When a consumer-products company founded in 1903 recognizes the power of design thinking, we’re the result.
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2014
Design Expertise United
Design disciplines from across the organization are brought together to nurture creativity, learning, and innovation.
The stage set for collaboration
The Design Center in Kalamazoo opens on March 31. The facility includes unique immersion rooms, flexible studio space, a usability lab, and full prototyping capabilities. Industrial and graphic design are the primary disciplines.
Design management recognized
Newell Rubbermaid receives the Design Management Europe award among large companies. This international award recognizes how organizations manage design.
2015
Leadership, governance,
and culture develop
The Design Center, led by Nate Young, forms a creative leadership team and structure that incorporates management, design excellence, and internal sharing of best practices.
Culture Clubs inspire employees with shared interests
Proposed, planned, and led by employees, activity clubs contribute to enrichment, satisfaction, and learning.
2016
Corporate changes call for new identity
Newell Rubbermaid acquires Jarden and becomes Newell Brands, which launches an initiative for fresh new branding for the corporation.
Design hubs add to diverse perspectives
Locations in Hoboken, New Jersey, and South Deerfield, Massachusetts, are added to the Design organization, adding their design expertise to the collaborative effort.
2017
Design Day recognizes excellence
A new tradition is begun with the first annual gathering of global teams, part of nurturing the culture of design excellence. A Design Fair held as part of the event ignites new initiatives.
Team expands with additional capabilities
An eCommerce team is established in Hoboken to support all Newell brands with digital experiences, and a Design Communications team provides a foundation of concept design, frameworks, standards, and corporate design.
Experiential pop-up shop exceeds expectations
The Design team partners with Yankee Candle® from concept through implementation in the launch of Candle Power, a pop-up shop in New York City through the 2017 holiday season. The boutique is recognized in a WGSN trend report and wins a PR Platinum award for demonstrating innovative storytelling, creativity, and measurable results—exceeding social and media impressions targets by 400%.
2018
Brands & Rapid Design and Deployment
(later named SPEED Lab) reduces time to market
New technology and design sprints are used to increase ideation output.
Design education offered to team and business partners
The Design Institute is launched, offering courses in design disciplines and processes, design leadership, and creativity and innovation. In addition to developing skills of team members, the Institute invites others across Newell Brands to incorporate design thinking into their work.
Product designs garner awards
The Rubbermaid® Freshworks™ Countertop storage system is named among the Best Inventions by Time magazine. The Oster® HeatSoft Hand Mixer receives Honorable Mention in the annual Time magazine survey of Best Inventions. The Calphalon® Appliances line also wins a Good Design® award.
Annual event recognizing design excellence expands
What was begun as Design Day expands to Design Week in recognition of the value of bringing teams together for recognition, collaboration, and inspiration.
Design connects with the corporate sustainability initiative
Design team members join the Newell Brands Sustainability & Social Compliance Council. They also found a Design-centric team called re:newell, with an emphasis on assuring that environmental issues are factored into product design from the start.
2019
Design Center adds individual, collaborative, and community spaces
The Design Center facility in Kalamazoo expands by nearly one-third its original footprint, with spaces especially designed for the individual and team work processes. It opens on July 31.
X-Rite® technology ramps up color work
The Color, Material and Finish team adopts technology from X-Rite that enables them to more easily visualize any material on product surfaces and produce 3D renderings, as well as measuring and matching colors precisely.
Partnership celebrates excellence in graphic design
With the West Michigan Graphic Design Archive and the regional chapter of the AIGA, the Design Center supports a series of four exhibits in multiple West Michigan locations, including the final exhibit hosted at the Design Center. The exhibits draw from work in the archives to highlight aspects of the design process—and award-winning results.
New facility welcomes local business community
At the newly expanded Kalamazoo facility, over 300 designers and business people are hosted at an evening MIX event organized in partnership with Southwest Michigan First.
A harvest of awards and recognition for design and innovation
The collaborative work of Design Center teams is recognized with a series of awards in 2019: for Calphalon® Premiere™ Space Saving Cookware, an IDEA Bronze Award; for Calphalon® Appliances, an IDEA Silver Award; for Mr. Coffee® Easy Measure Coffeemaker, Good Housekeeping Editor’s Pick, International Home and Housewares Show; for Parker Pen packaging, an iF World Design Award; and Good Design® Awards for Graco® Sense2Soothe™ Swing, Oster® HeatSoft Hand Mixer and Rubbermaid® Freshworks™ Countertop food storage.
Synergy with corporate legal department gains honors
The Atlanta Bar Association presents Newell Brands its Most Innovative Corporate IP Law Department Award, recognizing the team’s work in close partnership with the Design Center. Their collaboration protects against counterfeit products and emphasizes the importance of design patents in the Newell portfolio.
2020
ArtCenter College of Design collaboration challenges students to replace plastic
In a studio class called “Life without Plastic,” Newell design team members inspire students in pursuit of new thinking about alternative materials and closing the loop in product design.
Design gains digital design capabilities
Located in Hoboken, the eDesign team develops digital touchpoints for all of the Newell brands, including videos, social stories, website videos, and more.
