Adobe’s Colour-Coded, Wellbeing-Led Office
Published 20 March 2023
In the age of flexible working, employees have new demands and increased expectations of how they experience and are served by their workplaces. Hoping to provide a more versatile and wellbeing-led space for its staff, Adobe has harnessed the psychological effects of colour in its San Jose office.
An expansion at the software company’s headquarters, the new building’s interior is defined by three distinct colour schemes, intended to influence workers on how to act in and use the space. A palette of greens and yellows features throughout team and meeting rooms to spur collaboration and curiosity, while shades of orange and red fill the breakout spaces to encourage more active social interactions and community building. And for focused work, blues and cyans are employed across semi-private booths and desks.
Elsewhere, gradients are used to highlight more interactive office areas, and, despite the colour-coding, each department comprises a variety of different workstations suited to both individual and team-based tasks.
“While we all know that we need to focus and get work done, a great way to stay motivated, engaged, healthy, empowered, and feeling included, is to be able to have a […] choice around different ways that you can engage in things […], especially from a neuroscience point of view,” Eric Kline, Adobe’s director of global workplace experience, told Fast Company.
The neuroscience of colour – the profound effects it can have on how we think, feel and act – is a much-explored tool amongst designers, especially when it comes to creating comfortable, inviting, engaging and energising interiors that transform our sense of wellbeing. See our S/S 23 Direction Amble for a restorative palette, and Colour Launches 2023 for the most pertinent mood-boosting hues for interiors for this year and beyond.
For more on the new age of corporate architecture and post-pandemic workspaces, read Design for Deceleration.
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