Desk Job: A Design Guessing Game Wallpaper

Desk Job: A Design Guessing Game
Wallpaper

Click on the Thumbnails to View all 5 Desks

Wallpaper has just wrapped up a two year long project called Desk Job. In the back of the magazine each month was a photo of the imaginary desk of a well known person - the belongings are clues to the identity. We pulled a few from their retrospective of the series - take a look at each and try your luck at guessing who the workspaces are meant to represent...

We'll put the answers at the very bottom of this post, so you can scroll down once you are ready for the big reveal.

The photos were put together by Junior Interiors Editor, Amy Heffernan who answered a few questions about the series:

How did the idea come about? We wanted to have something a bit light-hearted on the backpage, something that could work as a game and include all areas that we cover in the magazine.

How did the process work? Once we agreed on a figure, I investigated as much as possible about them. After the detective work was done I tried to find design objects that also worked as visual clues, describing their character and work.

Scroll down for the answers...
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From Left to Right:
1) Santa Claus
2) Damien Hirst
3) Martha Stewart
4) Ettore Sottsass
5) Richard Shultz

Visit Wallpaper to view the slideshow of all 23 Desk Job photos.

Photos: Wallpaper

Comments (5)

Hmm. I guess they all have the same taste?

Very cool idea, but I think that their view was a bit narrow.

posted by shockthebourgeois on February 4th 2009 at 10:43pm
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Cute exercise. But here are some actual desks of real famous people. It is always good for a designer to have some knowledge of his or her client's tastes and needs. Of course, with Santa Claus, one does have pretty free rein.
http://nymag.com/guides/2007/officelife/30009/index3.html

p.s. I like the Santa one best.

posted by quiltmaster on February 5th 2009 at 2:11am
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Thanks for the great link quiltmaster. It's very telling that the real Martha Stewart office is even more pristine than the imagined one!

posted by monroe on February 5th 2009 at 9:30am
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I think Real Simple did this too with ones for Edison, JR Rowling, and others. Neat concept, and I guess those people work for Wallpaper's audience, but a few might be a bit obscure for general population.

posted by KatieD on February 5th 2009 at 9:40am
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The Wallpaper quizzes came with some text that usually helped as much as the the pictures, IIRC.

posted by particlebored on February 5th 2009 at 6:03pm
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