Couture and director of social media at Red Door Interactive, thinks Pinterest is great for internal collaboration and campaign ideas.

“It’s a good way to show an aesthetic vision,” she said. “Instead of explaining your vision with words you can create a board and pin photos that illustrate your vision. Then, you can show clients and co-workers. It definitely got my office interested.”

Depending on the client’s goals, Noricks says, it offers a lot of potential. Those in the décor, lifestyle, fitness, fashion, jewelry and even home-building fields may find it useful as a collaborative tool or to create inspiration for branding.

Check out the rest of the article “Pinning for PR,”  and let me know what you think!

About Ruby Press

Ruby Press is a boutique public relations agency representing style-driven businesses. Based in Berkeley, CA, the agency was started by former Lucky Magazine contributing editor Melissa Davis in 2001. Last week The Glitter Guide featured the agency’s historic space (the Heywood Building was built in 1917), featuring Tiffany blues, modern reds and surprising ranch-style touches like sheepskin, cowhide and even a mounted deer head made of wood! The eclectic space was photographed by Kristen Loken.

Our office space reflects our brand and is reflective of what we love.  We work with style-driven businesses and good design is really important. -Melissa Davis

What inspired the space and decor?

When creating our office’s look I was hoping to create a space that is happy, light, with touches with our trademark Ruby Press colors.  I like girly décor, but I like a mix of artful clutter (the bulletin boards) with clean, white space (the modern fixtures, the white walls).  We spend a lot of time in our offices so I want to make sure I love being there!

How does the space reflect Ruby Press?

It’s so important that everyone enjoys coming to work here at Ruby Press and I think that clients and new Ruby Press employees pretty quickly ‘get’ what we’re all about once they step inside our office. It’s also really important to me that I work in a space that not only makes me happy but also that inspires me creatively.