Condit Exhibits’ design department – the award-winning Creative Campground
We exhibit designers work in a big, open studio. As you can see, it’s styled as a campground. Music plays a big part in supporting the easygoing vibe in our space, and making it a fun place to work. There are seven of us working in the space, all with different tastes in music, so we mix it up a lot; on any given day a visitor could hear anything from classical to hip hop and everything in between. But naturally we have certain faves that get played a lot, and we have shared some of those with you in the Spotify playlist below.
A while back, we organized our week into musical theme days. There’s lots of leeway in the song selection, but the themes are:
Mondo Monday: World music of any kind. Reggae, salsa, bossa nova of course. But some obscure stuff as well; voodoo music of Haiti, the Dutch electronic music duo Arling and Cameron, Italian pop from the 60’s. A great Eydie Gorme collection of songs in Spanish. And a perennial favorite, the gentle crooning of Hauker Morthens, Iceland’s cross between Carl Perkins and Frank Sinatra.
Turntable Tuesday: We’ve got a pretty sizeable vinyl collection, and it just keeps growing as we dig up treasures at garage sales and thrift stores. As we write this we are working our way through a fabulous Reader’s Digest box set of The Swing Years. But from there it will probably move to The Lovin Spoonful, Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection, maybe later some Leon Bridges. Everything just sounds so good on vinyl, scratches and all. Best of all, it gets you up from your desk every half hour to flip the record!
Western Wednesday: We have a huge playlist for Wednesdays, and it’s kind of all over the place. We love old stuff; think Hank, Buck Owens, Bob Wills, Spade Cooley. Sturgill Simpson, Ry Cooder and Jason Isbell have been in heavy rotation for a while. But this category can also stretch to include Wilco, Ray Charles, and Ween (Buenos Tardes Amigo). If you can make a case that it’s Western (or country, for that matter), we’ll fit it in.
Showtune Thursday: Yes, we’re designers, and yes, we love showtunes! Sure, traditional showtunes, like she scores from Gigi, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, the Producers. Newer shows, like Book of Mormon and Hamilton. But a solid day of showtunes can weigh heavy on some ears, so we also include movie scores (the Godfather, Deliverance, Good Morning Vietnam), and compilations and Greatest Hits records. It seems a little like cheating, but who’s gonna complain about listening to “Aretha’s Gold”?
Anthem Friday: anything you can sing, stomp or clap along to. Queen. Springsteen. Tupac. The Stones. The Ramones. 50 Cent. Bootlegs from Phish and The Dead. 70’s and 80’s metal. Abba. Mumford and Sons. Often accompanied by Friday Afternoon Club microbrews, it can get pretty raucous in here. To get an idea, put on Rod Stewart’s “Hot Legs”. Turn your stereo all the way up. Listen to the pure, dirty, grinding beat, the crunch and wail of the guitars, the hammering on the keys. That’s the idea.
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