Our real estate team has thought a lot about that question, for our move into a custom building in Waltham, Massachusetts and beyond. Despite the great range of functions and cultures of Cimpress’ businesses across the globe, Senior Director of Corporate Real Estate Albert Plans and his team seek consistency, whether they’re constructing a building in London or Mumbai. Of course, with a company as innovative as Cimpress, the primary goal must always be building fluidity into their design.

Here’s how they do it:

Collaborative Space

Designing open space for workstations rather than private offices is consistent across Cimpress offices. It’s space that encourages sharing between divisions. Another benefit of open space is just how easy it is to reconfigure it, should the company make team or organizational changes. While the goal of open design is to prioritize collaboration , this isn’t the Real Estate team’s only focus. Plans is particularly concerned about the comfort of team members. “When we look at office design, we try to optimize space for team members,” he says. “All open space is important but so is natural light.”

Flexibility & Functionality

The team follows design trends where the market supports it, but trends never trump usefulness. When employees resist the design, the Cimpress Real Estate team listens. “Our team members will say, that’s cool, but that’s not functional,” Senior Project Manager Bartolome Salom says. Outside of each kitchenette in Waltham, for example, seating is available. Architects had suggested raising the flooring for this seating area, but that would prevent the area from being reduced in the future to accommodate new needs. Slight partitions are being utilized to set off the space instead. “What prevailed,” said Salom, “was simplicity and functionality.”

Plans and his team always consider future as well as current needs. For example, in the new Waltham office, USB power is being incorporated into the conference rooms that include new furniture, a recommendation from an AV consultant. This upgrade gives the conference rooms capabilities for future technological demands.

Cultural Adaptability

When designing throughout the world, the corporate real estate team has discovered that cultural differences are important to consider. While it might pose challenges, localizing building design—the 30 percent of planning that varies—can lead to unique styles in various Cimpress buildings. For example, our Mumbai team members were eager to feature Indian movie stars in the conference rooms. In London, the conference rooms were named for significant British cultural associations, such as James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, the Spice Girls, and Fish and Chips. And in Barcelona, the corporate real estate team demonstrated environment commitment with greenwalls (walls constructed of plants). Such attention to cultural requests and needs is typical of the team’s work.

Evolving in Real Time

Being ‘in house’ is part of what makes the real estate team’s adaptability possible. With so much company knowledge, the group doesn’t have to lose time getting to know all of the angles of each project. Instead, they can deal with design issues in real time and evolve style with full awareness of what’s needed. And with the help of local architects in each country where they build, the team can respect local design and understand cultural needs. The results are not only spaces that are responsive to each office’s needs, but remarkable efficiency in completing them. “We can move from concept and planning to execution really quickly,” Plans said.

The corporate real estate team builds Cimpress production plants as well, which are even more complicated than the offices. Whether involving a new land purchase or the expansion of a facility, plant development can involve a dizzying number of local health and safety codes, permits, and engineering team demands.

The corporate real estate team’s challenges might seem overwhelming to the rest of us, but their rule of thumb, at least, is simple: “Don’t compromise functionality because of design,” said Salom. “If it’s functional, it’s effectual.”

The post Inside Cimpress: Designing For Change And Adaptability appeared first on Cimpress.

As part of Northeastern University’s cooperative education program, I began interning for Cimpress and will be returning to classes in the spring. During my time with the company, I am happy to have experienced the transition to a beautifully designed and environmentally friendly work place in Waltham, Massachusetts.

On Friday October 2nd, Cimpress invited team members and their families to join in the Cimpress Open House celebrating the new building with food and festivities. Families enjoyed tours of the space with kids running to see where Mom’s new office was and Cimpress team members excited to meet a colleague’s new addition to the family.

On the main floor, the Waltham team and visitors delighted in the bounty of treats spread out banquet-style in the lobby and cafeteria. There was a sense of energy and enthusiasm among everyone, with families greeting each other, rambunctious kids and a DJ pumping music through the room.

Visitors had the chance to take in some of the exciting features in the new office that their loved ones walk by each day. Some of these features include digital signage throughout the building and in the lobby, large panels featuring vibrant graphics and life-size installations of the Cimpress logo. Families were also able to see products offered by Cimpress brands such as customized water bottles and t-shirts (Vistaprint) and wall graphics and banners (Pixartprinting).

Event attendees also enjoyed sharing pictures of the event via Cimpress’ new twitter handle @Cimpress, captioning pictures, “fun for everyone at the open house!” and “love this company!” You can see a few of them here.

Kira Bornemann
Jr. Communications Specialist, Corporate Communications and Senior at Northeastern University

The post Cimpress Open House appeared first on Cimpress.

We’ve opened a small, agile office in the heart of downtown Detroit where our SHE-Q (Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality), Supply Chain Engineering, and the Corporate Technology Logistics team will work.

The 210m² office, located on the 18th floor of the historic Penobscot Building, looks across the Detroit River to Canada and is a short, 30 minute car ride to Cimpress’ largest manufacturing facility in Windsor. This new space allows for co-location of global resources and enables us to locate engineering and technical expertise near our production sites.

“The rebirth of Detroit is centered on the renewal of entrepreneurship so this location provides great opportunity for us,” says Holger Arnold, Sr. Dir, Safety, Health, Environment, & Quality. “Some of the things we are doing are cutting edge and being in Detroit allows us to tap into technical people who can help us grow.”

We are excited to tap into the deep engineering and technical talent the region has to offer: Southeast Michigan has a university-level student population of nearly 200,000 and one of the largest concentrations of engineers in the country.

Stay tuned to learn more about our open positions.

The post Cimpress Office Opens in Downtown Detroit appeared first on Cimpress.

Here are just a few of the reasons the new Cimpress space is so exciting:

More Space
The new building at 275 Wyman is far roomier. The best way to get a sense for the size difference between the new 302,000 square foot, LEED Gold certified building and our previous site in Lexington? Just take a look at the numbers:

But it’s not just the expansion of space. The new five-story building is equipped with amenities worth celebrating, including…

Collaborative Space…and A Library

Thanks to our real estate team’s vision and attention to employee input, the new building is constructed in a way to encourage collaboration. Open offices allow for effective interactions between colleagues, while the library, a brand-new feature, is fully equipped to provide a silent working environment or simple place to take a break during the work day.

Mothering Rooms

The new building offers more than quadruple the amount of space for new mothers. The space includes two mothering rooms, each with three private booths that will help support the working mothers here at Cimpress.

Better Spaces for Eating & Gathering

Every kitchenette is a multi-functional space that welcomes informal meetings or individual work. While the weather is still cooperating, team members are eager to use the new cafeteria & plaza, which offers outside dining options.

An Improved Fitness Center

The new fitness center is much larger, with fitness and cardio equipment as well as a multipurpose studio that will be used for spinning, yoga and more.

The post 5 THINGS WE LOVE ABOUT THE NEW CIMPRESS BUILDING IN WALTHAM appeared first on Cimpress.