Adding Color to the Menu: DoorDash Workplaces Break from Neutral Trends
- Tony LaPorte
- Lauren Koszuta
Through vibrant colors and localized storytelling, DoorDash creates memorable offices that embody its dynamic culture.
For many years companies have relied on subdued, neutral colors in the design of their workplaces. The result is often a safe, but forgettable design. DoorDash’s New York City flagship office presented HKS with an opportunity to break from neutrality and dial up a bright, bold and energetic color strategy that reflected their brand. The success of this project informed DoorDash’s global offices, and prioritizing color has become essential to their workplace brand. These spaces, envisioned by HKS’ commercial interiors and experiential branding teams, showcase how breaking from neutrality with vibrant colors can be a powerful way to tell a story, build community and create identity.
New York City
DoorDash is a brand that seeks a deep connection to the cities in which they operate. As such, the New York City office features distinctive experiential branding that was inspired by the experience of walking through the city’s unique boroughs and neighborhoods. In the main corridor, bold, large-scale murals depict DoorDash values in the hand-lettered signage style of local bodegas and delis. This reference, combined with highly saturated colors, creates a sense of energy and distinct locality for the workplace.
In the shared commons, large, hand-painted murals on corrugated metal pull inspiration from the graffiti-on-found-material aesthetic synonymous with New York City.
Elsewhere, DoorDash branding is translated into tile mosaics referencing historic New York buildings and subway signage. One mosaic showcases the DoorDash core value, “One Team One Fight,” and another depicts a sunset seen from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
To complement DoorDash’s primary brand colors, the team devised secondary interior palettes, drawing inspiration from the New York City’s five boroughs.
The pale blues in the “Staten Island” neighborhood, for example, harken to the iconic battleship gray-painted Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, while vibrant greens in “Manhattan” reflect summer in Central Park. The result is a workplace experience that feels like a Dasher zipping around the city.
Mexico City
DoorDash’s Mexico City office provided the opportunity to tell their brand story over three floors. The bustling city, the largest in North America, is full of beautiful craftsmanship and rich cultural heritage from the different regions of Mexico. Drawing inspiration from these crafts, specifically textiles, ceramics and cuisine, each floor is differentiated with a unique palette of vibrant paint colors, tile mosaics, and branding.
In the reception lobby, DoorDash values are subtly incorporated in a wall display of locally sourced fabrics, allowing the colorful textile patterns from different regions of Mexico to take center stage.
In the break area, where employees eat a cafeteria-style lunch together every day, the DoorDash value “Make Room at the Table” is featured on a large-scale brand graphic inspired by the trajinera boats of Xochimilco. The use of vibrant brand color throughout the space infuses energy and creates an environment primed for social connection.
Tempe, AZ
Used as a hub for company onsite events, the DoorDash Tempe office is outfitted with a high-concentration of brand colors and creates “portals” of immersive experiences.
Along the main corridor, colorful signs that display DoorDash value statements are hung from the ceiling and bring to mind the feeling of walking through busy food halls and city streets. In the focus rooms, whimsical, monochromatic graphics and furniture selections establish unique identities for each room that provide a window into the experiences DoorDash creates for its customers, like sharing snacks during game night.
The Swagmart is a dual-purpose room used for meetings and handing out DoorDash branded items during team events. A bright red awning and store sign hangs above the door, red checkerboard graphics wrap the glass, and custom red shelving built to display swag items all evoke feelings of shopping in a lively supermarket.
The experiential branding in Tempe celebrates the vibrancy that DoorDash brings to the cities in which they operate and inspires the teams who visit.
What Others Can Learn from DoorDash
DoorDash’s bold color departure is an example of how workplace design can move beyond the “safe” world of neutrals to embrace creativity, narrative and connection. DoorDash employees are increasingly working not just in an office, but in immersive environments that reflect DoorDash’s values and promote team ideation, collaboration and social connection. The New York City project has also been recognized industry wide. Interior Design Magazine named DoorDash NYC an honoree for Graphics and Branding in the 2025 Best of Year Awards, commending how vibrancy and story-driven design came together to create a unique, branded experience.
When we limit our understanding and use of color, we limit how we can express meaning, intention and emotion. By tapping into the local energy of DoorDash’s offices, their new workplaces inspire and empower employees through localized vibrant color and memorable brand expression.
