Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Nirit Cohen – WorkFutures
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
This article was written by Susan Foong and Nima Gujar for Work Design Magazine.
When most people picture a modern workplace, a familiar image comes to mind: open-plan spaces defined by neutral palettes and sleek, minimalist finishes. While these environments prioritize efficiency, they also reflect a sense of uniformity. For employees returning to the office more consistently after years of hybrid work, pared-back interiors can feel less like a reflection of company culture and more like an erasure of it. Simultaneously, companies are now more diverse than ever, with employee bases that represent a variety of backgrounds and unique perspectives to bring to the table.
As organizations across industries consider how to make the workplace meaningful again, designers have the opportunity to broaden the visual and cultural language of office design. Rather than overly simplifying spaces, designers can layer them up with color, pattern, history and personality. By embracing maximalist principles, the workplace can become a living framework for collaboration, empathy, respect and equity.
More than an interior design style, maximalism is a philosophy that honors diversity of identity, background and expression to create resonance. Its layered approach to materials and meaning imagines workplaces that feel both personal and collective, celebrating individuals while strengthening their sense of team. In this way, maximalism becomes a tool for equity—a way to ensure that more people can see themselves represented in the spaces where they spend their days. When guided by a thoughtful design team, the principles of maximalism can complement efficiency with story, empathy and nuance, transforming the office into a place where difference not only exists, but thrives.
Advancing Equity and Belonging Through Contrast
Designers have long known that contrast brings energy to a space, but in the context of today’s workplace, contrast also carries cultural weight. When implemented intentionally, it becomes a metaphor for diversity itself: the beauty of difference, expressed visually and grounded in the belief that all are valued equally. This aesthetic balance can mirror an organization’s commitment to inclusion, making its physical space an expression of respect and belonging.
At its core, maximalism embraces opposites both visually and conceptually, and that balance of difference is what gives it life. In a workplace setting, contrast can do more than create visual interest; it can become a quiet, persistent reminder that diversity drives innovation. When spaces juxtapose old and new, textured and smooth, vibrant and muted, they communicate that no single aesthetic, and no single perspective, defines the culture. In this way, contrast becomes a design language for inclusion. The visual variety inherent to maximalism tells employees that individuality belongs here. A mix of vintage and contemporary furniture, locally made art or global references layered throughout a space can reflect the richness of an organization’s people and their collective experiences.
In the case of a recent HGA office revitalization on behalf of one of the world’s best-known tech companies, this principle was taken one step further with each conference room being named after an oxymoron like “constant change,” “bittersweet” or “awfully good.” This decision was made to invite reflection on the diversity of thought and inherent contradictions in how we see the world, as oxymorons can spark interesting conversations leading to creative solutions that give a company an edge over its competitors.
When thoughtfully curated, these moments of tension and harmony signal that the workplace values difference as a source of strength. The result is an environment that feels both authentic and alive—an office that not only looks inclusive, but also encourages connection through the very language of design.
Communicating Collective Narratives Through Layering
Where contrast celebrates diversity, layering gives it depth. In maximalist design, layering is more than visual richness—it’s a storytelling tool. Within the workplace, it allows designers to create environments that express the shared narrative of the company, while giving a voice to the many individuals who help shape it. Each color, texture and artifact can become part of a larger composition that honors both the collective and the personal to keep employees engaged and always asking, “What’s next?”
A minimalist approach often aims to erase differences in pursuit of a singular brand identity. A maximalist one does the opposite by inviting complexity. By layering materials, patterns and objects that reflect a range of cultures, experiences and histories, designers can help organizations convey that inclusion isn’t just a topline value—it’s embedded into the very fabric of the workspace. Artwork created by employees, locally sourced materials and small nods to community heritage all contribute to an environment where people can see themselves represented in subtle, but meaningful, ways.
Successful layering in the workplace isn’t about clutter—it’s about curation. Each element should hold purpose, whether that purpose is practical, historical or emotional. Editing becomes an act of respect by keeping what matters, refining what distracts and ensuring every layer contributes to a balanced, cohesive and collaborative story.
This balance can be achieved through natural wood wall treatments and implementations of solid brand colors alongside carefully curated objects, to help limit unnecessarily busy patterns while still conveying a rich narrative. Wood not only brings in warmth and connection to nature, but it can also visually create layered depth without overwhelming a space. Additionally, layering invites the opportunity to develop comfortable, collaborative spaces with a home-like touch directly alongside spaces designed for specific modes of productivity, all tied together by the same cohesive company story.
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Enhancing Sustainability with Thoughtful Curation
A hallmark of maximalist design is its carefully selected mix of “found” furniture, art and objects that add depth and character while contributing to the overarching narrative and goals for the space. An inadvertent benefit of maximalism is that these curated pieces can also help meet real-world office design constraints, particularly sustainability goals.
Rather than starting from scratch, the curation process often begins with what an organization already owns—from existing furniture and artwork to archival documents, awards and other meaningful objects. This effort toward material circularity not only keeps items out of landfills but also reduces any negative environmental impacts from manufacturing and shipping new products when it’s not necessary.
For a recently completed maximalist workspace, the HGA design team conducted a survey of other buildings that were previously occupied by the same client, but were being phased out and still maintained a large collection of art and furniture. All art was carefully cataloged, and efforts were made to find a home for every art piece—whether in the new office or elsewhere. Furthermore, a variety of ancillary furniture was repurposed in the new space. For the remainder of items, HGA leveraged second-hand sources such as resale shops, vintage and thrift stores, online marketplaces and flea markets.
Not only does an effort towards sustainability compel designers to think creatively about how to make old and new work together, but it also conveys a company value for the conservation of resources and respect for the materials and objects that have brought it to where it is today. Each item should be selected with intent, ideally satisfying both function and environmental concerns while still fitting into the overall story the office seeks to tell. Furthermore, a thoughtful reuse of materials and existing assets can allow funds to be redistributed to other aspects of the project, or saved altogether, resulting in a more streamlined budget that supports the bottom line.
With a thoughtful design team at the helm, maximalism is more than a style trend—it’s a strategic tool for creating offices that inspire, engage and reflect an organization’s rich tapestry of employees. Furthermore, it responds to the culture in which it’s set. Like art and fashion, interior design should reflect our values as well as how we currently live and work. The future of workplace design lies in a balance of experimentation and intentional curation, where each color, texture and artifact is chosen to reflect a company’s people, history, values and vision for the future to create spaces that are as resonant and inspiring as they are functional.
