Lord, Abbett & Co. LLC

At Lord Abbett’s new headquarters, brandx seamlessly blended the firm’s rich history with modern design to create a space that reflects its identity. Spanning five floors, a color-coded wayfinding system ties into the brand’s palette, guiding employees through the building and enhancing the experience. Earthy tones warm the workplace, while metallic accents on client-facing floors add a professional touch. Artwork and signage serve both as functional wayfinding elements and storytelling devices, celebrating the firm’s legacy and commitment to innovation.

Building on a Rich Legacy: A Story of Evolution

Sector: Finance

Size: 178,000 sf

Location: Jersey City, NJ

The Connecting Thread: A Colorful Journey Uniting Floors, Health, and Brand Identity

Each floor is assigned a unique color—Dark Teal for the 36th, Rust for the 37th, Teal for the 38th, Brass for the 39th, and Dark Bronze for the 40th—tying into the interior design and brand’s identity. The last two floors act as “jewelry,” enhancing the client-facing areas. This color palette is extended into the stairwells as vibrant graphics to promote heart health while creating a sense of community and connection.

Designing History: Graphics that Weave Lord Abbett’s Past and Present

The design tells Lord Abbett’s story through super graphics that combine abstract patterns, historical documents, and modern imagery. Marbleized portals inspired by hand-painted portraits of the firm’s Partners, which we took and abstracted digitally to create a connection to the firm’s past lead visitors into the space. A large graphic on the 36th floor merges a vintage image of an employee in the 80s using a classic CRT screen. This image is converted into binary code, while a magnified stock certificate border – called scripophily - on the 40th floor deepens the connection to the firm’s heritage.

The graphics extend onto glass surfaces, showcasing abstractions inspired by antique graphs from the company’s annual reports, some dating back to the 1940s. Frosted glass panels provide privacy while incorporating graphics derived from scanned letters. This design adds depth and historical context, capturing the texture of the original typewritten documents through clear, "knocked-out" sections of the panels.

Connecting People to their Space’s Energy and Story

Unique features highlight key amenity areas. In vibrant spaces like the Game Room and Performance Center, we used illuminated faux-neon signs to energize the environment. For the Café, and the more tranquil Relaxation Rooms, surrounded by regional plants, we chose wooden, analog signage to complement the calm, tech-free atmosphere. A standout feature is the engraved marble display of the company’s credo at the reception, adding elegance and purpose to the entryway. In the trading area, we incorporated the historical ticker tape—once used to display market information—into the architecture, with perforated metal panels on the wall, bringing this symbol of the past into the design.

Art that Inspires Innovation and Sustainability

We collaborated with artists, HLW, and the client to ensure the artwork reflected Lord Abbett’s values of innovation, transparency, and community. Each piece was strategically placed to guide movement, spark conversation, and deepen employees’ understanding of the firm’s legacy and future. Suzanne Tick wove a sculpture using recycled dry-cleaning hangers, Lord Abbett shredded ledgers, and mylar balloons, reflecting the firm’s commitment to sustainability and innovation. We collaborated with Caralarga, a studio from Querétaro, Mexico, on a piece inspired by a graph from the firm’s old annual reports. The artwork is carefully woven from thousands of threads by a group of artisans and incorporates the color scheme of the wayfinding system. This connection visually reinforces the themes of collaboration and connectivity throughout the space. Together, these pieces, along with their internal collection of artifacts curated by brandx, create a visual narrative that honors Lord Abbett’s past while embracing its forward-looking values.