Inside GIPHY's NYC office where lunch is catered every day, employees play arcade games, and the walls are alive with GIFs

Sarah Jacobs,Matthew Michaels

May 2, 2018, 20:29 IST

Inside GIPHY's NYC office where lunch is catered every day, employees play arcade games, and the walls are alive with GIFs

GIPHY's NYC office is fun, animated, and weird, just like the GIF company.

GIPHY's office in New York City represents the company brand with color and character.
Employees enjoy catered lunch every day, a hanging garden, a coffee bar, and an arcade with virtual reality at GIPHY's office.
The conference rooms are named after popular GIF search terms - such as cats, dogs, mind blown, and eye roll.

If you have ever sent or received a GIF, chances are you used GIPHY.

The GIF platform - which is featured on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Tinder, and Slack - hosts animated loops from live events, your favorite TV shows, and uploads of adorable pets.

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After utilizing several different offices since the company's founding days in 2013, GIPHY moved into its New York home in October 2016. The headquarters are in the Manhattan Meatpacking District with a second, smaller office in Los Angeles.

Jess Gilliam, Giphy's brand creative director told Business Insider, "the most important thing to me in bringing new environments to the space is that we brought our personalities into the space."

Gilliam described the office space as fun, animated, and weird. Overall, she feels that the atmosphere is a pure reflection of GIPHY and sees the brand image in the color and character of the office.

Architect Andrew Harper told Business Insider the office was designed to be "a microcosm, a city feel but different environment that expresses their brand."

He also said that he received input from GIPHY employees and wanted to highlight their artistic talent when creating the design. Harper wanted to express the company "values in our space; friendliness, colorful, fun."

Take a look at the office space Harper designed and Gilliam and her colleagues use everyday:

Employees are immediately greeted by a coffee bar that doubles as a reception area when they enter the office.

On the left wall of the coffee bar is a GIF to showcase the employee of the week and that employee's personal favorite GIF.

Next to the coffee bar is a lounge area with a large teddy bear to cuddle with. This area has a gallery of static art on the walls to complement the moving art around the rest of the office.

Gilliam called the corner a "chill out spot in front, a place people bring laptops to work" or "hang out in a lounge environment."

The basic furniture is black and white with the color added from other decorations, much like GIPHY's website, which uses a black background and highlights of blue, green, red, yellow, and purple.

The front of the office also has shelves with company swag and features GIPHY's Webby Awards.

The office has a machine where you can make your own GIFs. The screen films users on different backgrounds and makes three GIF loops.

The open area in the central part of the office is affectionately called GIPHY Park. Harper described the space as "a nice colony" with a "skylight feel."

The light in GIPHY park changes every so often to feature one of GIPHY's core colors. This space is used for large company meetings held twice weekly.

Near the back of the main office area is a fake horse the GIPHY office adopted. There are also colored cubes which are used as seats to transform the central space during meetings.

The dog and cat conference rooms (named after everyone's favorite online animals) were designed to feel less formal and more like a living room. The glass is covered with a copper film that reflects light differently at every angle.

While debate has sparked online about the correct pronunciation of GIF, at the GIPHY office there is no conversation. GIF is pronounced with a hard G, as seen by this piece that GIPHY made for an art show last year commemorating the 30th anniversary of the GIF.

Next to the cat room is a photo studio for guests to take some pictures...

...along with props such as a clapboard and a cat face to accessorize any photo shoot.

The kitchen is stocked with snacks and even an ice cream maker.

"I don't want it to feel like a bar," Harper said. "It should have a residential feel."

At GIPHY, lunch is catered every day. The entire New York staff eats together to strengthen their bonds.

The kitchen fridges are covered in Polaroids from company events such as Halloween parties.

To the side of the kitchen area is a hanging garden.

Beyond the kitchen is an intimate area with less natural lighting. This is a popular hang out area, especially during Friday happy hour following the weekly recap meeting which lets employees unwind.

Above the company pool table is a neon figure. The sculpture is shaped like the website's search icon and is surrounded on the sides by some of the most popular search terms.

Each conference room in the back corner of the office is named after popular reaction GIFs like eye roll and mind blown.

The trio of rooms are all brightly colored and feature different textures on the walls.

The bright lights and light-hearted decorations brings levity to collaboration in these rooms. There are also numerous phone rooms throughout the office that provide privacy for conversations.

Both sides of this wall have TVs hooked up to numerous video game systems.

"Mario Kart" is a favorite video game among GIPHY employees. Gilliam admitted that the office is currently on a Nintendo Switch fix but alternates between systems.

The shelves are filled with collectibles and retro items from the 1980s and 1990s that bring nostalgia to the office. Notable items include a collection of VHS tapes, a boom box stereo, and an old TV.

The area also has an arcade with a 4-player custom arcade cabinet with "basically every arcade game ever." There is also a VR system.

Jess Gilliam, Giphy's brand creative director, is hanging out below the hanging garden. To her left is one of many pillows around the office that are based on GIFs, adding life and animation to stationary objects.

Jess Gilliam, Giphy's brand creative director, is hanging out below the hanging garden. To her left is one of many pillows around the office that are based on GIFs, adding life and animation to stationary objects.