Office Hack #9 — The Airstream Edit Suite
Envoy is all about making things easier and more fun in the office. In that spirit, we are proud to bring you our new Envoy Office Hacks podcast series. Every week, we deliver the coolest, most ingenious, and just plain fun fixes people have invented to improve efficiency and productivity in their workplace.
Today’s Office Hack may be about creating the shortest commute in history… or maybe it’s about re-imagining the home office. Either way, this is a story about how one family’s rolling getaway became another man’s office.
This is the Airstream Edit Suite.
James Ford is a film, TV and commercial editor in Los Angeles. And when he’s not working for a production house, he’s cutting digital video in his big silver, 1969 Airstream trailer… parked in his driveway.
And while it looks awesome, and has cut his commute in notorious LA traffic from hours to seconds, it’s not quite as spacious as you might think. But that, as it turns out, is a good thing.
Clients can either wedge themselves into a small seat behind him, or relax in the retro lounge area where they can track progress on a monitor, eat snacks, and according to James, nap. So limited space solved the problem of some people getting too “hands on.”
“A lot of producers will start to creep up on you, start grabbing for the mouse and keyboard.”
Well, not any more. And clients love the novelty.
“They nickname it. They like to make it their own. They call it the Stream, the Silver Fish… I like the Stream, there’s a flow to it. People dig it. As a gimmick, it’s been great.”
James isn’t sure there are any real tax benefits to working out of an Airstream, although his accountant is trying to figure it out. And although he hasn’t heard any complaints from local residents, though he’s not sure how much they love seeing an Airstream in the driveway.
How to hack it
If you’d like to turn your driveway into a somewhat mobile work space, here’s what you’ll need.
Ingredients
- Airstream Travel Trailer ($7k)
- Extension Cords ($23)
- Cleaning Supplies, gloves, mops, air freshener (total approx. $100)
- Used desk (check street corners for availability)
- Snacks ($20)
- A driveway !
- Total cost — approx. $7,153
Listen & Subscribe
You can listen to the full story in the Envoy Office Hacks podcast. Please subscribe to the podcast in iTunes — just click here and hit ‘subscribe’.