What we know of OFS Brands is that it is an accretion of brands accumulated over the last couple of decades – primarily through acquisition. Comprising OFS, Carolina, Loewenstein, First Office and Highmark, the company has achieved a scale, breadth of vertical markets served and product lines to make it a force in the industry.
While covering interesting developments in the run-up to NeoCon, I had a chance to interview several of the key players charged with the future of OFS Brands, starting with Ryan Menke, Senior V.P. Marketing and Sales.
Bob Beck (BB): Even though NeoCon is right in front of us, can you give us some insight as to where you’re headed as a company longer term?
Ryan Menke (RM): NeoCon will be a strong indication of where we’re going in terms of our product portfolio. Our marketing and product development team has been extremely busy. Between March and NeoCon we have about 30 new products or product extensions we’re launching in that three month period. That effort is split between taking some of our war-horses and making them even more relevant and launching new products that continue to define the direction we’re taking the company.
BB: Of course for us on the sidelines, watching your new product launches will, in fact, define where you’re taking it, but can you articulate what you’re aiming for?
RM: No company lives outside the influence of the macro trends. If you’re very innovative you might influence or even disrupt those trends, but for the most part you have to stay relevant to what’s happening around you. So obviously we are watching the macro trends in corporate real estate and in workplace design and doing our best to produce serious, relevant solutions to issues companies and their employees find in the work environment today.
In pursuit of that objective we’ve made some significant changes in our approach to design. For starters, just over a year ago we hired John Phillips as our VP of Design. We want to be the absolute design-value leader in the industry. We don’t think you should ever have to give up design – no matter what the price point. And what we’re seeing in the market today is that projects are constantly being subjected to “value-engineering.” As designers are going through that journey, we want to make it as easy as possible for them to meet their clients’ needs within our portfolio without feeling they’re giving up anything as they go up or down the price continuum.
BB: Looking at the preview literature I received from Doug Shapiro, [VP of Marketing], I was struck by how many of the new products in your NeoCon package were designed by “OFS Brands Design Studio.” I assume that’s indicative of the efforts of John Phillips. Tell me how you came to hire him and a bit about him.
RM: John and I met through mutual acquaintances and hit it off immediately. As we got to know each other we found that we shared a passion for design in a lot of areas, whether it was automobiles, architecture or furniture design. In terms of his specific design background he spent more than 15 years designing automobile interiors and exteriors for some of the largest brands in the world. He brings a global perspective to design that we were lacking in the past.
We were looking to create a balance between our internal design effort and our work with outside designers and make sure that all the work reflected a common design ethos. That’s a tough assignment but one we’re committed to and one we think is very important for us, coming to the present from a history of acquisition of disparate brands.
BB: Thanks Ryan. And with that introduction let’s get some input from Mr. Phillips on this year’s launches. John, I’d like to start with a discussion of the Rowen lounge seating line designed by my good friend Brian Graham.
John Phillips (JP): The thing I love about Rowen is that it clearly shows how important it is to really get the details right. Lounge seating is a category where at first glance products look very similar. So going the extra mile to get the best possible resolution to all the design details is the real differentiator. With Rowen the beauty is in the simplicity and the details. We worked very hard with Brian to get the proportions just right. I designed the last generation of seats for a prestigious European auto manufacturer and over the years I saw that company make very subtle tweaks, working within a very well defined vocabulary to achieve really nice improvements. What that experience taught me is that the last 10% of detail refinement can take up to 20% of the total time of project and may account for as much as 20% of the cost. But it is that dedication to refinement that makes a product special.
BB: So call out some of the details you worked hard to get right on Rowen.
JP: “First I’d call attention to the simplicity of the design and the proportions. It’s a lower, longer very subtle rendition of the contact lounge piece. I like the optional diamond shaped, belt leather buttons, and we spent a lot of time on the design and position of the legs to get that just right. I think designers will also like the design details of the back. Rowen is a great lounge piece for application where it will be approached from all directions.”
BB: Tell us about some of the other new products.
JP: I think Heya, designed by Webb Associates of London, will be a smash hit. Heya is the English transliteration of a Japanese word that means a small room. In the case of our new product Heya, it’s a small room with extraordinary comfort and functionality.
The category of seating that includes panels to provide some visual and acoustic privacy is growing fast as designers try to provide more areas for individual privacy and casual but highly productive collaborative meetings. I think Roger Webb and David Lancaster have done an extraordinary job of meeting the requirements of the category – and once again – done it with some subtle but defining details that will make Heya a winner with designers and users alike.
And while on the subject of Webb Associates, NeoCon visitors will see two other important additions to our portfolio designed by that team. The first is a significant enhancement to the Genus task chair that we launched last year. At the time of launch, Genus was available with a mesh or an upholstered back, but Roger Webb was determined to create an elastomeric back that would support the back even better. It was a very tough engineering problem and consequently realizing it has taken time, but with a huge effort from both the design and engineering teams and with a superb effort from our toolmaker we’ve done it.
The second Webb Associates design that merits a call-out is the Hug chair, designed for our healthcare brand, Carolina. Hug is a highly refined side chair for use in waiting rooms, patient rooms, administrative areas and wherever a great side chair is called for. Working with Roger’s team, we focused on the comfort. And we achieved it by carefully shaping the back and then using dual durometer molded foam in both the seat and back to provide varying levels of support depending on the part of the body being supported. Then again, Webb Associates delivered a very pleasing aesthetic as a starting point for the work on comfort.
BB: We’re about out of space here. But I noticed you’re introducing a lot of enhancements to Staks and Eleven, two of my personal favorites. Give us a quick rundown of what you’ve done with those two existing lines.
JP: Up to now, the defining element of Eleven has been its gorgeous aluminum structure and die-cast legs. So the most noticeable addition to the Eleven line is a solid wood alternative to aluminum that meets the growing trend toward a warmer, more residential feel – and by the way – perfectly fitting the woodworking heritage of OFS. We’ve also added some specific elements, for example a bar height table, but in accordance with brevity, I’ll invite people to see it and experience it at NeoCon.
Staks is one of our top selling products, so supporting it with enhancements to meet changing market requirements is important. We’ve added inline height adjustable benching options with integrated storage to the Staks portfolio. The new option to wrap panels around height adjustable stations will give designers the ability to integrate sit-stand movement for people in new ways.
It sounds as if OFS Brands is poised to have one of its best NeoCons ever. Here I’ve only skimmed the surface of new product offerings and enhancements that will be on display, so I encourage you to be sure to add room 1132 to your NeoCon itinerary…I don’t think you’ll be sorry.