Less than a year ago, on July 21, Dai Wei invited me to look at their brand-new office space located in the Zhongguancun Internet Finance Center—a loft space. Their previous office had been in a nearby apartment building. That was also the first time I ever heard of ofo and their business model: shared bicycles on university campuses.
The first thing that caught my eye was ofo’s logo. A pictographic English wordmark—simply a small yellow bicycle. Extremely straightforward and direct. And then there were these young entrepreneurs, either just graduated or about to graduate from university, with slightly shy smiles on their faces, yet eyes full of determination and confidence. That moment left the most immediate impression on me about this project.
Dai Wei’s description of the new office requirements couldn’t have been simpler:
“One reception area, one large meeting room, two to three small meeting rooms, a separate finance office. Everything else should be open-plan workstations. All desks should be 9AM electric height-adjustable desks.”
That was it. The entire stylistic direction was entrusted to anySCALE. That was my first—and so far, only—meeting with Dai Wei.
Over the following two weeks, our project team prepared a complete set of floor plans and renderings, creating a distinctive street-culture atmosphere for ofo. I then shared the full design proposal in the project’s WeChat group, including a walkthrough animation set to background music (“Bicycle Love” by Andy Vaz). After that, we patiently waited for the formal presentation meeting.
Two days later, I received a phone call from the client. The message was simple:
“Thank you, anySCALE. We’re extremely happy with the new office design. Everyone can’t wait to move in. Please arrange construction and the next steps as soon as possible.”
And that was it.
Two months later, before we even had the chance to photograph the completed project, the client team had already fully moved in. By then, ofo’s yellow bikes had begun appearing all over Beijing’s streets and alleys—not just on university campuses anymore.
The rest of the story is well known through the media. With massive user adoption and capital backing, the yellow bikes spread like wildfire, reaching every corner of the city—if not yellow, then orange. Almost every company that grows explosively goes through a phase of extreme chaos. It seems like an unavoidable curse, and ofo was no exception.
As the spatial design partner for this once-soaring shared-bike brand, what we believed we should do was help the client clarify their thinking amid the chaos—extracting a unique and recognizable external image for ofo while ensuring functional completeness and comfort. The yellow bike is easy to ride and cool. The yellow-bike company should be just as easy to work in—and just as cool.
So in the second phase of expansion, we further elevated the street-culture concept. Wayfinding systems and greenery were integrated into sleek, lightweight streetlamp-like elements, becoming striking highlights within the space. We also designed custom coat racks unique to ofo, seamlessly combining functionality with visual identity. And of course, the full lineup of electric height-adjustable desks remained—reflecting ofo’s human-centered values: cycling is healthy, and so is working.
In the future, there will be a third phase, a fourth phase… Just like the yellow bikes themselves, the office spaces will continue to evolve and upgrade. ofo represents a bold, new lifestyle attitude, and our spatial design must match—or even lead—this forward momentum. In the near future, people will see it, hear it, or feel it everywhere:
A city awash in yellow.
