The story behind each of our buzzworthy new products and the talented designers that brought them to life.
Product Line: Kinzie
Designer: Artis Studio, HBF
Designed by HBF collaborative Artis Studio, Kinzie provides the innovative flexibility to cater to any environment’s size, workstyle, and privacy preference with a slatted design and movable frame. HBF’s dedication to quality materials, current and classic contract movements, and human-centric design embodies Kinzie.
Product Line: MOD Collection
Designer: Henrik Schulz
Designer Henrik Schulz’s goal with the MOD collection was a “humanistic approach to the workplace”—to make MOD a customizable, modular piece of furniture that a designer of commercial or home interiors could make its own.
Product Line: Curious Crowd Collection
Designer: Ghislaine Viñas
Debuting at NeoCon, the 2018 HBF Textiles collection highlights Ghislaine Viñas’ first textile introduction. The Curious Crowd collection brings a whole new meaning to “creature comforts”—inspired by colorful jellyfish and sea slugs, the line combines impressive textile performance with the playful energy of the ocean. Viñas has always enjoyed looking at things from a different angle—placing things upside down and giving them a little shake.
“My connection to water is deep and constant—I’ve always lived by the ocean, which is an important part of my childhood,” says Viñas. “The clownish attitude and outrageous patterns of the sea slug and the beauty of the undulating jellyfish inspired this collection. I’ve always been fascinated by eccentric personalities and colorful beings, the ones you want to hang out with at a really fun party.”
-Ghislaine Viñas, Designer of HBF Textiles Curious Crowd Collection
Product line: Aspect
Designer: Allsteel
Allsteel’s in-house team viewed each decision in the Aspect design process through the lens of lean thinking. Thoughtful details, like the cast corner block that enables the continuous reveal, reduce complexity and ensure a beautiful, consistent result on every project. Believing that less can truly be more, while still delivering everything our customers expect.
Product line: Evo
Designer: Bruce Fifield, Studio Fifield
Bruce Fifield’s design of the Evo chair applies the Golden Ratio basis of design to predict each movement of the user with intuitive controls and refined support. The full, light-scale family adapts rather than competes with surrounding architecture.
“Often discussed by mathematicians, artists and architects alike, the Golden Ratio is appreciated for its sense of proportions and visual harmony. This geometric ratio has been identified in natural patterns, art and architecture alike. The Evo chair is everything you want it to be and not an iota more.”
-Bruce Fifield (Studio Fifield), Designer of Evo
Product Line: SileaEH
Designer: Mitchell Bakker, IDa Design
Building upon the successful SileaTM casegoods brand, designer Mitch Bakker, principal of IDa Design, wanted to expand the possibilities across the workplace with SileaEH by providing flexible applications, expanded height adjustability, as well as an increased range of styles, materials, and finishes. Sleekly scalable and thoughtfully designed, SileaEH is made to release the full potential of people and place. Engage and enlighten. KEEP BIG THINKING IN MIND. ALIGN WORK SPACE TO WORK STYLE.
Product Line: Flock
Designer: Brian Kane
Brian Kane brings inspired enhancements to the HON Flock collaborative collection, such as new base options and integrated power, to support long-term goals of both space planners and end-users.
“Design is about enhancing performance, and that’s exactly what the Flock expansion delivers.”
-Brian Kane, Kane Design Studio
Product Line: Ignition 2.0
Designer: Deisig Design
Work has changed, and the HON Ignition 2.0 has responded. To industrial designer Wolfgang Deisig, the most personal—and most important—object in the office is the work chair.
“A chair should be like a comfortable jacket… You slip into it and it feels good.”
-Wolfgang Deisig, Deisig Design
Product Line: Ingage
Designer: Steven Meier and Gensler Chicago/Hong Kong
Steven Meier and the Gensler team were inspired by a unique mission—to harmoniously blend two distinct cultures. Reinterpreting revered expressions of Chinese art with concepts of agility and functionality commonly found in Western design, Ingage uniquely addresses contemporary work modes with organic forms at a beautiful scale and level of comfort.
Gensler applied their thought leadership in workplace research to bring to the market a new approach to user choice— allowing for a real-time shift from focus to collaborative work and creating flexible private and shared spaces from a simple and elegant set of components.