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innovate imitate An analysis of the contemporary task chair and a strategic report for the development of task seating, within a brand of diverse vitality.
Gerard Taylor for Orangebox / Autumn 2012
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Achieving a task chair brand with depth and choice, with each product able to realise substantial sales, becomes an increasingly difficult proposition.This reports agenda is to facilitate qualitative decision making.Task chair development, needn’t be a hit or miss process.
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KEEP THOSE PRODUCT PLATES SPINNING OR REAFFIRM THE BRANDS LEADERSHIP THROUGH INNOVATION.
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There are two ways to develop new product, to innovate or to imitate. The Replay chair from Steelcase is imitate and their i2i chair innovates. With Herman Miller Celle is imitate and Sayl innovate. The great furniture brands create a balance between the two. 100% innovation is not necessary and within a diverse portfolio, profoundly difficult to continuously realise and if ill-judged, quickly becomes a revenue black hole. Imitate is about updating and refining proven archetypes to just the right level, to keep those ‘product plates spinning’. Innovate ensures a brands vitality and ability to continue to be a leader and not a follower. 100% design focused brands such as Vitra will also continuously mix innovate & imitate.Their Basel, Hal and Jill chairs are imitate and Tom Vac and Vegetal innovate. In desking, Workit is imitate and Ad Hoc innovate. When Apple innovates, they ‘change the rules of the game’ and when they imitate (their own product), they will always build on their continuous quest for refined and enhanced simplicity.
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KEEP THOSE PRODUCT PLATES SPINNING OR REAFFIRM THE BRANDS LEADERSHIP THROUGH INNOVATION.
The office task chair, like the desk, has a 125 year pedigree and within today’s saturated market reinvention is not easy; Aeron and Freedom are exceptions, not the rule. Finding a new angle, is increasingly difficult, ground breaking innovation can either come from material innovation, think Aeron and mesh, or mechanical invention such as Freedom. Out with this all contemporary task chairs are a continuous ebb and flow of incremental innovations and imitation. Always with an upping, of material and manufacturing fineness.
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The Vitra ID chair is the best example of this, where nothing is new but the product succeeds with layer upon layer of beautiful detailing, supremely executed.
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• First task chair to offer self-adjusting recline • First and only task chair with synchronously adjustable arm supports • First and only task chair with self-adjusting headrest • First task chair to feature a gel seat cushion • First task chair with exoskeletal design • First task chair to prioritise simplicity over countless manual controls
Pellicle mesh material Unparalleled freedom of movement.
innovation Decreases concentrated loads
Technogel® seat cushion
Automatically adapts to the changing needs of your spine during recline A product rearranges itself in response to its user—to a new level
Creates a chair that moves as you move
Elastic design and material innovation that deliver multidimensional support
Enables side-to-side flex and ensures optimal localized support
The Continuous Lumbar carries the lumbar support in the Flex Back Streamlined Dynamic Suspension control
Fluid, progressive form Pro-active seating concept Trimension Kinematics precisely mirror the natural functions Dynamic muscles and the entire metabolism Flexframe® Fiberflex covers Breathable, form-fitting material PostureFit® option provides adjustable sacral support
Four iconic products with an agenda to change the way people sit and the way people think about task chairs. Aimed to reset the gold standard for thoroughbred task chairs, through innovations which revolutionise aspects of, the science of ergonomics. Each design exploits ergonomics and draws upon insider knowledge of anatomy, physiology, psychology and mechanics, to realise innovations which claim to optimise well-being, minimise discomfort and maximise productivity and performance. Four task chairs that address the reality, that sitting at a desk for eight hours or more everyday can be harmful to our back and posture. Via chair philosophies developed around each brands unique understanding of a person’s needs, with products that increasingly talk of moving seamlessly with the body. This insider knowledge is promoted through the chairs communication material via new language, which aims to express and accentuate their patented innovation. These revolutionary designs if realised successfully become central to the accelerated prosperity of the brand and in the case of Humanscale, putting them on the global map and moving them from an ergonomic accessories company, and increasing revenue from $44 million to $200 million, within a decade.
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Three critical criteria must be addressed to achieve a task seating portfolio with vitality. You must ensure sufficient bandwidth between each price sector, with design choice. Second is the dynamics of the mechanism and the sitting proposition, each product must offer choice. Thirdly is the strategy of the back archetype mix and how it defines each products DNA. Each new task chair must offer an original value proposition, centred on a great mechanism and chair ride. Combined with a fresh aesthetic and achieved via an innovative resolution of the selected back archetype. Realised with a clear and original design language, manufactured with ever improving material, performance and production values.
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Predominant Back Flange Connection Featured Spine Tramline Open Tramline Closed Fluid Back Connection Expressed Vertebra Vertebra into Frame Wishbone Connection via Arm Structural Architecture
The contemporary task chair has eleven archetypes and all chairs in production belong within one of these archetypes. All office furniture brands both local and global develop product within one of these archetypes, with a strategy, which is either focused on innovation or imitation.
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Eleven task chair back archetypes
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When we think of someone, we recall their body shape, how they move and more importantly, their face. The car grill has defined auto brands DNA for generations. Of the five primary elements of the office task chair (mechanism, seat, base, arms & back) the back is the principle definer of the products personality. All elements are critical but as with the human face and the car grill, the task chair back defines the products DNA.
Within today’s task chair market there are eleven back archetypes and all products can be defined by one of these. While some products could be classified within two scenarios, such as Tramline Open or Fluid Back Connection, these eleven classifications none the less help in achieving strategic clarity, with the direction for the design brief, for every new chair design. Aside from the perennial Predominant Back these archetypes also chart the evolution of the contemporary task chair, from Predominant Back through to Structural Architecture. The older Flange Connection has now become the domain of the low cost commodity chair and Connection via Arm and Structural Architecture the focus of brands, hoping to achieve a more global presence, by develeoping more innovative product.
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1. Predominant Back Next to the Flange Connection this is one of the longest established archetypes. However unlike the Flange Connection it remains central to the development of the contemporary task chair, as illustrated by recent Vitra and Sedus chairs.
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The eight designs below, illustrates that even within one category the need to achieve a strong and unique personality, forces each brand to continuously fine tune design, material and manufacturing values and what may have proven successful, even five years ago is no longer the case. Witness to this is the need for the designs within this category, to be aligned to mid and upper price bands, in order to have the money to invest in design refinement.
Continuous ‘one-upmanship’ and the pace of competition, is forcing task chairs to achieve ever shortening life cycles. Not so long ago a new task chair could stay vibrant for 8+ years, today you are smiling if you achieve five. The longevity of this archetype would suggest that it will continue apace and in the coming years, even more design innovation will be introduced by the leading task chair brands.
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2. Flange Connection This archetype can be used when illustrating a time line history of the development of the contemporary office task chair. This is the original archetype of the contemporary, back height adjustable office chair, as illustrated by the early Steelcase chair opposite.
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It’s perhaps surprising given the other design categories which have evolved since the introduction of this early solution that this option prevails.
through its innovative light touch mesh back. Perhaps it becomes more viable within a brand with a large task chair portfolio, as is the case with Interstuhl.
Which it does, as shown by the recent Interstuhl Air Pad chair. Which while keeping with this back archetype connection, achieved product value and personality
This category also illustrates the dramatic improvement in the quality of plastics manufacturing, from the early chairs of this archetype, to the most recent.
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3. Featured Spine Featured Spine is one of the more established in the early realisation of refined design values, as illustrated by the long success of the Sedus products early bird, open mind & black dot.The predominance of these chairs with their high design, material and performance values demanded that any serious player within this category could not fall short of this standard, to be taken as a serious contender.
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Both plastic and cast aluminium spines are offered but more often aluminium is used to achieve enhanced material value and create a more pronounced dialogue between the back, seat and mechanism. This central connection is also used to achieve movement and flexibility with the chair back, as aside from a few examples this archetype creates a fixed height back scenario.
Also as illustrated, this category allows for both transparent mesh and upholstered backs. However both being offered within one design, is not as prevalent as it is within other categories, as shown and discussed elsewhere within this document.
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4. Tramline Open As the description suggests this archetype refers to the classic and long established design of the chair back being achieved with two parallel lines, which only turn into the mechanism at the bottom of the back, often behind a horizontal connector, or more often below the seat.
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As suggested in the introduction some of the products within this category could also be viewed as a Fluid Back Connection archetype and open, refers to the contemporary option of the back being in mesh, rather than plastic or upholstery or a combination of both. Such a simple design description, though accurate can never describe the full design values of the products within this category and this is telling.The contemporary
task chair is invariably a build-up or amalgamation of multiple elements to realise a subtle and coherent whole. Taking a passive approach with this typology also puts more pressure on a strong design personality being realised via the profiles, sections and quality of the plastic back frame and how this balances with the arms and mechanism design.
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5. Tramline Closed Tramline Closed is a complimentary archetype toTramline Open but refers to upholstered and moulded plastic backs.The OpenTramline evolved from this category as mesh chairs became more dominant, and as with theVitra ID chair increasingly manufacturers will offer solutions of both back treatments within a chairs programme.
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As with theTramline Open archetype the description of this archetype refers to the classic and long established design of the chair back being achieved with two parallel lines, which turn into the mechanism.
And as noted with the Tramline Open such a passive and cool back, demands more design and manufacturing finesse, from the other primary elements, to carry a product within this archetype.
Though long established as a key archetype, this category of chair increasingly relies on very high quality plastic backs to make them viable.
The strategy of a renowned market leader such asVitra with their recent ID chair, which offers both closed upholstery backs and mesh, within the same range, signals the increasing pressure on all brands to deliver ever increasing value and choice.
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6. Fluid Back Connection The Fluid Back Connection is currently a key archetype within the task seating sector and one of the most dominant through the value, mid to upper price ranges.The Fluid Back Connection product means a single moulded plastic back frame which contains the back, increasingly dominating on mesh but also offered with a comparable upholstered fabric choice.
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The fluid connection from the back into the mechanism, divides equally between a central flange design such as the Replay chair from Steelcase or the Sedus Netwin twin wide connections. The competitiveness of a saturated task seating market means that to achieve ‘killer’ status your product must be faultless in design with manufacturing finesse and delivering a refined comfort, ride and adjustment level.
As with most task chairs, aside from the more technically complex and patented full mesh chairs, this product typology combines a traditional upholstered seat with the fluid back and its design is focused on delivering a mass market work chair, with simplicity of function and clarity of design.
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7. Expressed Vertibra The ExpressedVertibra shares a similar design and manufacturing ethos to theVertebra into Frame archetype, in that its design ethos is more aligned to a full on, high performance and technical complex sitting machine, than the a cool classic and minimal Eames chair typology.
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Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of this archetype is that such an important, successful and global a player as Herman Miller, in addition to the highly technical Aeron chair have positioned their next three key task chair products, squarely within this design typology with Freedom, Mirra and Sayl. The design language of the Expressed Vertebra is also robust and established enough to range from the toy like
qualities of Sayl, to the technical complexity of Contessa by the Japanese manufacturer Okamura. The success of the innovative Freedom chair from Humanscale has also solidified the idea that an Expressed Vertebra chair, delivers a highly unique and refined ‘light touch’ sitting and movement proposition and if your chair does not, it bombs.
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8. Vertibra into Frame TheVertebra into Frame works as both all plastic; all cast aluminium or equally well as a combination of both. The most important element of this design archetype is that it achieves a highly expressive relationship between the back and the mechanism and as with the Haworth Zody chair this design approach is often exploited to produce a task chair with a more technically expressive DNA.Where even secondary devices such as an adjustable lumber, becomes an expressive technical and not a minimal asset.
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Intrinsic to the success of this typology is the view that the task chair is a highly technical sitting machine and as such, each part of the chairs design will have the design language amplified to highlight its material, structural and functional performance.
At its best theVertebra into Frame achieves a pronounced, honest and technically expressive chair whose design values are more aligned to the culture of a Formula One racing car, that a classic Scandinavian wood chair. You are getting a lot for your money and it’s on show.
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9. Wishbone As a typology the Wishbone is present in both older product and more recently launched chairs such as the Steelcase Cobi, which is also one of the new examples of work hybrid chairs, more focused on the needs of the collaborative workplace, where the full function of a task chair may actually not be necessary.
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The Wishbone is often used as the device to combine a more flexible plastic back with a rigid cast aluminium structural connection into the chair mechanism and is also exploited for the material richness this brings to the design choice, where you combine matt plastic with more polished or coloured metal.
TheWishbone design creates a visually lighter connection into the mechanism, allowing the back to float more, with the mechanism as a secondary volume below the seat.
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10. Connection via Arm As with Structural Architecture this design has become a typology of both refinement and complexity, where the manufacturer produces a task chair of expressive engineering, which often defines a chair with a unique sitting proposition.
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The solutions of this archetype ranges from the refined simplicity of Humanscale to the more eccentric and expressive Leap by Steelcase and is an interesting scenario as it allows the combing of two of the chairs five primary elements, in a bid to achieve a more unique design and sitting|moving offer. Arm adjustment is a continuous bugbear of task seating often ignored by the user, unaware of the movement’s potential and function. Highlighting the arms presence
can be argued as an innovative way to bring it more into play. As with the Wilkhahn Do chair where the design DNA is presented as, “a new dimension in flexibility, a natural stimulus for body and mind”. Within the higher end price band this archetype will no doubt continue to be exploited to highlight a new chairs refined and unique credentials within a saturated market.
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11. Structural Architecture Structural Architecture is one of the newest archetypes and one of the more complex and difficult to realise, perhaps it’s the reason why, it’s often the option chosen by manufacturers trying to make their mark, such as Knoll (getting serious with task seating) or local brands expanding into new International markets.
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An early example of this is Kokuyo and more recently Knoll, given that until the Generation chair, Knoll were not known for high caliber and innovative task seating. The original example of Structural Architecture is of course the seminal and world beating Aeron chair from Herman Miller, launched in 1994. The Agata chair by the Japanese manufacturer Kokuyo was an interesting alternative approach and more recent examples are Sillas (Oficina), Trazo (Dynamobile) and the newest and perhaps most refined in pure design
terms, is the Gala chair by the Turkish manufacturing corporation Koleksiyou. Again testifying to using an advanced and refined product to make their mark, outside of their developed home market. Given the structural demands of this archetype most are refined cast aluminium (aside from Generation) and ‘architectural’ is used to describe how the castings and mouldings are deployed. As with high-tech architecture, the structure is exploited to expressively define the DNA of a product, the structural intelligence and dynamics are both visible and highly expressive.
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Chair Base High | Mid | Low Within today’s task chair market, task chair bases extends into the hundreds. Each key product from any major brand will have its own base design, which is also central to the DNA/personality of the chair. A base can either be High|Mid|Low and manufactured in plastic or cast aluminium and in the case of the global brands, for core product, both. Aside from the technical constraints, the chair designer utilises the base as a key element in defining the products DNA/personality (such as Sayl) and as the illustrated examples of each type shows, innovation in the form and details of the base can contribute substantially to achieving an individual personality, which within a saturated market, is increasingly desirable.
If the chair back establishes the principle DNA of the product, like our shoes, the chair base gives more detail and insight into our style choice and personality.
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Achieving a task chair brand with depth and choice, with each product able to realise substantial sales, becomes an increasingly difficult proposition. Using the analysis of eleven task chair archetypes, 14 design concepts explores innovate/imitate, within each of the identified genre.
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Realising the potential of the re-connected workplace As the fixed personal desk is increasingly evolving towards a more collaborative and shared workplace, so the brief for task chairs moves from a chair, set to a personal criteria – to a more universal, intuitive and easy to adjust, shared work chair. This portfolio of fourteen task chair designs explores this brief. Each exploring, how the contemporary task chair can remain at the centre of the re-connected collaborative, increasingly shared workplace. While this project opens the door on fourteen different design DNA’s, each requires a final and qualitative decision on which mechanism and ride adds the correct vitality, to ensure each design can achieve ‘KillerTask Chair’ status.
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Keep those product plates spinning
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To take a task chair brand out of the loop of commodity product warfare, where your product gain is quickly replicated/imitated by your competitors. A great brand must achieve unique value and is appreciated for its consistent and continuous, cycle of innovation. innovate| imitate is a report to add insight and rigor, to achieving clarity with this goal.
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innovate imitate GERARD TAYLOR / Design Studio
1 Butler House, First Floor, 51 Curtain Road, London, EC2A 3PT T. 020 7739 8208 e-mail. gerry@gerardtaylor.com skype. gerardtaylor.com www.gerardtaylor.com