We describe our products as "spaceware" because we aim to design useful information into them that will help people work more effectively. Innovations that add to effectiveness, that's the goal. Here are a few recent examples:
IS A COMFORTABLE FOLDING CHAIR A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS
Not if it's a Kart™. The Kart chair illustrates how much you can learn at the supermarket. Conceived by 5D Studios, engineered by IDEO and manufactured and marketed by Vecta, it's handsome, comfortable and exceptionally functional, in great part because it stacks sideways, like grocery carts (and now you know how it got its name).
Since its June, 1998, debut the Kart chair has won two Best of NeoCon Gold awards (for Seating and Most Innovative Product); a Most Excellent Product award from Office Insight Magazine; two Acclaim awards from the Los Angeles chapter of the International Interior Designer's Association (for Seating and Most Innovative of Show); and an IIDA/Contract Magazine Apex award for Seating.
It's also fully adjustable, 94 percent recyclable (by weight) and a hit with customers everywhere.
CAN A WORKSTATION MAKE AD PEOPLE MORE CREATIVE?
TBWA/Chiat/Day thinks so, and they're an international advertising agency with a long list of illustrious campaigns to their credit (for example, the Energizer Bunny and Apple Computer's "Think Different" ads). Clive Wilkinson, the architect of TBWA/Chiat/Day's new Los Angeles office, conceived a freestanding aluminum workstation for the space, then worked with Steelcase's Turnstone designers to engineer and manufacture it. Called NEST (for New Environment for Strategic Tasking), it features a mobile storage unit instead of drawers (for more leg room) whose top can double as a worksurface if necessary; a metal privacy screen with a section for magnetic attachments and a tackboard for paperwork; and an integrated overhead light. Now, thanks to NEST, when the agency's people want to get together and brainstorm, they don't have to leave their workstations behind.
EXECUTIVE SPINZ™
Another award-winning innovation that's winning in the marketplace as well: Spinz is a full line of executive seating created by a team of designers and engineers from Steelcase and Brayton International, a wholly-owned subsidiary. Spinz was unveiled at the industry's major trade show, NeoCon, in June, 1998, and also received a Gold award for Best Executive Seating.
FABRICS THAT ARE GOOD FOR HOSPITALS, YOUR PATIO AND OUR PLANET.
Fiscal 1999 was quite a year for Steelcase's DesignTex unit. In January, DesignTex's first patent was awarded to its Senior Manager of Technical Services, Marty Gurian. The patent covers the technology used to produce fabrics that are permanently anti-microbial and flame retardant. DesignTex uses this technology to produce cubicle curtain, drapery
and bedspread fabrics for hospitals and other health care facilities.
Finally, after five years of research, DesignTex achieved a breakthrough
in sustainable design, an environmentally intelligent textile. Its William McDonough Collection II (named after, and developed in concert with, the celebrated architect whom Time magazine described
as "one of the heroes of the planet") features fabrics that are completely biodegradable.
IS A COMFORTABLE FOLDING CHAIR A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS
Not if it's a Kart™. The Kart chair illustrates how much you can learn at the supermarket. Conceived by 5D Studios, engineered by IDEO and manufactured and marketed by Vecta, it's handsome, comfortable and exceptionally functional, in great part because it stacks sideways, like grocery carts (and now you know how it got its name).
TBWA/Chiat/Day thinks so, and they're an international advertising agency with a long list of illustrious campaigns to their credit (for example, the Energizer Bunny and Apple Computer's "Think Different" ads). Clive Wilkinson, the architect of TBWA/Chiat/Day's new Los Angeles office, conceived a freestanding aluminum workstation for the space, then worked with Steelcase's Turnstone designers to engineer and manufacture it. Called NEST (for New Environment for Strategic Tasking), it features a mobile storage unit instead of drawers (for more leg room) whose top can double as a worksurface if necessary; a metal privacy screen with a section for magnetic attachments and a tackboard for paperwork; and an integrated overhead light. Now, thanks to NEST, when the agency's people want to get together and brainstorm, they don't have to leave their workstations behind.
EXECUTIVE SPINZ™
Fiscal 1999 was quite a year for Steelcase's DesignTex unit. In January, DesignTex's first patent was awarded to its Senior Manager of Technical Services, Marty Gurian. The patent covers the technology used to produce fabrics that are permanently anti-microbial and flame retardant. DesignTex uses this technology to produce cubicle curtain, drapery
and bedspread fabrics for hospitals and other health care facilities.
Finally, after five years of research, DesignTex achieved a breakthrough
in sustainable design, an environmentally intelligent textile. Its William McDonough Collection II (named after, and developed in concert with, the celebrated architect whom Time magazine described
as "one of the heroes of the planet") features fabrics that are completely biodegradable.