Design has an important role to play in how consumers experience a brand, from the way a product looks and feels to how intuitively it fits into everyday life.
That thinking is at the heart of Newell Brands’ new Atlanta Design Center, a nearly 37,000-square-foot investment designed to bring consumer understanding, creative talent and advanced design capabilities closer together.
Spanning two Atlanta locations, including Newell’s global headquarters at Concourse Office Park and a photo and creative studio at Morgan Falls, the Design Center creates an integrated environment where consumer insights, creative ideas and business decisions can come together.
Newell employees gathered at the Design Center on September 15 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating its official opening. The event gave teams an opportunity to connect, tour the new space and explore its dedicated studios, labs and collaborative areas while marking an important milestone for design at Newell.
Putting consumer understanding at the center
A key focus of the Design Center is creating stronger connections between the people who design Newell’s products and the consumers who use them.
Dedicated user experience research spaces give cross-functional teams opportunities to observe how consumers interact with products in environments designed to reflect real-life experiences.
The Kitchen UX Lab recreates a real-world kitchen environment for research with consumers who cook and create, while the Kids UX Lab provides a comfortable, engaging space for observing parents, caregivers and children interacting with products.
These environments are designed to help teams build consumer understanding directly into the development process.
“Design has the power to shape how consumers experience our brands and products,” said Nick Hammitt, Chief Marketing Officer at Newell Brands. “The Design Center is a significant investment in the company's future. By bringing together design, consumer insights, brand teams, R&D, and innovation partners, we are creating stronger connections between our consumers and brands and how we bring products to market.”
Expanding how teams explore and create
The Design Center brings together capabilities including industrial and brand design, advanced digital visualization, physical prototyping and AI-enabled tools.
These capabilities give teams more ways to explore possibilities, prototype faster and make informed creative and commercial decisions.
Just as importantly, designers are co-located alongside brand marketing, consumer insights, innovation and R&D partners. Bringing these teams closer together enables designers to engage earlier and more frequently in the process, supporting greater collaboration across Newell’s portfolio.
“The Design Center is about bringing together talent and collaboration in one place and building the next chapter of design at Newell Brands,” said Brian Rice, Vice President, Global Head of Design at Newell Brands. “Our goal is a design capability that helps our brands innovate with greater clarity, speed, and impact. We are building a place where great designers do work that truly matters.”
Investing in the capabilities behind stronger brands
The Design Center is also part of Newell’s broader transformation and continued investment in the capabilities, talent and modern ways of working that can help its brands win with consumers and retail customers.
Atlanta was a strategic choice for that investment. In addition to its proximity to Newell’s leadership and business teams, the city’s growing design, technology and creative community and strong university presence provide access to a deep pool of creative talent.
For designers, the center also creates an opportunity to work across a portfolio of iconic consumer brands while helping build Newell’s design capabilities for the future.
As consumer expectations continue to evolve, Newell believes design will play an increasingly important role in shaping products, experiences and brand connections. By bringing consumer understanding, design, technology and cross-functional collaboration closer together, the Atlanta Design Center is helping establish the foundation for what comes next.