The inauguration of an idesk Showroom in Dallas

idesk is the new upscale brand of Cherryman Industries, headquartered in El Segundo, CA. Launching in 2002, Cherryman has thrived in the North American office furniture market with its comprehensive product offering at competitive mid-market pricing, and an in-stock proposition supported by 5 regional fulfillment centers located strategically across the country.

Frank Lin, partner in the firm  says, “We asked ourselves why excellent design has to be so expensive. With idesk we wanted to bring premium design to everyone, not just companies with big budgets.”

Idesk design team, (LtoR) John Manson, Zhanna Manko, Carl Magnusson, Shawn Littrell.

Mr Lin set out to meet the premium design goal by hiring Carl Gustav Magnusson Design to design and select, organize and present the initial product offering.  That effort led to a preview consisting mostly of prototypes at NeoCon 2012. If you were there you may remember what seems to me to have been the biggest display ever on the 7th floor.

Under normal conditions the engineering and development of such an extensive initial product offering would take several years in factories seasoned in making products where a 0.5mm difference in a radius is a deal breaker. Said Mr. Lin, “The first challenge we ran into was to meet the design quality spec required from Carl Magnusson, who guided the idesk design development. From controlling the sheen on the brushed, anodized aluminum of the table leg to managing the consistency of the back painted glass tops his eye for quality was the acknowledged threshold – all on a mass production scale.”

Designed by Carl Gustav Magnusson, the d-Series can provide an elegant benching solution.

Overlay more than a year of COVID-19 restrictions and the demands of getting everything in stock and ready to ship and you understand why the rollout of the full brand is just now gaining momentum.

Last week I was invited to the grand opening of the brand’s new Dallas showroom and fulfillment center. I was impressed. The whole space occupies close to 200,000 sq ft with about 5K dedicated to the showroom. The event was a relaxed gathering with good food and drinks and all idesk hands on deck – to say nothing of the inimitable Mr. Magnusson. The vibe was very upbeat as area dealers and some end users took in the scene and spent time checking out the showroom, the warehouse and “kicking the tires” to get their own impression of the quality of the furniture on display.

The “Runway” concept allows for multiples of each product typology to be displayed, simulating real-world use. D-series benching on the left, t-series open plan workstations right.

For my tour of the space I had the pleasure of meeting Zhanna Manko, a seasoned interior designer – and since joining Cherryman/idesk she’s becoming a budding product designer. She designed the showroom to be both functional today and highly adaptable as products and conditions change. Her conceptual framework is a series of lanes or as she calls them, “runways,” each one featuring a product range. The runways are lanes of surfaced concrete that run the length of the showroom with alternating lanes of polished raw concrete for circulation with great access for examining product details and sufficient space to see how multiples might look in an installation. The rectilinear pattern intentionally conveys the sense that this is a modernist space.

A d-series table desk and credenza arrangement. Note the 2D wall mural and white lanterns.

Her color palette of warm neutrals and polished concrete put the products front and center. The off-white walls are playfully decorated with slogans and big 2D murals of products in grayscale. The one splash of color is one wall in a glassed-in room where the company’s graded-in fabric collection is on display.

One prominent feature of the space is an entire long window wall festooned with white lanterns. When I asked Ms. Manko about them she said, “It’s just a fun, playful softening touch. A series of round counterpoints to everything else that’s so rectilinear. They make me smile every time I look at them. And they ad wonder and a spark of curiosity from the street outside”

The team from Cherryman HQ had decided this was to be an idesk showroom and would not mix idesk with Cherryman products. But “our loyal dealers” and the rep group took issue with having such a nice facility that ignored their existing business. So Ms. Manko came up with a very clever “art installation” in the warehouse – just outside the showroom. She arranged a “wall” of geometrically identical crates to define a space and then outfitted the space with several of the best-selling Cherryman product groups. Like the best impromptu things, it was artful, clever and well done.  Compromise and pragmatism at an ingenious level.

The artful, impromptu Cherryman exhibit area.

Joey Truitt, Rick Bennett and Sharon Egger of Group 4, the independent rep group for Cherryman and idesk in the North Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana territory were working the room and told me they were very happy with the turnout. They said they’d been anxiously awaiting this day ever since the NeoCon preview and can’t wait to see the response to both the design quality embodied in the products and the in-stock proposition. Mr. Truitt said, “If anything, the pandemic has amplified peoples’ desire and expectation to get everything immediately.”

Designed by Shawn Littrell, the h-series features height adjustable tables and a power/data

Frank Lin said, “We see the emerging trend for ‘designer product’ in the middle market and we believe this is part of a macro market trend that has transpired with coffee, cell phones and consumer auto where new generation consumers demand premium product. In a sense, the two current markets will eventually consolidate into one.

“idesk is the first platform to achieve a cost structure threshold that enables the company to potentially be the first mover as a catalyst to bring design to everyone in the middle market.

“idesk, as an in-stock solution, is an inherent ‘platform of choice’  well positioned in today’s e-commerce dynamic to help our dealer partners best serve their customers in light of the continuing shift from the old ways of the commercial contract to the e-commerce platform.”

The “Group 2” fabric wall.