Fast Company names CannonDesign one of the Best Workplaces for Innovators

Each year, Fast Company's prestigious list celebrates the companies best fostering cultures that empower employees at all levels to improve processes, create new products or invent new ways of doing business.

This recognition comes amidst a truly transformative year for our company. CannonDesign is deeply focused on becoming a new kind of design firm entirely, one capable of helping clients solve challenges of nearly any type across the built environment and beyond.

Core to this evolution is our staunch commitment to innovation. We dedicate a significant annual budget for Amp, our in-house incubator that empowers a curated team from across the company to amplify ideas, test and refine them and ultimately deliver novel opportunities that fuel purposeful change.

Here are just some examples of how innovation shines across our company:

• We built our own generative AI product named “Billie.” The tool has revolutionized our ability to access information and knowledge across the firm.
  
  
• Aaron Call joined CannonDesign as our first-ever Executive Director of Incubate & Launch, and one of three new convergence directors we announced this spring. Aaron is focused on championing innovation across every level of the company, spurring the launch of startups, new services, partnerships and go-to-market strategies.
  
  
• Our technology and digital products teams are currently working on novel solutions spanning agentic AI, quantum computing, connected APIs, vector technology tools, design automation and much more. In many of these instances, we are the sole design firm working with our core technology partners in these arenas.
  
  
• We're harnessing smart-building technology to create remarkably sustainable buildings. To date, we've designed 289 LEED-certified buildings and 14 net-zero energy projects. TIME magazine called us the design firm making net-zero buildings possible.
  

Other examples of our commitment to innovation include:

• We established a smart buildings practice focused on shaping human-led digital experiences across all of our core business sectors. That team's work is now amplified with the addition of The Clarient Group, a smart building technology consulting and design firm widely recognized for its work on iconic developments, including One World Trade, Central Park Tower and Hudson Yards.
  
  
• CannonDesign led the formation of a design firm coalition that brought leaders from many of the top design firms in the country together to ensure the group was able to disrupt its own profession before other outside entrants did so.
  
  
• All of these investments come in parallel with our design work. We are working with leading organizations like the Mayo Clinic, Memorial Sloan Kettering, LinkedIn, California Institute of Technology and more to create smarter and more impactful buildings and solutions each day.
  

We are thrilled to once again be recognized by Fast Company as a Best Workplace for Innovators and look forward to building on this momentum as we advance our innovation ecosystem.