Herman Miller, in a redesigned showroom at The Merchandise Mart, received accolades with The Best of Competition Award for My Studio Environments, which also received a Gold Award in the Furniture Systems category. Herman Miller also received a Gold award in the Lighting category for Leaf personal light. Other new products displayed are Vivo Interiors, a new furniture system, and an executive office chair named Foray from its Geiger subsidiary. They are all presented under the theme of “Real Choices.”
The Best of Competition and a Gold Award winner, My Studio Environments, one of two new systems designed by Douglas Ball, is a user-centered solution in open-plan workspace design. My Studio can be used for privacy or collaboration and supports spaces with a reduced footprint. The office layout provides capability for creating, displaying, and organizing work. It also incorporates a personal closet for the storage of personal items. Says Douglas Ball: “My Studio can adapt without being moved. It was specifically designed to conform to a variety of work styles without the need for reconfiguration.”
The second system also designed by Ball, Vivo Interiors is a frame-and-tile system that offers a clean, fresh esthetic. In Vivo, the design reveals crisp edges for a straight, well-defined appearance, while its trim pieces interlock for exceptional alignment and fit. A horizontal bead defines the tiles and reflects light, providing added visual interest. The slidelong placement of the worksurface allows a wider range of view. The unusual orientation helps people feel more secure and increase awareness of teammates and environmental changes.
Both My Studio and Vivo are the first systems to be designed according to the McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry’s (MBDC) Cradle to Cradle protocol, adopted within Herman Miller as Design for the Environment. The protocol informs the safety of a product’s material chemistry, the ease of disassembly, the percentage of recycled content in the product, along with the recyclability of the product’s parts. Both systems have been awarded GreenGuard certification.
The new tabletop Leaf personal light by Yves Behar and his San Francisco-based design firm fuseproject represents the future of lighting, says Herman Miller. Twenty LEDs create an interactive experience, allowing control of both the color and intensity of illumination. With the touch of a finger, Leaf emits a warm, ambient glow or a cool, blue effect. Its propriety heat dissipation system coupled with the energy efficiency of LED technology makes Leaf a smart choice for office environments. It too was designed according to Herman Miller’s Design for the Environment protocol and uses a 40 percent less energy than compact fluorescent lighting.
The Foray chair designed by Eric Chan is the first collaborative design from Geiger International and Herman Miller. The chair was designed to be attractive to a technology-reliant executive, and it has user-defined settings and materials. Foray also was designed according to Herman Miller’s Design for the Environment protocol and is expected to receive GreenGuard certification in July 2006.
For more information, visit the Herman Miller Web site.
