For many who frequently attend NeoCon in Chicago, each year brings something fresh to the show that sticks clearly in our memories – whether it’s a fantastic new product or technology, an unforgettable party, a new friend you met, or even crazy weather conditions. At officeinsight, NeoCon 2016 felt like one for the books, and we’re happy to continue the tradition of offering readers our “Delights of NeoCon” – the products, showrooms, parties, seminars, people and show memories that made this NeoCon sharpen focus.
Whether you attended NeoCon this year or were stuck at the office, we hope these “Delights” will transport you back to experience the show once more before turning your attention to the busyness of “life after NeoCon.”
Monday morning was a festive blur of people dashing to and from showrooms and checking out the Mart’s new makeover. If show attendees last year were excited about the Mart’s River Drive Park, a new green space along the south drive, then the renovations unveiled this year absolutely blew us away.
From the snazzy elevators and expanded outdoor areas to the Grand Staircase and copious amounts of stunning lounge and eating spaces, the enhancements make it so much easier for people to simply hang out at the Mart. Which is amazing, but we also had a lot of showrooms to visit, too!
At Momentum Textiles we met Shantell Martin, an artist from London currently living in New York City. We caught her in the act of drawing the story of her NeoCon on one whole wall of the showroom. Of course she was invited to do so by Momentum, for whom she designed a collection of four print patterns. Appropriately named Places Faces Spaces, the patterns are open and lively and incorporate Ms. Martin’s delightful artistic style that’s all about telling the story of whatever is on her mind at the moment of their creation. We particularly liked the patterns with a white background but Momentum will offer the prints in a variety of colors.
In addition to nabbing top honors at the Best of NeoCon Awards for its Zones Collection, Teknion announced the renaming of Teknion Studio and Teknion Textiles. They will henceforth be known as Studio TK and Luum Textiles (pronounced as if it were spelled loom), respectively. This is not so much a rebranding as simply a renaming to more clearly differentiate the two entities from the parent company. We liked the modular additions to Toan Nguyen’s Infinito Lounge Seating collection from last year, greatly extending the specifiable range for this super comfortable and handsome collection.
NeoCon 2016 certainly contained the usual crowds and overstimulation, side by side with great new products and engaging seminars, but there was also an optimistic and youthful exuberance present in the materials used across the contract floors of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. It seems that Maker Movement – the cross-cultural exchange of DIY creative individuals, handmade designers and hackers – is gaining a deeper influence in what commercial products and spaces look like today. Luum Textiles underscored this trend well.
In its new showroom, Luum was busily making the point of its guiding philosophy under the new name. “It all begins with our hands,” boasted the showroom window. Intended to highlight the creation process, Luum actually had a loom in the showroom and a tag team of weavers demonstrating how the process works. To further underscore the new start, its first collection is aptly named Starting Point.
Makers also made their mark at Haworth, where the company devoted an entire section of its showroom to showcasing the four-year long design process of its great new Fern Chair. Fern is the result of recent ergonomic research and a collaboration between the Haworth Design Studio and ITO Design out of Germany. It offers total back support while allowing for free movement and individual control.
Behind-the-scenes prototypes were celebrated and displayed on raw plywood surfaces alongside the finished products in a way that never would have felt appropriate several years ago. The showroom design surrounding Fern, from the visible prototypes to an enormous paper sculpture “fern,” was a fantastic success. Well done!
Across the showroom, Haworth featured a craftsman from sister company Poltrona Frau upholstering furniture in the middle of the NeoCon hustle and bustle – a nice interactive touch.
This year at NeoCon, we also heard “materiality” bandied about quite a bit. New materiality was often injected into older products as a way of re-introducing or refreshing them for the brand they were part of. Some of the materiality we noticed was in:
>Color – bright, punchy chrome yellows, pinks and teal blues;
>Fabrics we saw were lush with subtle color variations woven in, or strong, wooly, nubbly pieces which reminded you of the art of textile weaving;
>Metal finishes, such as copper, bronze and silvers; and
>Woods of walnut, beech and subtler tech-wood blends
“Deconstructive authenticity” might have been another small theme woven throughout this year’s show. We found deconstructed upholstery and chairs in several showrooms, perhaps to educate and remind people of the craftsman and craftsmanship inherent in making furniture perhaps.
In addition to Haworth and other showrooms, this maker/deconstructive authenticity theme also set the tone at Carnegie, which was filled with textural, touchable details that made the fabrics irresistible for visitors to interact with.
On the north side of the first floor, IdeaPaint was demonstrating its Studio O+A-designed mobile dry erase boards and mobile collaboration trailer. The exhibit was great fun, but it was also an important milestone for the young company. The Flip Table can be used as a normal vertical dry-erase board or flipped to provide a stand-up table for the quick meeting. The mobile vertical panel can be coated with a dry-erase clear coat that lets the Baltic Birch ply show through, creating a nice cozy and warm alternative to the usual whiteboard.
As for the trailer, co-founder Jeff Avallon told us it was first intended as a way to take IdeaPaint products on the road, but Studio O+A created such a fun, iconic statement that soon customers were asking if they could buy one and voilà – the company had a new, very high-end product.
Davis had tons of delights dotting its showroom this year – from the Zen Chair, destined to become a classic, and the expansion of the Ginkgo family of seating to include gorgeous mid- and low-back lounge pieces; to the Cloud conference chair (yes, it feels a bit like floating on a cloud), the refreshing Techniq training table, whose clean details only a craft-oriented company like Davis could achieve, and the fun, effortless Valet tray tables by Wolfgang C.R. Mezger.
David Ritch and Mark Saffell of 5D Studio hit a home run for Arcadia with the Flirt Collection of folding and nesting tables and chairs for educational and casual meeting environments. The chairs are lower and wider than the usual “training room” chairs and can nest efficiently, even when spec’d with the nice sized tablet arm. The tables fold, nest and handle utilities nicely, and the collection is capped with a mobile whiteboard that has a handy built-in top to hold a presenter’s stuff
We were delighted to see Ken Tameling, general manager of the Global Seating division of Steelcase, so stoked over the seating offerings at Steelcase – and we could see why he was. Langston is a totally rational modular system based on a 30×30 steel wire frame. It can be combined and arranged in myriad configurations, and while it looks extremely rectilinear and maybe even a bit stiff, we found it to be very comfortable, and there’s something really fetching about the look.
And as a special treat for all us old timers, Steelcase brought the Max Stacker back in several new frame colors in some sort of painted metal finish that for all the world has that beautiful matte look of an anodized finish. Resurrecting the Max Stacker is a brilliant strategy. The price is right at about $200.00 List, and it should get the attention of designers for its classic shape, quality and new finishes. Delightful to see!
It’s noteworthy to point out that now Humanscale, Steelcase and Herman Miller all have cloud-based monitoring services with occupancy sensors and software for reporting how individual workspaces are being used and then aggregating that information to the facility level. The systems can be customized at the individual level to remember preset heights for desks and programmed to alert users that it’s time to stand up or sit down, as the case may be.
The Steelcase Ology height adjustable desk has been outfitted with embedded sensors and a sleek high-resolution LED that’s built-in to the top to remind users when it’s time to change position. Setting and resetting the intervals to suit individual preferences is simple and intuitive.
Last year the Brody WorkLounge was one of our most favorite products. This year, Steelcase has added some cool tech features to Brody – an embedded seat heater for those of us who are perennially cold, and an occupancy sensor that is linked to Steelcase’s system for reporting utilization to facility managers; the sensor activates a thin embedded LED strip encircling the user and visible as people approach the Brody – green for vacant and red for occupied.
Designtex had a truly innovative introduction this year in the Steelcase showroom. The “product that is as yet unnamed” is the result of Steelcase research showing that even as our offices become more open and collaborative, there is still a very strong need to control access to information and allow for confidentiality. Drones and other new technologies have heightened security issues in the corporate environment. So, how do you protect your company’s proprietary information from being spied upon? Or, on a more basic level, how does one team keep what they’re working on undercover until it’s ready for primetime, while working in an open plan environment?
Designtex’s new cloaking film is basically two layers that can be installed on any architectural glass, one on the inside of the glass and the other on the exterior. A decorative pattern can be seen on the exterior as people pass by in a hallway, for example. What will not be seen from the outside is anything that is on digital screens within the “cloaked” glass walled meeting room. Kudos to this revolutionary product!
The Steelcase showroom sported noticeably more Turnstone products mixed in with Steelcase proper; the more affordable brand in the Steelcase family added many new features to its popular BIVI line: new sizes to meet more design needs and exciting new colors. The brand also introduced the Bassline Table series, which earned a Best of NeoCon Innovation Award. The Bassline Table series creates a fun opportunity for designers to customize a simple base with whatever top they fancy. This was amusingly demonstrated by the use of a street sewer lid top with a Bassline base.
Coalesse featured the usual sophistication and elegance they are well known for, and its LessThanFive Chair – meaning it weighs less than five pounds – was a hit again this year. Adding to this chair’s uniqueness (it’s made of carbon fiber), Coalesse introduced an app for customizing its finish. Designers can pick a color, choose a matte or glossy finish, and change the fade quality of the paint to design their own “one off” chair. There is no minimum quantity necessary.
There was a lot to see and a lot to like at KI. Its new product, MyPlace, won a gold BoN by adapting low panels to the small meeting or heads-down workspace application. Ki cleverly took advantage of the power management and accessory supporting capabilities inherent in panel systems to create useful, inviting spaces for individual or small group use.
Building on its reputation for manufacturing high quality wood casegoods, Geiger added another feather to its cap this year with the introduction of Rhythm. Designed by EOOS, out of Vienna, the Rhythm system features a frame-mounted construction, which can stand alone or divide space, providing privacy for two or more people while offering each one a richly personalized work experience. We loved the abundant containers and clever storage, featuring multiple drawers and shelves, along with places to showcase photos and art – in sliding wooden trays and featuring ceramic accessories. The possibilities for personalization with Rhythm seemed to be limited only by one’s imagination.
At Vitra, Hack is back! Designed by Munich-based Konstantin Grcic after much research into the tech sector, this year Hack’s versatile folding desk system was shown with a comfortable sofa option and with a hot new black finish.
We also admired the Belleville Bistro Chair, designed for Vitra by brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullex, who named the chair for the neighborhood in Paris where they work. It’s beautifully elegant, featuring a structural frame and curved shell back and seat. The Belleville looks slender and delicate in its design, while also allowing for a variety of material options such as colored polypropylene, molded plywood veneer, or fabric or leather upholstery. Definitely a new classic.
We were happy to discover a growing trend toward elevated storage and locker design. Companies from Steelcase and Knoll to OFS Brands, HON and more were showing new, imaginative ways to transform storage space into high-tech, high design pieces worth investing in. officeinsight has more to come on this topic!
Esteemed designer Michael Vanderbyl has designed and partnered with HBF in the past, winning several Best of NeoCon awards for his creations. So it was with great anticipation that we visited the HBF showroom to see his latest introduction: the Conexus Lounge Chair and Ottoman. What a delight! HBF is well known for its fine craftsmanship, and together with Mr. Vanderbyl they continue that reputation.
Sculptural in an unusual and organic way, Conexus has a slim profile with plenty of exquisite little details that are rare to find these days. The back shell comes in a flat cut walnut veneer and is also available in a fully upholstered version. We loved the flat cut walnut veneer; there is a depth and authenticity in the celebration of high quality wood veneers that HBF has harnessed beautifully. You note it particularly where the two sections of the chair shell come together.
Another not-to-be-missed detail: no welting (shout-out to Jay Rubino at HBF for his engineering chops and devotion to making great design into three-dimensional reality). They have managed to seamlessly match the wood edge of the chair with the fabric. They literally melt into each other. And sitting in it, you experience exactly what it was designed to do. You can lounge in it, as well as work at a comfortable angle, due to the perfect pitch of the seat. Conexus means “connected,” for greater fluidity between casual conversations and task oriented work. You can do both in comfort and with a timeless elegance.
At HBF Textiles, we had a chance to meet Christiane Müller, who designed a stunning, rich, yet approachable textile collection for HBF Textiles’ newest introduction. These fabrics have all the good feels, and the durability cred to match.
Big things are happening at HBF; we were lucky to spend some time getting to know Dan Chong, newly announced as president of HBF. In addition, the brand unveiled a sleek new website experience, which we’re in love with – be sure to check it out!
West Elm Workspace exclusively with Inscape, one of the contract companies credited for initially fuelling the rise of a more residential and industrial look to commercial furniture, referred to handmade designer palettes throughout their showroom this year. While the brand prides itself on speed-to-market philosophy and made a point to show more of its residential identity this, the things we found most attention-worthy were two workplace-specific items at the back of the showroom: a wood-finished height-adjustable desking solution, and a movable cart with markerboard and tackable surfaces.
Other companies nodded to incorporating a distinctive retro-residential feel to their furniture and/or finishes. Leland Furniture launched Guild, a collection of modern furniture artifacts, and introduced many of us to the designs of the late Ralph Rapson, a contemporary of Charles Eames and Harry Bertoia at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Leland’s Thirty-Nine series was never produced in Rapson’s lifetime, but it looks just as fresh as the day it was first sketched on a napkin all those years ago. Complementing the old with the new for Leland was the Palomino Collection, designed by Jess Sorel. This contemporary take on modern design balanced the warmth of wood with clean wireframe outlines; it is pure Leland, and sure to be a hit with designers.
There was tons to see at Indiana based OFS Brands, which has been quietly evolving over the past few years, responding creatively to the evolving needs of the workplace. Each year we’ve seen new products added and existing ones enhanced in their brand – always within the framework of being a family-owned business with a history rooted in environmental conservation. This year, OFS hired product designer and brand strategist Brian Graham to consult with them on their classic wood casegoods products.
The result? Aptos, a casegood line designed by Mr. Graham to provide a lighter, leaner look while maintaining the product integrity, for which OFS is so well known. Blending together a range of material offerings, with a foundation of fine wood veneers, Aptos work surfaces allow for height adjustability and incorporate soft radius edges, which contrast nicely with the strong duo and tri-foil metal legs that elegantly accommodate wire management. The devil is in the details – and the details imbue Aptos with personality and possibilities, ranging from an open tray top pedestal, molded out of the same material you find in the trunk of your car – PET – for softness, to the clean design of the drawer pulls offered and the subtle under overhead-mounted lighting. We were impressed!
OFS Brands was also demonstrating a disruptive product you apply to any wall like paint. However this material is magnetic and forms a strong bond to that brown plastic sheet magnetic material. For the demo, OFS showed how to hang shelves strong enough to carry wood samples. Once you’ve painted the wall with the material and applied the plastic magnetic sheet to the back of the shelf, the shelf sticks to the wall (obviously). But when you rotate the shelf 900 the magnets lock and the shelf is very strongly fixed! So you can attach the shelves with no mechanical fasteners or adhesives, and by rotating them backward 900, they unlock and can be easily moved or removed. The long “Branding Wall” at OFS with the huge graphic cross section of trees was printed onto a roll of this magnetic plastic and can be peeled off and replaced with great ease…like wallpaper you can quickly, easily and cleanly remove.
The OFS Brands showroom foreshadowed much of today’s design trends last year, and this year had a much cleaner and streamlined take on things; nothing on display was a prototype. Everything was available to order that day. How many other manufacturers at NeoCon could say the same? Incorporating reclaimed wood as a running line finish in their Eleven Wood conference table line is a bold move, considering how unpredictable working with reclaimed wood can be. But, that’s the history of OFS Brands, and it’s great to see this company apply its heritage in wood to new design techniques.
The reclaimed and distressed look in materials dominated NeoCon this year. From fabrics to carpeting, even durable finishes like laminate and porcelain tile were sporting faux peeling paint and rusted metal, or looked threadbare and worn. Many carpet and floorcovering companies displayed new products with a mottled or dappled look. Lapidus, the Best of NeoCon Gold winner from Milliken this year, touches all the right points and is sure to be a hit.
Chilewich did a contemporary take on Plaid this year, and its booth on the 7th floor was fantastic. Offering a new range of both bold and quiet options for floors and walls, these products could be the perfect feature finish or just recede into the background, depending on the needs of the project.
Tarkett managed to nudge Tandus Centiva out of most of their third floor showroom, but I don’t think too many people were upset because the flooring Tarkett had on display was wonderful. Taking a gold award in the hard surfacing category for Best of NeoCon, Collection Infinies uses groundbreaking technology to deliver the first digitally printed LVT in the industry. Digital printing allows for extended pattern repeats, creating a portfolio of designs with expansive, randomized flooring motifs and enhanced realism.
As our corporate and personal cultures become less formal overall, much of the new furniture at NeoCon reflected that change. Mounted prominently in the ground floor space of the Merchandise Mart was Buzzijungle by Buzzispace. As brave and brilliant as the design may be, after stepping inside and trying different levels, OSHA and BIFMA regulations and standards for commercial interiors came to mind, which is rarely a good first impression. Buzzijungle is a fantastic idea starter for a new tech startup, but even veterans in this field would be hard pressed to give this the green light for their project unless it gets tweaked.
Looking past the garish/funky BuzziJungle, the thing that really caught our eye at BuzziSpace this year was the BuzziBalance. BuzziSpace does an excellent job of creating design elements whose purpose is…murky…and not necessarily acutely related to traditional work functions; BuzziBalance is a perfect example of this. Available as a small or large rocking pouf, or as a “rocking board,” BuzziBalance is a design that taps into the benefits of purposeful stretching and brings “stretching” into the workplace in a cool, non-weird way. Users can simply step onto the BuzziBalance to take a brake from work at their desk.
Global was a happening place to be at the Mart, especially on Monday night. The brand celebrated 50 years of business with a fun party featuring cocktail passing waitresses dressed in 1960s outfits with big bouffant hairstyles.
Product-wise at Global, Corby is a new mid-century modern reflection of wood veneer desks, tables and storage designed by Christopher Wright. Bakhita is a true winner – an ultra modern chair designed to be leightweight and durable, with the added bonus of being stackable. It can be spec’d with or without arms, is 100% recyclable, rated for 300 lbs, and meets all ANSI-BIFMA standards. Oh – and it’s reasonably priced too.
It was great to see New York makers Uhuru displaying their new contract benching furniture at NeoCon. Known for years as a premiere residential and hospitality brand, Uhuru is trading in their distressed finishes for a cleaner, more industrial look for the commercial market.
Even Decca got into the informal act with an adjustable height conference table. Invoking responses that ranged from, “That’s cool” to “Why?”, I could only think it was a classic NeoCon move, designed to draw attention and stimulate ideas, not really specifications.
If anything, NeoCon is about making ideas come to life, but the pathway to mass production is another story.
“Several years ago I came to the realization that many recent design school graduates were very enthusiastic and had wonderful ideas,” said Jerry Helling, president of Bernhardt Design, “but they didn’t know how the process of product development actually worked or what was required to design for mass production. We started the Art Center Studio to give students a real life, real time experience from the initial client brief through the launch of a product in the market. This was an experiment to see if we could make a positive difference in design education, and seven years later we are as excited about it as we were on day one.”
The resulting designs, a collection of pieces called twenty-something, are well thought out and resolved without being too stuffy. twenty-something picked up a Best of NeoCon Editor’s Choice award.
We saw more European products being shown in the Mart this year. Companies like naughtone, from Great Britain (newly aligned with Herman Miller), showed products for the first time in the Mart. Monday alone, it had more than 1200 visitors to their compact one thousand square foot showroom on the 10th floor. naughtone Director Matt Welsh told us they’ve been selling in the U.S. market for two and a half years now and have seen phenomenal growth – much of it in the tech sector. They looked for a partnership, and feel quite lucky to have signed up with Herman Miller. They plan on continuing as an open line for all dealers, lucky for us. Being aligned with Herman Miller, however, has helped them in that they can now produce products stateside, in a factory that makes some of the Eames classics.
naughtone’s showroom was clean, simple and pitch-perfect in terms of décor and display of their beautiful everyday furniture. No gimmicks were present, just pleasing shapes and wonderful textures. The Always Chair line showcases the fine attention to detail in upholstery seaming they are capable of; the Always Lounge version at the front was upholstered in the Cozy fabric by Luna Textiles. And the Polly Chair will brighten any room with it’s cast of fun colors, along with it’s ability to stack in a sled or four legged base. It’s comfortable, subtle and elegant.
German manufacturer Wilkhahn was on the 7th floor of the Mart for their third year. The brand showcased sophisticated seating and finely engineered tables for which their craftsmanship is well known and respected. They had something no one else had: The first mass- produced 3D printed stool called Presto, designed by Thorsten Franck. You could watch one being made out of its plant-based polymer, Lignan. The 3D-made bases come in a variety of colors and, when combined with the various shapes and seat tops to choose from, offer more than 150 possible combinations to design. The leathers are all vegetable dyed, and you have two heights to choose from: 20” H and 22” H. Fun idea!
At Tuohy, we found smooth precision in the Leit System, a modular collection of seating, work surfaces and privacy panels designed by Matthew Plumstead. The product name Leit is derived from leitmotif, a recurring theme throughout a composition. Leit’s recurring theme is one freestanding modular seat and work surface, and designers can add additional seats, work surfaces, and panels in three heights to form varying degrees of privacy and collaboration. Leit can be integrative and collaborative in nature just as easily as it can be freestanding and private. Its table surfaces are available in wood or Fenix NTM, a luxurious feeling nanotech material for superior wear and easy maintenance. Aesthetic: mixed materials in a minimalist presentation.
Sedia Systems, manufacturer of JumpSeat, which is the perfect chair for hallways and places with minimal space that need additional aesthetically pleasing seating, introduced JumpSeat Emerge. JumpSeat Emerge is designed to fold up and out of the floor to transform an open event space into a JumpSeat auditorium in minutes. It won’t be inexpensive, but with real estate costing what it does in many parts of the country, this type of creative engineering for optimal space utilization can be critical – and many will find it well worth the investment.
Last year, Framery, out of Finland, earned a Best of NeoCon award for its single booth. This year, it clamed a much larger footprint on the Mart’s seventh floor, showcasing Framery O (single booth) and its new Framery Q, a double-sized booth for private one-on-one meetings. It was a popular place to be, with show attendees eagerly settling into these booths for a quiet moment to re-coup from the noise and chaos that is NeoCon, or to meet for a quiet chat with a friend. Both booths are available in a wide variety of colors and finishes and provide nice refuge from the hubbub of a busy office environment.
Keilhauer has firmly staked out its turf in the ”Heads Up” part of the workplace furniture market. The company is well known for its expertise in producing outstanding seating, and this year it bolstered its reputation with Hangout, a modular lounge series with a huge planning range, including stools and tables. The natural wood legs and table edges provide a nice counterpoint to all the upholstery. Hangout is perfect for use in areas where the work is heads up. Keilhauer is also well known for its bold showroom murals, and this year’s version was both playful and instructive, demonstrating some of the many possible configurations of Hangout.
We think everyone involved in the Merchandise Mart’s 7th floor renovations deserves a special thank you; with new flooring, lighting, wayfinding and more, the 7th floor is now a clean, welcoming place where exhibitors can proudly show their new offerings, and where showgoers can actually enjoy looking at them!
Stay tuned for future officeinsight articles on some of the seminars our team attended (hint: another excellent presentation from the Gensler duo of Dean Strombom and Sven Govaars is on the docket).
And of course, one of our favorite parts of covering NeoCon is our chance to collect the surprise/smile/chuckle-worthy things happening during the show that can only be captured with a photo. Cheers to another great year at NeoCon!