Honest Design
Baring it all in office furniture
By Anna Thibodeaux
"Honest design” is what’s hot in office furniture.
With the $13 billion office furniture market rising along with home office business and the demand for realism in design, designers are bringing even more aesthetic appeal and function to the office.
Honest design means finding ways to incorporate innovative or existing materials into the look of furniture aimed at seeking a higher quality of aesthetic and function. It can translate into a desktop of exposed MDF boards in a curved-linear shape or exposed joinery and dovetailing on drawers.
The look is emerging with increased use of stainless steel, plastic, perforated steel, glass and fabrics, says Tim Stern, design director for the wood furniture division at Steelcase Inc., the largest contract furniture manufacturer in the nation.
Honest design started in Europe five years ago and is now in full swing in the U.S.
Where once only wood predominated, Stern says he’s seeing a big drive toward wood and steel.
“The idea that office furniture is more than desks, credenzas and partitions—that’s revolutionary and a big, big deal,” he stresses as his company’s newer designs include furniture pieces that resemble roll top desks and have tether tables that dock with desks as needed.
“The key thing we’re focusing on as a wood division is building office furniture that will ‘attract and retain’ new and existing valued employees. That’s kind of a central theme we see in the furniture industry and we try to find solutions,” Stern notes. The concept relies on mobility and flexibility, warming up institutional environments to make them more residential, using lighter scale instead of massive-sized components, mixed materials and a curved-linear shape to maximize space.
Changing work styles also are influencing office furniture needs, said Thomas Reardon, executive director of the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer Association.
Manufacturers expect the office furniture industry to hit $13 billion in U.S. sales this year, Reardon reports. Residential sales are expected to nearly double that figure.
“You’re seeing less of the Dilbert style cubicle,” says Reardon. “In the 90s, we want to facilitate communication so the walls are coming down. You see more collaborative areas. You have people talking about teaming. Everything’s on the go.”
As more people work at home or at a “telework” center, companies need less dedicated workspace, he says. You may not sit at the same desk every week, but everything you need is there. This mobile work style also is translating into more furniture with wheels or castors that allow greater movement and multiple uses, according to Reardon. Furniture has to be adjustable to accommodate the different people who may use that same work area.
Communication is being encouraged, which means lower panel heights or screens on workstations.
Honest design has been the exception more than the rule in the past, but that’s changing, believes Mark Schurman, Herman Miller’s corporate communication director. His company has been a leader in the look since the 1930s.
“People want to see and understand the product, not only for its function, but also they want to know what it’s made of and how it’s made,” Schurman says. “The best design makes that very apparent.”
Herman Miller’s “Resolve” line of furniture exemplifies that with its honest exposure of joints in its highly ergonomic furniture and especially in its chairs and translucent colors. In these work systems, all the utilities go into an overhead trough and the wires are routed through a series of posts and arms to the electronics. Arms draped with a fabric rather than a hard panel divide workspaces.
An outstanding example of current contemporary design, according to designers, is Herman Miller Inc.’s award-winning Aeron chair, introduced in 1994. It uses a metal frame, an elastic, breathable fabric and emphasizes ergonomics, say designers. But it was the iMac that solidified the dramatic transition from the “big, beige box” to a translucent-colored casing that honestly bares its inner circuits.
Herman Miller’s “Resolve” furniture line also uses translucent colors while, the company says, it’s really focusing on ergonomics, technology, flexibility, mobility, lighter scale and curved-linear shapes.
“It’s called transparent expressions of material—both aesthetically and functionally,” said Zooey Chu, a 14-year furniture designer in Grand Rapids. “We designers call it honest, transparent design.”
As the Aeron chair, with its global popularity, and iMac translucent “fun colors” have “energized” the market, business owners are much more open to new and avant-garde design, Chu said.
“When you see an iMac, you think that’s the future. You want the future, not the past,” he said. “If the iMac looked like another box on a table, do you think the iMac would be noticeable as it is today?” Contemporary design, which dates back to the turn of the century, the freshness of iMac translucent colors and, of course, the influence of emerging technology are highly influencing the appearance and function of office furniture.
“There’s been a real paradigm shift in thinking with computers such as the iMac with stylish looking computers in fun colors shaking up many product markets,” says Roger Schneeman, a 40-year design veteran in Indianapolis, Ind., and president-elect of the American Society of Furniture Designers. “We’ve been rooted in the past for too long.”
Schneeman anticipates a major shift from the industry reproducing traditionally styled office furniture to a more modern look where colors and materials will be more dominant. The look is cleaner, has less contrived detail, is functional yet interesting and uses the material itself as a decorating element rather than applying superficial decoration.
