MIDDLE EAST
32
DESIGNWEEK
23 November 2008
MY SPACE
Point of view
Tonic’s creative director, Vincent Raffray,
puts us to the sword
BY ANDY BUCHAN
THERE ARE a lot of distractions in Vin- tant as I was getting a bit rough with it.” He “People can see you and we’re not hiding. intranet system whereby clients can log in
cent Raffray’s glass-walled office. There’s laughs again. Media Week nervously joins If you’re behind closed doors, it’s very dif- and see the real-time billing in action. Less
the animal army perched on top of the TV, him. After all, the sword’s here; there’s no ficult to approach management. Whereas clear, however, is Raffray’s manic desk. His
comprising several monkeys, a bedraggled sign of the accountant. here we’re part of the everyday work, and laptop seems to be the only constant in
giraffe and a beaver seemingly sporting Ja- an ever-shifting landscape of mini paper
net Street Porter’s gnashers. An eye-water-
If you’re behind closed doors, it’s very difficult
mountains, various promotional toys and
ing yellow and black painting sits above his stylish black and white photos of his family.
right shoulder while a four-humped camel to approach management. Whereas here “It’s a desk,” he says forthrightly when we
takes pride of place on his rather cluttered
desk. But it’s the Conan The Barbarian
we’re part of the everyday work, and we’re
ask him if it’s always like this, and considering
a three foot blade is within grabbing distance,
sword (that’s sword) that lies sans scab-
not looking down on the little people from our
we’re not going to put up a fight. “I clean my
bard and within easy reach of Tonic’s non-
wimp-like creative director that naturally
ivory towers.
desk once every two weeks, but stuff piles up
everywhere. And this is clean. I have a spot
has us curious. for my briefs, and I normally have a lot more
“I actually confiscated it from my son as And thanks to the open-plan layout, we’re not looking down on the little people work up here so I can look at pitches and let
it’s a bit dangerous,” he says with a laugh as Raffray’s office—including the TV dwell- from our ivory towers.” the ideas sink in. It’s where you spend most
he lunges behind him. “It was from Drag- ing menagerie—is always on display. It’s a The company is equally transparent of your life so it’s got to be busy. As a creative
onmart and you have to be careful when policy that, according to him, helps the in- when it comes to their billing hours. Rather I like to have something to play with at work,
it’s around kids so I brought it here. It was die agency enormously. “We like the glass, than submitting a raft of figures that the cli- which explains all the toys.”
then confiscated from me by my accoun- open-plan feel for the office,” he says. ent has little knowledge of, Tonic uses an And the sword, apparently.
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