Osmose Design Takes This Office Back To The 80s
Design Inspiration

Osmose Design Takes This Office Back To The 80s

December 18, 2025
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Design inspiration came from a myriad of sources for the new downtown Portland office space for Panic, Mac app developer and co-designer of Playdate, a canary yellow, design-forward video game console. “We have had an ongoing conversation around what a retro tech aesthetic could look like,” explains owner and interior designer of Osmose Design, Andee Hess, who also designed the firm’s prior office 10 years ago. “They wanted the space to tell stories. As app developers and gamers, they are very much about the Easter egg, and wanted to bring that tongue-in-cheek layer to the aesthetic. With that in mind, we started to build a story together.”

The story is a fantastical narrative of the company’s history, influenced by a collection of real and fabricated memories. The entrance to the office is inspired by 1980s mall architecture, specifically, the JCPenney’s at a suburban Portland locale. The curved brown brick reception area features artificial ferns and a faux rock speaker broadcasting a curated “80s lobby mix” to set the tone. Just off the entrance, a room clad in prefabricated raked concrete panels was designed as a Brutalist bunker to host an introductory video to the company, inspired by modern pre-show intro experiences at amusement park rides.

Osmose Design Tailors This Portland Workplace With Old-School Flair

brick covered reception area with Panic logo
The brick-covered reception area plays with materials to create a sense of nostalgia and set the tone. An artist came on site to etch Panic’s logo into the Belden brick. It is a handcrafted artisanal approach that remains one of Hess’s favorite pieces of the project.

The designer and client chose to keep the existing exposed concrete floors, adding four concrete cylinders with custom inset acrylic light shields to create a “teleportation pad” (referencing both Star Trek and a Space Shuttle launch). “Kind of a surreal nod to things that you can’t quite put your finger on,” says Hess.

Employee-focused highlights include break rooms with fake skylights, game testing rooms, and a conversation pit-inspired stadium stair seating area that serves as a spot for employees to gather—or just step away from their desks. This space, and the entire office, has been “run through a nicotine filter,” a concept that helped direct the overall color palette and enhance this nostalgia-evoking environment.

Walk Through Panic’s Far Out Office By Osmose Design

kitchen space with an acoustic cloud
The beveled hanging acoustic cloud is wrapped with an oatmeal colored “nicotine-tinged” felt material by Turf and designed to feel like a concrete slab architectural feature.
seating area with pillows and chevron pattern
The Stadium Stairs support employee gatherings and provide a place for employees to step away from their desks.
Osmose Design Takes This Office Back To The 80s
For the office kitchen, the team channeled Carl’s Jr.’s White panels planned as menu boards give the space a somewhat surreal and eerie effect. The floor tiles from Summitville Strata Tile were chosen to closely match the flooring at Carl’s Jr..
corner of room with a concrete bunker and mirrored ceilings
Just off the entrance, a Brutalist bunker-like room clad in prefabricated gray concrete panels by Concrete LCDA is designed to host an introductory video to the company, similar to the pre-show intro experience videos before amusement park rides. The mirrored ceilings are an homage to 1980s mall computer stores.
closeup of seating area with pillows
The chevron graphic is picked up from their previous office and is part of the company’s branding.
concrete cylinders above a seating area
Four concrete cylinders form a “teleportation pad” a reference to Star Trek or a Space Shuttle launch and feature custom inset acrylic light shields. The lights are programmable and as a playful atmosphere-adding element, were once programmed with a glitch, “to feel like you are warming up for a launch,” says Hess. At the back, a stack of purple cans in a cove is another Easter egg; a fake beverage from one of Panic’s games.
powder coated curved wall leads to the bathrooms
A powder-coated curved wall leads to the bathrooms.

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