Adobe Creatively Designed Its New Color-Coded Office

Adobe has a special sensitivity to color. When Adobe began planning a new office building at its headquarters in San Jose, color was used both as a form of branding and as a tool to help people get their work done.

The office uses three different color schemes to subtly explain how each part of the building should be used. There is a blue zone for focused work, a green zone for collaboration and an orange zone for community building and social interaction. The color schemes, intended to be subtle cues to employees moving from one place to another throughout their workday, also help to define the building and the way people work in it.

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Creative Office Design

"We are very focused on reducing the cognitive load for our employees" says Eric Kline, Adobe's director of global workplace experience. In collaboration with color consultancy LOVE GOOD COLOR, Adobe designed the building to reflect the neuroscience behind the effects of color on the mind. The office was designed to elicit a general set of emotional responses based on the space.

The oranges and burgundies used in the building's double-height break room are intended to encourage more active social behavior by nurturing space for incidental and informal inter-departmental interactions. The greens and yellows of the meeting rooms and team centers are designed to inspire curiosity. The blues and teal of semi-private cubicles and library-style desks encourage focus.

In each of these colorful nodes, employees can find spaces for a variety of tasks, from focused solo work to group meetings to department-wide meetings. "People are really looking for choice." says Kline.

According to the information, the layout of the floors is built around clusters of workstations and meeting rooms called neighborhoods, all located near larger flexible gathering spaces called team hubs.

A Public Café, An Art Gallery And A Company Museum

The new building, called Founders Tower, is an 18-story expansion of the Adobe campus that has been in downtown San Jose since 1994. A pedestrian bridge connects the three existing buildings to the new tower, which includes an all-electric kitchen. A public café, an art gallery and a company museum. Spaces on three floors are dedicated to employee amenities. And the building includes private rooms such as meditation rooms, music studios and a craft room. "There are a lot of Easter eggs hidden throughout." Borda notes.