Step Inside Glassdoor's Vibrant New Chicago Headquarters

Glassdoor’s new Chicago HQ embraces vibrant environmental branding that reflects the company’s community-driven vision and values.

Project Overview:

Design Firm: Media-Objectives
Architecture + Interiors: Valerio Dewalt Train
Branded environments partner: Moss
Client: Glassdoor
Completion Date: September 2022
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Size: 20,711 sqft
Population: 165

When planning its new Chicago corporate office, Glassdoor, and interdisciplinary design studio, Media-Objectives, engaged Moss to execute an environmental branding project that reflects the company’s community-driven vision and values. To create an inviting space that inspires creativity, facilitates collaboration, and supplements wellness, Moss fabricated and installed cohesive, colorful environmental graphics and signage consistent with Glassdoor’s vibrant branding and messaging

This new office reinterprets the former workspace language to reflect Glassdoor’s evolving identity and grit. The spectrum of materials and color palette reflect Glassdoor’s grit and the city’s vigor, while its natural qualities and curved spaces encourage social interaction, collaboration, and inclusivity.

Open office areas feature a singular color tone while community areas are a mix of colors. Curating these moments with a wide color palette and soft, natural materials and finishes creates a vibrant and welcoming environment for all.

A flex space positioned at the heart of the office is designed for a wide range of activities—from social events and podium presentations, to individual work areas and a place to grab lunch.

Cork ceilings throughout the space provide warmth and acoustic properties. Raw materials, such as the concrete columns, are left exposed to reflect Glassdoor’s grit and Chicago’s historic industrial district.

Project Planning

An extensive research and data gathering process was conducted when designing Glassdoor’s office. This included shadowing employees, analyzing conference room occupancy data, and conducting surveys to identify what worked and what didn’t in the old office and establish an ideal version of the workplace for the company.

Project Details

The bold design elements and color palette were inspired by Glassdoor’s rich brand assets and Chicago’s vibrant character, including city-specific features like Chicago skyline murals painted by local artists. Also unique to this project are curved walls and edges, for which Moss installed special graphic wallcoverings and dimensional art pieces. Glass storefronts for conference and huddle rooms throughout the office were adorned with Moss-produced contour cut frosted film providing a continuous geometric pattern around the entire office.

An important feature of the Glassdoor Chicago office is an installation featuring their core values. Moss installed a series of wood, circular panels adorned with moss and concrete. Large wooden letters communicate the company’s four main core values, while smaller dimensional words atop the moss convey other important values in the Glassdoor community.

Moss worked in tandem with Glassdoor and Media-Objectives, not only to ensure the company’s principles and values were articulated in the environmental branding but also to guarantee all time and budgetary expectations were exceeded.