A global innovator in diabetes care, the Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk recently renovated a 500,000-square-foot facility at 800 Scudders Mill Road in Princeton, New Jersey to serve as its new North American Headquarters. Situated on 99 acres of land sitting beside a 5-acre lake, the headquarters provides a tranquil, natural setting for the firm's 2,000 U.S. employees. Poulin + Morris was commissioned to develop a comprehensive environmental graphics and wayfinding sign program for the new facility.

The firm developed a comprehensive building graphic program that provides a consistent visual language that adheres to Novo Nordisk’s design values and visual cornerstones in a new and dynamic way. The designers introduced a color-coding system designating a color to each of the vast facility’s 5 zones. The color system is accentuated with bold patterns representing molecular compositions of insulin, further differentiating each zone by the scale, color, and application of these patterns. Celebrating Novo Nordisk’s remarkable innovation and history in diabetes care, these insulin-inspired patterns are prominently integrated throughout the project—on wall murals, glass entrances, and glass partitions. A modular sign panel system featuring a complementary pattern based on elements from the periodic table displays an intuitive room numbering system to guide people through the building. Graphic pattern murals display large-scale floor numbers and wayfinding information for additional navigation throughout the facility.

The designers also created branding programs for the headquarters' two dining facilities—Lakeview, a cafeteria boasting scenic views of the adjacent lake, and The Market, a self-service "grab and go."

A bold environmental graphics program employing molecular compositions of insulin celebrate Novo Nordisk's innovations in diabetes care.