NeoCon 2010

Ahh... That time of year. The time of year every designer loves. The time of year new products are launched. The time designers rush to Chicago in their ballet flats (or heels if you're a new designer and uninformed) and bangle bracelets to see these new products. To many of you common folk, this sounds incredibly boring and like a waste of time. But for those of us who love great design, people, and after-parties, this is our life. It's what we live for.

Well... Except for those of us at my little company. Where was I Monday morning when designers flooded through the doors of the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago? I was pooring myself another cup of coffee and settling down at my computer to go through Monday morning emails. Yes, that's right; another year of missing the greatest spectacle in design. Unfortunately no one at our office has ever found it useful to shuffle through thousands of people and 20 floors of products in three days. It's really a pity because we could avoid a month of follow up with our reps if we had just gone.

Instead, I decided to post some photo's of the event, which I have been following online, as well as some photo's from the years that I have gone (bottom four).

Herman Miller. Haworth showroom. Haworth occasional table. Haworth showroom again. Photo's by Carolyn Pike.

Izzy showroom. "Olivia" chair, Izzy showroom. VWIDON dress and Leland chair, "Valeri", Izzy showroom. Photo's by Carolyn Pike.

Eating in our Herman Miller shirts on our way home from NeoCon 2007, a glass showroom, Herman Miller showroom (???) 2005, Nemschoff showroom 2007.

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Courtney
twitter: thecourt_ney, youtube: cwork621

Designing Systems Furniture

Currently, I am at work and designing a custom systems furniture... uhh system. I often have people ask me what systems furniture is, so I thought I would share a little bit here.
Everyone has seen systems furniture at some point, and if not in person, they have seen it in movies. Basically they are individual workstations that are separated by different types of modesty panels. Stereotypically, they are called cubicles. But these systems have evolved in the past five or six years into more organic profiles. Below I will share a couple of interesting systems that I really love.

Resolve System by Herman Miller.

Hum by Kimball.

Avenir by Steelcase.

Occasionally, we come across a system that we love and want to use but it does not have some components we need. This could be a particular height of worktop, certain acoustical properties in a panel, a lack of a panel at all, etc. This is when we take the layouts for the existing system that we like and we begin altering it.
For example, the Resolve System by Herman Miller is quite extraordinary and the system is nearly perfect for a project I am on. However, we need the panels to go completely to the floor and the worktops to have modesty below; instead of the legs that supports it currently. There is no other system that meets the idea of this system, especially the canopy option. So I take the plan and start making these changes to the drawings. Then I detail the drawing with notes and dimensions. Once the drawing is documented, we will send it to furniture dealers to get a specification written and estimated that has every aspect of the system we designed. This is how we designers get exactly how we want out of a furniture system. ;)

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