New, New, New Davis Launches

Always among the standout companies at NeoCon, Davis was aiming for a banner new product year at NeoCon 2020. But the COVID-19 virus was aiming to teach us mere mortals what disruption is all about.

Disrupted but not stopped, Davis is officially launching eight new products tomorrow, August 18th. On top of these eight new products, officeinsight has already published a preview of two other products (not discussed here) – Rho Ottoman by Italian design studio LucidiPevere and the Brace Table by jehs+laub in our inaugural NeoConnect Product Preview.

Davis is well known for clean, modern designs with what has been for many years considered a “European aesthetic.” Davis CEO Danny Davis said, “We were one of the first companies to travel to Europe in search of new products to bring to the American market. I started going there in the early 80s and before that, we used Jens Risom’s brother, Neils Risom as our agent. He helped get us connected to manufacturers and designers including Burkhard Vogtherr, whose first product with us was the Motion Chair, launched in 1987. It was a best seller for us for 25 years. Since the Motion Chair, we continued to work with Burkhard on many of our most iconic seating families. Body, EXO, Lucid, Sketch and Webb are all Burkhard Vogtherr designs, and they’re all still in our product line today. His most recent and final product for us was the M75 Executive Chair, which we released only a few months prior to his passing last year. A collaboration between Burkhard and Jonathan Prestwich, this executive chair was a reimagining of his original Motion Chair and was a memorable and enduring conclusion to our dynamic 30+ year relationship. Burkhard was not only an inspiring designer, he was a close friend. He will be deeply missed.”

Initially, Davis mostly licensed products developed by European companies for their own market needs, but that quickly changed as Davis began working more closely with designers and initiating projects and designs. That is predominantly the way the process works today. In fact, in some cases, Davis has licensed its own original designs to European companies.

Because of this longstanding presence abroad, Davis has a strong network of relationships with dozens of European designers, manufacturers, engineering firms and OEM suppliers. Those relationships are maintained by personal face-to-face contact – mostly in Europe, by Danny Davis and VP of Design and Development, Rob Easton. That means spending about six weeks a year working in Europe.

This year’s batch of introductions were all designed, developed, engineered and tooled to fill the needs of Davis’ own portfolio. “All of our new products this year are designed specifically for Davis by European designers,” Easton said. “Along with products designed by Davis veterans, we’re introducing an incredible bent plywood chair by an Italian designer we met at Salone some years ago named Mario Ferrarini. And earlier this year we launched the Rho Ottoman line by Davis first-timers, Paolo Lucidi and Luca Pevere of LucidiPevere Studio.

“We have these deep relationships with fantastic designers who keep bringing us great ideas. We’re at a point with some of them now, that they understand what we need almost as well as we do. They’ve visited our factories, know our capabilities and are in a position to truly collaborate.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everything this year, and Davis is no exception. The launch of these products was delayed because Italy shut down early in the crisis. By the time first articles were ready for testing and photo shoots, the U.S. was sheltering in place. “The past few years we’ve been very lucky to launch a broad portfolio of great design,” Davis said. “In a normal year, the schedule to NeoCon is tight, but our team always makes it happen. This year the cancellation of NeoCon provided us with additional time to expand upon our new products and analyze the ever-changing global market. It will definitely be a challenge for everyone, but we feel that we’re as prepared as we can be. We’ll have to wait and see how it goes.”

For our part and without further ado, officeinsight shares with you, sorted by designer, the new 2020 products from Davis Furniture.

Mario Farrarini

>Mario Ferrarini: Ariel Chair

Mario Ferrarini studied Industrial Design at the Politecnico University of Milan, He established his own studio first in Como, Italy, in 2007 and then in Lugano, Switzerland. His varied work includes projects ranging from industrial products to furniture and interior design. His design studios focus on the innovative use of materials with design balance as a principle goal. Said Easton, “We met Mario in Milan at Salone. He showed us his portfolio, and we liked his work. From there, it took just a few years to manifest a final product. We invited him over and showed him around Davis and spent a couple of days with him in our design studio. It’s interesting – working with an Italian designer is a lot different than working with other European designers. Mario has a different hand and a different eye than we’re used to, and that’s good. One of the things I like about him is that he’s really driven to be unique, and the Ariel chair is a great example of that. Technically it was very challenging for our suppliers to achieve the connection of the wood back to the steel frame in the seamless way Mario designed it. They have to work very closely together to make it work. It’s not just, ‘I’ll make the plywood, you make the frame and somebody else will figure it out.’ No, they are working closely every day.”

Danny Davis said, “Ariel is a very versatile chair. It is extremely comfortable and has a unique aesthetic. You almost have to have this chair in front of you to fully appreciate the details. I love the way the round tubing of the frame transitions to a rectilinear shape where it meets the floor.”

Ariel by Mario Farrarini. Wood seat and back in walnut or oak, frame in Chrome or powder coat. Upholstered seat available.
Detail of the back to frame connection

 

Jonathan Prestwich

>Jonathan Prestwich: LightWork

“We met a young British-born designer named Jonathan Prestwich while we were working on a project with Burkhard Vogtherr in France,” said Danny Davis in a Zoom interview with officeinsight. “He had graduated in industrial design in 1995 and was continuing his education through an apprenticeship with Vogtherr. He ended up working with Burkhard for about six years on several of our products including the Webb Chair. In 2003 he decided to move back to the U.K. and open his own studio. Since opening his own studio, he has done several products for us.”

Rob Easton added, “We really enjoy collaborating with Jonathan. He designed Q6 and Linq, and both have done well. Jonathan is the sort of designer who is also an incredible engineer. He likes to use the term ‘organic engineering’ when he talks about building in ergonomic movement with minimal or no mechanical apparatus. LightWork is a prime example of that concept.”

LightWork is a multi-use chair with a broad range of applications owing both to its inherent size and shape and to its availability in five base configurations. It is made more comfortable and ergonomic by a patent-pending mechanism ‘organically engineered’ within its upholstered inner seat and back. The outer shell is molded plastic and provides the structure while the mechanism within the flexible upholstered inner shell provides a subtle but important recline to support the user’s natural movements.

In a Davis press release Mr. Prestwich said, “I wanted to make a casual multi-use chair that was visually striking and simply intuitive for the user. LightWork’s color story is something that I really wanted to get right. My goal was to give designers options that could either make a design statement or quietly blend within a space.” Accordingly, the outer shell comes in six colors, specifically chosen by Prestwich; four classic colors and two based on current global trends.

LightWork by Jonathan Prestwich. A patent pending mechanism allows the upholstered inner seat and back to recline slightly for added comfort. Five base options.

>Jonathan Prestwich: Kayo

From the Davis press release, “Kayo is a reinterpretation of the classic bent plywood chair. Through a marriage of soft curves and strong geometry, Kayo’s striking form is comprised of a sculptural shell supported by a distinctly architectural base.” When asked to describe his new design, Prestwich stated, ‘With Kayo, I wanted to explore the potential of bent plywood as a time-tested material while defining a new and unique aesthetic.’”

For a simple bent plywood chair, Kayo has a lot of options that can be dressed up or down. Starting with a stunning wood base offered in solid oak or walnut or a more durable cast aluminum option which can be polished or powder coated. The cast aluminum base provides a high-density stackable option. Kayo’s look can change drastically simply by choosing between two back options. Open or closed backed units are available in oak, walnut, painted or upholstered. Kayo is a nice marriage of sculpture and architecture.

Soft curves and strong geometry distinguish Kayo while its many options, including a stackable model, allow for use in multiple settings.

>Jonathan Prestwich: JP Lounge

Prestwich said of the JP Lounge collection, “With JP Lounge, I wanted to explore how a series of products could not only define a cohesive interior space but simultaneously provide for the end user’s individual needs.” Those needs include a sense of individuality and privacy. The separate and modular seats provide an individually divided space, and the JP Lounge can be spec’d with screens to provide some privacy as well as space division. The series consists of open seating, screened units, benches and integrated table options all of which address various needs within open office, lounge and workspaces.

All the structural elements are nicely resolved – extruded aluminum rails and cast aluminum legs can be joined to form 90, 120 and 180-degree configurations. The metal parts are powder coated for durability. The structural webbing underlaying the upholstered, multi-density foam seat cushions adds to the comfort. Accessories include integrated tablets that both pivot and articulate, undermounted power options and fixed tablets with wireless charging.

JP Lounge is a modular lounge collection. With its vast range of planning options it offers comfort, privacy and easy access to tech.

Markus Jehs and JĂŒrgen Laub

>jehs+laub: Ginkgo Rope and Ginkgo Barstool

Markus Jehs and JĂŒrgen Laub met while studying industrial design in Germany and became friends after an internship in New York in 1990. Shortly after they graduated, they set up their studio, jehs+laub, in 1994. From that time on they started to design furniture and lamps for Italian companies, such as Cassina, Ycami and Nemo. They soon expanded their collaboration with brands like Fritz Hansen, Knoll International, Renz, Stelton, Schönbuch, Cor and Wilkhahn. Davis Furniture began their productive collaboration with jehs+laub in 2009, and have since collaborated on multiple award-winning collections, including the Ginkgo family, A-Collection, Poise, Sachet, Reed, Soft, Tre and Hue, to name a few.

jehs+laub stated for a Davis press release, “The Ginkgo Collection is one of the most successful and striking designs we have with Davis, so we wanted to explore how we could continue to push the boundaries with this collection. That’s how Ginkgo Rope was born.” Ginkgo Rope’s seat and back is hand-woven in Italy by highly skilled artisans. Constructed of marine grade polyester rope, the series is offered in seven collection-specific colors with each colorway containing a nuanced palette of mĂ©lange fibers, adding a subtle depth to every rope’s color. The underlying metal frame is finished in a highly durable matte white or matte black powder coat.

A chair, barstool and an eye-catching lounge make up the Ginkgo Rope collection. Each piece pairs perfectly with jehs+laub’s outdoor Ginkgo tables. The Rope version can be spec’d for indoors, outdoors, commercial, residential, hospitality – pretty much anywhere you want a unique splash of highly functional color.

The new Ginkgo Rope Collection features hand-woven rope seat and back in seven colors. The collection consists of a chair, a lounge and a bar

The Ginkgo Barstool expands the classic Ginkgo geometry to new applications and is available in all the finishes and seat pad options offered in the Ginkgo Multi-Purpose Collection.

>jehs+laub: Disc

When asked about Disc, jehs+laub stated, “We felt that the unique triangular base design of the Ginkgo Wire Table collection could be expanded even further, so we began to explore mixing this complex design with basic forms and eventually paired it with a simple disc shape. The two geometries were clearly a perfect match.” This seating collection consists of ottomans and stools in lounge, counter and bar heights. Disc features a comfy looking rounded seat, done-up with unexpected flair in the stitching details.

Disc is a stool series capitalizing on the geometry of the Ginkgo wire table. The soft rounded seat is set off with classic stitching.

>jehs+laub: SoMod

SoMod is a modular lounge collection with sculptured edges and continuous sweeping lines. When asked about SoMod, jehs+laub said, “We wanted to expand upon the sinuous forms that we established with our Soft Lounge and Soft Privacy series and take it to a modular level. In commercial interiors, designers are often times forced to choose between comfort, function and form. SoMod is based on the concept of form and function working together harmoniously and without compromise.”

SoMod prioritizes relaxed lounging through its low profile and generous seat depth. The modularity is based on separate gangable units that float above a plinth base. Two different back/end conditions give SoMod’s monolithic presence a surprisingly light, contemporary feel.

A gangable modular lounge collection, SoMod provides superb comfort and relaxed seating with the gravitas to anchor large open areas or the form to fit snugly into a small setting.