10.23.17 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS

CITED:“JUSTICE WILL NOT COME UNTIL THOSE WHO ARE NOT INJURED ARE AS OUTRAGED AS THOSE WHO ARE.” — SOLON, 560 BC

Knoll Textile Archive Inspired Collections

Florence Knoll Bassett founded Knoll Textiles in 1947. In 2017 she turned 100 and Knoll Textiles turned 70. Dorothy Cosonas, the Creative Director at Knoll Textiles and her team decided to celebrate the joint anniversaries with new collections inspired by the amazing archives of the early work of the company’s founder.

FULL STORY ON PAGE 3…

Ligne Roset: Five Generations of Everyday Art

Prominent among Chicago’s River North boutiques and galleries is the showroom/store of international design house Ligne Roset. The freshly renovated Ligne Roset showroom is located at the corner of Wells and Hubbard, an easy walk two blocks north of the Merchandise Mart. There officeinsight contributor Stephen Witte caught up with the company’s Executive VP for the Ameri-cas Antoine Roset to learn more about the company, its history and philosophy.

FULL STORY ON PAGE 11…

Concurrents – Environmental Psychology: Meetings Outside Conference Rooms

People rarely have anything positive to say about meetings, ex-cept that they’ve ended. Some people who are trying to improve meetings, mainly by moving them out of the spaces that have been developed to support them (conference rooms), have been getting press attention recently. Sometimes meetings are moved out of conference rooms to build some variety into a team’s life. Wacky as some of these meetings may sound, there’s scientific support for sometimes ditching conference rooms.

FULL STORY ON PAGE 21…

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product design

Dorothy Cosonas explains the archive tables to NeoCon attendees at the launch of the Archive Inspired Collections at NeoCon 2017.

Just before NeoCon this year Florence Knoll Bassett turned 100. Her career and influence on the development of interior design as a profession is well known and documented. At a time when women architects were extremely rare, she graduated with a degree in ar-chitecture from what is now the Illinois Institute of Technology; headed at the time by Mies Van der Rohe. Before she reached the age of 25 she had grown up with, studied under or worked for Eero Saarinen, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, and Marcel Breuer. When she was 26 she joined Hans Knoll’s fledgling company and founded one of the earliest entities offering inte-rior design services to corporations, the

Knoll Textile Archive Inspired CollectionsBy Bob Beck

Florence Knoll’s Planning Unit brought materiality into interior sketches. Photography courtesy of Knoll Textiles.

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product designKnoll Planning Unit. Take heed, oh you innovative Millennial disrupters!

Dedicated to bringing modern design and modern furniture to the of-fices of companies building or occupy-ing modern buildings, Mrs. Knoll could not find suitable upholstery fabrics in a market where Brocades, Chintzes and cabbage roses dominated. So her first response was to adapt simple designs from the menswear industry to commercial furniture, importing grey and beige flannels and tweeds from Scotland.

She pretty quickly found that solu-tion lacking in several respects, so in 1947 at the age of 30 she founded Knoll Textiles and began working with mills to manufacture her own fabric designs to meet the needs of Knoll’s clientele and the developing office furniture industry.

You math geeks may notice a certain symmetry here: Florence Knoll was born in 1917, she founded Knoll Tex-tiles in 1947 and in 2017 she turned 100 and Knoll Textiles turned 70. I don’t know if she’s a math geek, but Dorothy Cosonas, the Creative Director at Knoll Textiles certainly noticed and she and her team decided to celebrate the joint anniversaries with new collec-tions inspired by the amazing archives of the early work of the company’s founder.

Ms. Cosonas said, “Very few textile companies can say they offer the breadth of products that have a consistent point of view for 70 years. More importantly, no one in the market is connected to a legendary design visionary like Florence Knoll. My team and I studied multiple archives and worked with various mills to reinterpret the colors, structure and materials of these textiles.”

As the plan materialized, there would be three collections rolled out during 2017 starting with the Signa-ture Collection in April, followed by the Legacy Collection in July and the Hall-

mark Collection in October; all this to be kick-started with a splashy launch at NeoCon.

I was particularly impressed with the NeoCon display of the archival material arrayed down the central hallway of

Florence Knoll”s handwritten notes about designers she was hiring for Knoll Textiles.

Examples from one of the display cases of early marketing materials introducing Knoll Textiles in the early years of the company.

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product designthe showroom. As designed by Ms. Cosonas and her team, the layout and design of the display tables was in itself a work of art worthy of a place in one of our most revered museums.

It was really cool to see Florence Knoll’s hand written notes along side sketches, strike-offs and samples. And there it was; beautifully arranged and displayed in a series of 6 glass display tables. Legend has it that Mrs. Knoll even invented the 3x3 sample card that has become ubiquitous in the textile business. I can’t prove it, but it wouldn’t surprise me. (I am 99% sure that Florence Knoll and Herbert Matter created 3”X3” sampling along with a

An example of the relationship between the original “Devil” fabric of 1951 and the new archive inspired “Little Devil.”

Catwalk Upholstery from the Legacy Collection.

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product designseries of other sampling tools.)

At any rate the idea of honoring Florence Knoll on her 100th birthday and the company’s 70th anniversary by delving into archives that have been so carefully maintained was a brilliant idea. And the proof is that the collec-tions, which are now all on the market, are not slavish re-creations but rather totally up-to-date new products with fresh designs using state of the art ma-terials and manufacturing processes.

The Signature CollectionComprising 3 new archive inspired

patterns of upholstery fabrics, Alter Ego, Feeling Plaid and Little Devil along with a new polyurethane uphol-stery, Vibe II, the signature collection also includes 2 new high performance woven polyethylene wallcovering pat-terns, Archer II and Alloy and 10 new colors of Crossroad.

The Legacy CollectionThe Legacy Collection consists of 6

new patterns of upholstery fabrics, 2

drapery fabrics inspired by the archives along with 3 high-performance vinyl wallcoverings. The upholstery patterns are: Catwalk, Modern Tweed, Pullman, In

Stitches, Stretch Appeal, and Uni-Form. The 2 drapery designs are Cyclone and Looking Glass and the Wallcoverings are Hemisphere, Rope and Lanyard.

Alter Ego & Feeling Plaid Upholstery on Knoll Divina Chair & Ottoman

The iconic Womb Chair in Modern Tweed. Cyclone Drapery shown with Stretch Appeal upholstery on the D’Urso Swivel Chair.

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product design

The Hallmark CollectionJust introduced this month, the

Hallmark Collection is the third and final collection of the archive inspired

project. It comprises 4 new upholstery fabrics, Juno, Calypso, Overture and Cleo, a 118” wide sheer drapery, Lorelei plus 2 high-performance, multi-

use woven wallcoverings (backed for wallcovering and not-backed for Panel applications), Acme and Apollo. n

How it all worked together was a key consideration throughout the development of the collections.

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Introducing Glowing Metals,warmer and more radiantversions of our previous selves.

36 new metal designs and laminates, lots of warmer metals.Here: reflective 943 Dome. More at chemetal.com

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companies

Prominent among Chicago’s River North boutiques and galleries is international design house Ligne Roset. Their store presides over the intersection of Wells and Hub-bard, an easy walk two blocks north of the Merchandise Mart.

This convenience had NeoCon 2017 attendees fre-quenting events at the freshly renovated Ligne Roset showroom, where products under the family name Roset share a lineage extending from the times of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency.

Ligne Roset: Five Generations of Everyday Artby Stephen Witte

Chicago’s Ligne Roset store at the corner of Wells and Hubbard, two blocks north of the Merchandise Mart. Photo: Jill Buckner

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companiesUnknown to most visiting Ligne

Roset that week was the presence of the founder’s great-great-grandson. Named for the man who started the family business in 1860, Antoine Roset circulated among visitors, ap-pearing to most as an exceptionally knowledgeable Ligne Roset represen-tative.

The astute among those he encoun-tered asked about his relationship to the business. “I’m a shareholder” is all he told them.

Though factual, that answer simpli-fies Mr. Roset’s involvement with the company. As Executive Vice President –North and South America, Mr. Roset positions the formidable Ligne Roset Contracts offering for the Americas commercial market. As a member of the firm’s fifth generation of family management, he shapes the firm’s long established value proposition

for the present-day habits of modern audiences.

Beyond those roles, Mr. Roset criss-crosses North America, visiting Ligne Roset stores, meeting clients and serv-ing as an extemporaneous spokesman for original design.

While seated in a quieter corner of a Ligne Roset Chicago showroom abuzz with visitors, Mr. Roset discusses a

family business spanning five genera-tions with the enthusiasm of a startup entrepreneur. He does so at an hour on the last day of NeoCon when most exhibitors are already airport-bound.

“We design and manufacture prod-ucts for everyday use,” said Mr. Roset. “We believe that design makes day-to-day products nicer and better.”

He adds, “We are a design company.”

Antione Roset, Executive Vice President-North and South America, is a member of Ligne Roset’s fifth generation of family management. Photo: Aude Adrien

Bendchair, by Peter Maly, offers what Mr. Maly termed “perfect proportions” in models with bases of metal or beech. Photo: Ligne Roset

The family Roset, from left, Antione Roset, Pierre Roset, Olivier Roset and Michel Roset. Photo: Ligne Roset.

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companiesThe rise of Ligne Roset from a small

wood products factory in Montagnieu, France, about an hour’s drive east of Lyon, to an international firm with outposts in the famous design districts of the world came from growth at a deliberate pace.

“We do not trust fast growth,” said Mr. Roset. “Growing too fast can bring a loss of competence.”

An old philosophy, or a practice right for the times?

Ask Jason Fried, the developer and entrepreneur responsible for Basecamp and a host of best-selling productivity tools: “I’m a fan of slow, consistent growth. I feel that is the healthiest way to grow.”

Mr. Fried told Inc. Magazine’s Laura Montini in an August 2014 interview that he changed the vision of his busi-ness to maintain a high level of quality. He cited the difficulty in executing at a high level of quality in his decision to scale back company growth.

Facett seating, by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, suggests the complex folds of origami in armchairs with or without a swivel base and two settees. Photo: Ligne Roset

Flax, by Philippe Nigro, with a structure of American Walnut, shown here at Institut Paul Bo-cuse, the gourmet’s school of cuisine, in Lyon, France. Photo: Ligne Roset

Facett chairs, by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, in Cucina, the main restaurant of the Hyatt Re-gency Ekaterinburg, a five-star hotel in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Photo: Ligne Roset

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companies

Getting the details precisely right on every product is the norm in the high-end marketplace where Ligne Roset thrives. Building everything in facilities clustered along the Rhône River in the French countryside helps. No matter where on the globe a furniture order ships, manufacturing happens in Ligne Roset’s Briord factory, less than 5 kilo-meters from where everything started in Montagnieu.

“Our headquarters building is on the same site as our factory,” said Mr. Ro-set. If a question arises, the manage-ment team has but a two-minute walk to the factory floor. The arrangement is especially practical when building products from parts that are individual and unique to each collection.

Situated in the Chicago Ligne Roset store’s corner suite, Prado, by Christian Werner, offers bed-sized seat cushions with mattress ticking on one surface for sleepovers. Place non-slip back cushions on seats, on floors, wherever needed. Photo: Jill Buckner

The freshly renovated Ligne Roset store in Chicago hosted a series of events coinciding with NeoCon 2017. Photo: Jill Buckner

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companies“We want ultimate flexibility and

making everything from scratch fits us,” said Mr. Roset. “We have no platforms or common parts among the products we make, so common struc-tures do not constrain us.”

Those familiar with Ligne Roset might say this is how they make seat-ing such as the Ploum sofa, whose sit-ting comfort is an ethereal experience.

Or how a Togo lounge configuration becomes a family inheritance now serving a third generation with the same comfort and style as when it was new in 1974. A family visiting Ottawa’s Ligne Roset store shared that story.

“Is it our mistake to make things that good?” asks Mr. Roset. “Are our prod-ucts too strong, too sustainable?”

Now more than ever might be the right time for products of substance that endure. Take the iconic Togo lounge series as an example. Ligne Roset manufactures Togo the same way today as it did 43 years ago.

“I believe that consumers have changed, and the U.S. is starting to

realize it, too, that buying for the sake of buying is over.” Mr. Roset sees op-portunities for their product line to grow

as consumers buy less and buy better.What Ligne Roset pursues compares

roughly to the “Premium Strategy”

Ploum sofas, by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec that give the sensation of sitting on air, and Manarola, seating by Philippe Nigro, star in this setting at Ligne Roset’s Chicago store. Photo: Jill Buckner

Togo, by Michel Ducaroy, makes a cameo appearance in the lobby of Hollywood, California’s Standard Hotel. Unmistakable wherever it appears, Togo is both visually attractive and physically inviting. Photo: Ligne Roset

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companiesproffered by Vincent Bastien in 2015 for Entrepreneur Magazine’s article “Marketing to a High-End Consumer.” The author summarizes this strategy as one of proving the best value within a category, where comparisons show that the most affordable product might be one whose price is higher.

“Consumers want a smarter way to purchase, where they may wait a little longer to get a better product that will last a long time.” He adds that consumers coming to Ligne Roset are “super well-educated” about products.

“We are here to help consumers make purchases,” said Mr. Roset, add-ing that they “don’t want to tell some-one else what to do, but understanding how they want to use our furniture helps us suggest good choices.” For example, what upholsteries suit an ac-tive household with dogs and children, or when there are better choices than aniline leather for sunny southern exposures.

Service, design and durability pro-pelled Ligne Roset’s lasting successes in Europe and other markets, whereas in the United States the same attri-butes relegate the firm to the upper price brackets.

“We are high-end, but we are not luxury,” said Mr. Roset. “Luxury is an overused and misused category that relates to very specific brands with very limited access by the general population.”

Mr. Roset says new clients can start their Ligne Roset collections when it is affordable to them. “We have $200 items designed and produced for their purposes as well as anything else we make, opening the possibility for some to become a Ligne Roset client sooner, rather than later.”

For others, Mr. Roset has patience. “It is a matter of culture, of being ready, and if someone is not ready now, that’s fine,” said Mr. Roset. He mused that “they might buy products

elsewhere, but I’ll see them again in a few years.”

What makes Mr. Roset so confident? “Ligne Roset offers real products.” He defines a real product as one born of a designer’s thoughtful exploration of possibilities expressed in its look and feel, its purpose and versatility, and how much joy it creates in everyday use.

“We then do our best to make this product what the designer envisioned, which sometimes means challenging our processes and ourselves to make it happen.”

Mr. Roset says it is the company’s passion for design that leads man-agement to entertain product design ideas others might reject for reasons of complexity or sales potential. “We will invest in the effort to see if a prod-uct can be made and be something people will like. If some do and some don’t, that’s fine.”

To create is the essential thing for Ligne Roset. “Sometimes a designer brings us something we like, and we want to see if we can do it,” said Mr. Roset.

Relationships have a role in creating. Mr. Roset explains that “no matter how terrific a design might be, it won’t go very far here unless we develop a good relationship with the designer.” He said the human element is significant and relationships ease the process.

Sadly, there is no easy process for quashing manufacturers who knock-off the products of Ligne Roset and other original-design firms.

“We stand by our designers,” said Mr. Roset. The company pursues legal remedies where possible and leads the industry in raising awareness. Ligne Roset is a charter member of Be Original, a non-profit organization established to inform, educate and influence the public about the value of original design.

At a recent Be Original panel discus-sion before an audience of design-

Plumy, by Annie Hiéronimus, is a 1980 design reissued in January 2016. Plumy’s armchair and settee models are all-foam seating resulting from a collaboration of Michel Roset and Ms. Hiéronimus. Multi-position seat and back cushions accommodate sitting and relaxing. Photo: Ligne Roset

Togo, by Michel Ducaroy, is a Ligne Roset classic, a standard bearer in comfort and style for over forty years. Use chairs, settees, corners or lounges individually or in modular arrangements. Photo: Ligne Roset

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companiesers and specifiers, Mr. Roset shared insights into Ligne Roset’s product development, primarily that the best defense against knock-offs is creativity.

“The main business concern of knock-off firms is the bottom line.” Complicated designs and intricate structures are harder to copy. Mr. Ro-set added that “new functions, shapes, materials make our products original, as does the complexity of the designs we choose to manufacture.”

Mr. Roset described the inherent complexity of the Togo Lounge collec-tion to David Keeps of the Los Angeles Times for an April 2011 article about original designs versus copies. Where-as a knock-off unit commonly has one piece of foam, the original from Ligne Roset uses “more than ten different pieces with different densities.”

To upholster Togo requires advanced know-how. Mr. Roset was quoted in the article saying, at the time, just five members of the upholstery team were best qualified at getting the tufting’s look and feel exactly right.

The stories about how designs come to be, of journeys from inspiration’s spark to a fully realized product in everyday use, resonate among the clientele Ligne Roset attracts. Only real products, from original-design firms, have such stories.

Telling and retelling these stories over time creates legacy, an asset expected from a firm such as Ligne Roset.

Stewarding this legacy comes from a different business perspective, where the responsible individuals had family titles of father, uncle, cousin, brother before they had business titles.

“The business is in the family, and the family is in the business,” said Mr. Roset. He remembers how the table conversations at family gatherings drifted into and out of shop talk, going to the factories as a child and accept-ing how time influences one’s steward-ship of an organization.

Though Mr. Roset certainly expects a long life, he believes his years of influence are short in comparison with time Ligne Roset has been in business. “We have the same quarterly reports and balance sheets as any business except that our planning horizon isn’t three months or 12 months,” he said. “It’s a generation.”

“My father and his father before him looked ahead to my generation, and asked themselves what sort of company would they be leaving for us,” said Mr. Roset. “In planning for the company now, I consider what my generation will leave to our children.”

As makers, the family Roset founded a company to last for generations, sought designers with unique per-spectives and committed to style and durability in all their products.

Beyond the tangible, Antoine Roset himself explained a non-obvious but

desirable feature within each Ligne Roset product that only appears when a client experiences it firsthand.

“The way you use your sofa, bed or cabinets; the way you live in your home; that’s your life,” said Mr. Roset. “We just try making it better: when you sit, you’ll be comfortable; when you rest, you will sleep well; when you look at your cabinetry, you will be happy.”

One might conclude this transfer-ence is the overflowing joy from five generations of passion in making art for everyday living. n

At press time and before the official announcement, Roset USA sent word that a new Executive Vice President for the Americas, Simone Vingerhoets, takes over in January 2018, when Antione Roset moves back to head-quarters in France. There, Mr. Roset will join his father, uncle, and cousin in leading the company.

Malhoun sofas, by Didier Gomez, hug the wall in this lounge at Sofitel Jardin Des Roses, a five-star hotel in Rabat, Morocco. Photo: Ligne Roset

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concurrentsENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGYMeetings Outside Conference Roomsby Sally Augustin, Ph.D.

People rarely have anything positive to say about meetings, except that they’ve ended. Some people who are trying to improve meetings, mainly by moving them out of the spaces that have been developed to support them (conference rooms), have been getting press attention recently.

On September 1, Paul Sullivan (“When Office Meetings Leave the Office Behind”) discussed alternative meeting locations in The New York Times: “some business owners have instituted activities that may seem bet-ter suited to summer camp – outdoor planning sessions, meetings in a salt room, deal talks on a surfboard. They may sound fun and relaxing, but they are meant to be productive.”

Wacky as some of these meetings may sound, there’s scientific support for sometimes ditching conference rooms.

Walking meetings are earning positive reviews, and they should. There are serious potential issues with walking meetings generally, such as the ability of all potential attendees to actually walk through the length of a meeting; a half an hour can be a long time to make positive contributions to a meeting that you’re crutching your way through because you have a sprained ankle, for example. But they can be productive sessions. Scientific research has shown that when people are walking at their own, comfortable pace they’re apt to think more cre-atively, be in more positive moods, and get along better with each other. And what meeting doesn’t seem to ben-efit from creativity, good moods, and pleasant interchanges among partici-pants? It’s possible to design opportu-nities to walk with others into com-mercial campuses and even into single

buildings. Inside a single structure, walking routes may snake through and around sizable lobbies or to and from cafeterias, for example.

Studies have shown that walking is good for thinking, whether we do it inside or outside, but outside walks, when they happen in nature and/or near water can also help de-stress us and restock mental energy that’s been depleted by focused thinking. And nothing runs down stocks of brain-power faster than working to resolve a difficult issue with a group of other people. Outdoors is also always natu-rally day lit, which all by itself provides a cognitive and emotional boost. Creat-ing spaces that are jam-packed with natural light is now a design standard and so is “landscaping” with plants and water features, indoors and out.

Building in separate spaces for more challenging meetings – for ex-ample, for creative thinking and hav-ing special/important conversations with others – signals to users that successfully solving thorny problems, etc., is important to the organization paying for those spaces. Scheduling a meeting for one of those areas sends nonverbal messages that makes successful meeting outcomes more likely, just as going offsite to resolve an issue does.

Sometimes meetings are moved out of conference rooms to build some va-riety into a team’s life, and science tells us that that variety is also desirable. Nicolai, Klooker, Panayotova, Husam and Weinberg (2016) report that “team performance can be fostered by the change of the team’s workspace location…teams did not only change the location of their teamwork based on the stage of the innovation process

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concurrentsstage they were currently working on;…They quite often changed their spatial setting as a means to ignite their creative potential and therefore team performance. Quite often the teams went to seek a space that seem-ingly offered them the opposite…to the current state [for example, from more contemplative to more action-oriented spaces].” And, for good measure from the Nicolai lead team (2016): “it seems that creativity was fostered when teams…transformed [a space] it to make it their own…A space that fosters creativity… suggests a direc-tion of usage but also leaves room to change it.”

So, while we might debate the value of spending time in a salt room,

research has clearly shown that creat-ing opportunities for walking meet-ings and building in a variety of team spaces, for example, can improve team performance. n

Claudia Nicolai, Marie Klooker, Dora Panayotova, Daniela Husam, and Ulrich Weinberg. 2016. “Innovation in Creative Environments: Understanding and Measuring the Influence of Spatial Effects on Design Thinking-Teams.” In H. Plattner et al. (eds.), Design Think-ing Research, Understanding Innova-tion, Springer International Publishing: Switzerland, pp. 125-139.

Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive sci-entist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesigncon-nections.com), a monthly subscription

newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest re-search findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psycho-logical Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychol-ogy for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwith-science.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.

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r-d connectionRESEARCH-DESIGN CONNECTIONSeeing => Snackingby Sally Augustin, Ph.D.

A research team lead by Elliston confirms that when we see others eating/snacking, we are more likely to eat/snack ourselves. Since many members of society are trying to get/stay slim, the findings from Elliston’s group complicates the development of spaces such as open plan homes and at-work break/dining areas. Casual interactions can lead to social bonds among employees, for example, and centrally located break areas that are visually accessible to large groups of people are common.

That visibility may undermine employee health and wellbeing since people are more likely to eat/snack when they see others doing so. Visu-ally separating “eaters” from coffee drinkers and other “non-eaters” would help concerned individuals maintain a healthy diet, but could prove socially awkward. Given the limited number of square feet likely available for break/eating areas, these sorts of segmented spaces might also be difficult to design.

The Elliston team also reports that, “Having snacks available and eas-ily accessible [as they are in many workplaces] was associated with an increased likelihood of snacking. Expo-sure to food cues increases individuals’ motivation to eat and subsequently the likelihood of their eating…Reducing the availability of snacks from specific environments, such as in the home or office, is likely to weaken the tempta-tion to snack.” n

Katherine Elliston, Stuart Ferguson, and Benjamin Schuz. “Personal and

Situational Predictors of Everyday Snacking: An Application of Temporal Self-Regulation Theory.” British Jour-nal of Health Psychology, in press.

Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive sci-entist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesigncon-nections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest re-search findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psycho-logical Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychol-ogy for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwith-science.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.

10.23.17 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 24 OF 34

officenewswireFor complete releases, visit www.officeinsight.com/officenewswire.

NOTEWORTHY>Ready Zhang, Co-founder/CEO of Guangzhou De-sign Week and former IFI Resource Council Chairman and IFI Co-Opted Board Member, died Oct. 15. Mr. Zhang was Director of CITIEXPO Limited and had been promoting Guangzhou Design Week since 2005. He organized high-level interna-tional design cooperation and industry innovation activities as well as a number of clas-sic exhibitions, awards, and events. “As a long-standing member and partner, IFI greatly admired Mr. Zhang and his visionary leadership for design advocacy on the national and international level,” said IFI President Se-bastiano Raneri. “IFI aligned with and valued him for his massive work to shape the highest level of design quality and excellence by evolving design substance, both in general and through the pro-motion of Chinese designers and design knowledge. The design community has lost a dear friend and exemplary leader.” Read More

>Ted Moudis, founder and senior principal of Ted Moudis Associates, is the newest member of New York Institute of Technology’s board of trustees. A fellow of AIA and alumnus of NYIT, he is the first appointee to the board under the tenure of Henry C. “Hank” Foley, who became the fourth president of NYIT on Jun.1. Mr. Moudis founded TMA in 1990. His business acumen and leader-ship have propelled the firm to be a widely recognized and respected presence in the industry. TMA is recognized as a Top 50 Design Giants firm by Interior Design maga-zine. Headquartered in New York with an office in Chicago and a formal alliance with

London-based MCM Architec-ture, TMA designs innovative workplaces built for longevity, productivity, and enjoyment. Among its many notewor-thy clients are Blackstone, Interpublic Group, PepsiCo, Kaplan, National Football League, JPMorgan Chase, Citadel, and Foot Locker. Read More

>Usman Tariq is the new Managing Principal of HDR’s Los Angeles architecture stu-dio. He relocated from HDR’s Washington, DC office, where he was most recently the Associate Managing Principal. Serving in that role for the past three years, he was re-sponsible for project delivery, operations and P&L for one of the largest studios in the firm. Named by Building, Design + Construction magazine as a “change agent” and receiv-ing the magazine’s 2015 40 Under 40 award, Mr. Tariq is an electrical engineer with more than 16 years of experi-ence. His expertise spans the entire design process, from pre-design through construction-phase services for a wide range of building types including mission criti-cal, science and technology, healthcare, and education. Read More

>BOMA International released the latest update to its floor measurement standard for office build-ings. BOMA 2017 For Office Buildings: Standard Methods of Measurement (ANSI/BOMA Z65.1—2017) is designed to reflect changes within the commercial real estate indus-try since the release of the prior edition of the standard in 2010. Notable changes include: -Balconies, covered galleries and finished rooftop terraces that are for exclusive use by a tenant may now be included in the rentable square footage calculation; -The public pedestrian thor-oughfare boundary condition has been removed; -Major vertical penetrations at the lowest level are no longer excluded from the rentable area; -A new methodology to al-locate amenity and service areas, such as conference rooms and loading docks, that are in use by a specific group of tenants; and -Capped load factors may now be applied on a tenant-by-tenant basis. For more than a century, BOMA has been the leader in floor measurement standards, starting with the publication of the first “Standard Method of Floor Measurement” in 1915. Read More

>CetraRuddy entered into a partnership with Spec Simple. This collaboration will consolidate the firm’s resource library and add new ways to search and specify building materials. Spec

Ted Moudis

Usman Tariq

10.23.17 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 25 OF 34

officenewswire

Simple’s product librarians “will serve as their ‘secret weapon’ for sourcing and archiving the best products for their projects,” said Suzanne Swift, President of Spec Simple, Inc. With more than two decades of experi-ence, Spec Simple’s sea-soned professionals source and introduce new products, build and maintain product libraries, schedule CEU lunch & learn and product pre-sentations, and help migrate libraries to Virtual Library™, a Best of NeoCon GOLD winner. “The Spec Simple system is part of our continuing mission to better serve our clients and create new buildings and spaces that offer memorable experience, community and a sense of place,” says Ximena Rodriguez, Principal and Di-rector of Interior Design with CetraRuddy. Read More

>Duravit announced the winners of it 2017Designer Dream Bath Competition, now in its fifth year. The winner of the Unbuilt project category, Sarah E. Wilson of Sarah E. Wilson Design (St. Louis, MO) will receive $10,000 in Duravit products to meet her dream design vision. In the Built project category, Janik Lemery of Astro Design Centre (Ontario, CA) was chosen as the winner and will receive $5,000 worth of Duravit product. Honorable Mentions in both categories were Martin deSousa of deSousa DESIGN (Ontario, CA) in the Unbuilt category and Yoann Ricau of Maxwell + Finch (New York, NY) in the Built category. Read More

>ICF Group opened its new Dallas showroom, showcas-ing a generous cross section of design solutions from ICF, Unika Vaev, and Nienkäm-

per. The newly renovated 3500sf space is located in The International Building, 150 Turtle Creek Blvd., Suite 103. “We are delighted to present the Group’s newest furniture, textile, and acoustic products to an important and growing contract market in Texas and to provide a collab-orative work area for our sales staff and visitors,” said ICF Group CEO James Kasschau. Read More

>IFMA named the recipients of its 2017 Awards of Excel-lence at its World Workplace Conference and Expo in Houston last week. These annual awards recognize outstanding achievements of IFMA members, chapters, councils, and communities of practice. “2017 ushered in what I am calling The Year of Communication,” said IFMA President and CEO Tony Keane. “At IFMA, we’ve examined every channel of our communications. Our chapters, councils and com-munities are experiencing the same challenges that we face as a global organization. This year’s award recipients are no

strangers to this fast-paced climate, and have persevered to achieve excellence, both in their work and in their contri-butions to IFMA and the FM industry.” Read More

>IIDA held its 2nd annual Educators Roundtable Oct. 12-14, sponsored by Mil-liken in Spartanburg, SC. “IIDA and Milliken gathered a broad range of up-and-coming and experienced professionals along with edu-cators from design programs around the country, said IIDA Executive Vice President and CEO Cheryl S. Durst, who moderated the discussion. “Together, our goal was to determine how we prepare tomorrow’s designers for the issues that have emerged as paramount to the future of our industry – well-being, diversity, and social respon-sibility. These areas present both opportunities and chal-lenges, and ultimately, it is up to current design leaders to ready the next generation for our evolving industry.” A report detailing the Educators Roundtable will be available in December. Read More

CentraRuddy enters partnership with Spec Simple

Duravit Designer Dream Bath Competition: Unbuilt Winner (L) by Sarah E. Wilson, Sarah E. Wilson Design; Built Winner (R) by Janik Lemery, Astro Design Centre.

ICF Group.Nienkämper CERN

10.23.17 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 26 OF 34

officenewswire

>Ware Malcomb was ranked #1 among architectural firms in Orange County, CA by the Orange County Business Journal. The annual list is based on architecture billings for the 12 months ended Jun. 30. The Irvine, CA-based firm moved up from the #3 spot in last year’s architecture firm rankings. It was also featured on the Orange County Busi-ness Journal’s 2017 lists of the Fastest Growing Private Companies and Best Places to Work. In addition, the firm ranked #21 on Zweig Group’s

Hot Firm List, which ranks the top 100 fastest growing firms in the architecture and engi-neering industry. Read More

>Ware Malcomb received two 2017 IMPACT awards from the Internet Marketing Association. CEO Lawrence R. Armstrong received an IMPACT award in the Non-Profit Campaign category for his work with Welcome Home Troops, and the firm also received an IMPACT award in the category of Informational Video Production. The awards

were presented at IMA’s an-nual IMPACT conference in Las Vegas Sep. 28-29. Ware Malcomb executives were also featured as part of the IMPACT conference program. A video presentation showed Mr. Armstrong speaking about his work with Welcome Home Troops and presenting his architectural design for a Post 9-11 War Memorial honoring the military service men and women who have lost their lives in the war on terror. In addition, Ware Malcomb’s Vice President, Strategic Initiatives Ruth Brajevich was a featured speaker on a panel of female executives speaking on the issue of gender diver-sity in the commercial real estate industry. Read More

RE-SITED>Teresa Attaway joined Spe-cialty Lighting as National Sales Director - Retail Envi-ronments. Ms. Attaway has more than 25 years of sales and marketing experience. Formerly at Feelux Light-ing, Inc., she developed and maintained customer relation-ships with special emphasis on brands and national ac-count programs for the retail and hospitality industries. Previously, she was Principal for Event Services, Inc. In her new role, she is responsible for managing all of Specialty Lighting’s sales activity within the retail environments space by providing effective solu-tions aligned to her clients’ re-quirements, and work closely with the company’s corporate sales and marketing team to

develop and implement stra-tegic plans. Read More

>Amanda Bylsma is a new regional sales manager for Camira Fabrics, targeting the growing OEM market. She joined the global textile firm in its Grand Rapids, MI, North American headquarters after stints with competitors Maharam and Gabriel North America. She is a graduate of Hope College in Holland, MI, where she majored in business management and minored in studio art. Read More

>Allie Glyman is a new area sales manager for Camira Fabrics, based at its Mer-chandise Mart showroom in Chicago. She is focusing on building deeper relationships with dealers and the architec-ture and design community in the Midwestern region. Ms.

Ware Malcomb Named #1 Architecture Firm in Orange County

Ware Malcomb Wins IMPACT Awards From Internet Marketing Association

Teresa Attaway

Amanda Bylsma

10.23.17 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 27 OF 34

officenewswireGlyman previously worked at Mannington, and also has a strong background in market-ing and graphic design. She is a native of Lake Forest, IL, and a graduate of the Univer-sity of Colorado at Boulder. Read More

ENVIRONMENT>Interface celebrated the passage of California’s carpet recycling bill, AB 1158, signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown Oct. 14. The law builds on and enhances the state’s current carpet recycling program through the implementation of clear-cut goals for recycling, a multi-stakeholder council and requiring new state carpet purchases to include a speci-fied amount of post-consumer recycled content. “We see this new law as a positive step forward in driving a truly circular economy in our industry,” said Interface CEO Jay Gould. “While we have been committed to recy-cling product with our own ReEntry® product take back program for two decades, we felt it so important to push for this legislation that we joined a broad coalition of organiza-tions to support and lobby for the bill. Meanwhile, the

majority of our industry – in-cluding the carpet industry’s trade association and most of our competitors – either ag-gressively opposed it or chose to do nothing…. This law is a monumental step toward widespread reclamation and recycling within the industry. “We hope this bill and the in-centives for which it provides will spur opportunities for new businesses and the industry to support a greater, nation-wide effort, with customers driving demand. In the mean-time, Interface will continue to take back and recycle carpet through ReEntry and focus on our Mission Zero goal of zero environmental footprint by 2020.” Read More

>The Ray C. Anderson Foun-dation awarded its 2017 $100,000 Ray of Hope Prize to Team NexLoop for AquaWeb, an innovative wa-ter capture system designed for use in urban food sys-tems. The team received its grand prize in the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge Oct. 21 at the National Bioneers

Conference in San Rafael, CA. “NexLoop is an impressive team across the board,” said John A. Lanier, executive di-rector of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. “They have a deep understanding of how biomimicry aids in the design process, and their plans for hyper local water capture and storage in urban settings could play a crucial role in scaling local, sustainable agriculture.” Team NexLoop developed the AquaWeb to help urban local food producers collect, filter, store, and distribute atmospheric moisture with a modular, all-in-one water sourcing and management system. AquaWeb harnesses freely available rain and fog and uses passive strategies to distribute this water so that urban farms, including greenhouses, indoor vertical farms, and container farms, can save energy and become more resilient to disturbances. Each aspect of AquaWeb’s design was inspired by living

systems. These include how cribellate orb weaver spider webs collect fog from the air, how drought-tolerant plants like the crystalline ice plant store water, and how mycor-rhizal fungi like the Jersey cow mushroom distribute water. The team also looked to the dwarf honey bee’s hexagonal nest structure for AquaWeb’s efficient and modular design. The trustees of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation also awarded a $20,000 second place prize to Team Wind-chill from the University of Calgary, Canada, who created an electricity-free refrigera-tion system inspired by how animals regulate temperature. The $15,000 third place prize went to Team Evolution’s Solutions from the University of California, San Diego, who created a food waste nutrient recycling and supply system inspired by bacteria that helps hydroponic farmers grow food more efficiently and sustainably. A total of six international

Allie Glyman

Ray C. Anderson Foundation Ray of Hope Prize: Team NexLoop AquaWeb

10.23.17 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 28 OF 34

officenewswireteams spent the past year in the world’s only Biomimicry Accelerator program, devel-oping working prototypes with the help of biomimicry experts and business men-tors in order to create viable, market-ready solutions. This year marks the second year that the Ray of Hope Prize® was presented at the National Bioneers Conference. A new round of the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge has just launched. Read More

>Ultrafabrics, the first polyurethane manufacturer to earn GREENGUARD cer-tification for all its open-line fabrics engineered in Japan, has now received GREEN-GUARD Gold Certification for select collections. These include Ultraleather® | Original and Pearlized, and Ultratech™| Cove, Dwell, Eco Tech, and Helix. Ultraleather is designed with softness and durability in mind, redefining the experience of leather. Ultratech combines state?of?the?art performance with a sensory experience. Read More

PROJECTS>PLY Atelier, based in Ham-burg, Germany, shared five recent projects exemplifying its expertise in contemporary workplace design. Combining ambience and functionality, PLY balances both modern life and work with a signa-ture style featuring design icons from the 1920s to ‘50s, vintage interior objects, and bespoke solutions based on modern technology. “The per-ceived quality of life should increase when entering a room” is an important mantra for everyone working at PLY,” said CEO David Einsiedler. Under the direction of David Einsiedler, Clara Zachariassen and Joke Rasch, PLY man-ages interior design projects from initial sketches to hand-ing over the keys and beyond. The studio also develops bespoke products for projects and clients and supervises their production, for example the PLY STOOL series, the K 831 PLY luminaire and Flex-Bench, an office-furniture system featuring sliding tabletops, as well as bespoke built-in and one-off furniture. For the Otto Group’s Ham-burg-based Projekt Collins

e-commerce start-up, PLY developed a concept that links up, both functionally and visually, three building

sections of different styles and ages. Diagonal concrete pillars in the newer part of the building and the historic

Ultrafabrics.Ultraleather® Pearlized and Ultratech™ Cove

PLY Atelier: Otto Group’s Projekt Collins garden space with Eames swings

PLY Atelier: Otto Group’s Projekt Collins

10.23.17 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 29 OF 34

officenewswireclinkered façade in the old part form the brackets that frame the 3,000 square meter space. The workstations for 250 employees are defined by both clear functionality and an almost domestic color and lighting concept. The sandblasted old concrete surfaces were contrasted with a coarse-weave carpet, while open-pore wood brings a warm note to the functional environment. In addition to height-adjustable workbench-es for teamwork, each of the three floors features different retreat zones, ranging from telephone booths and small gardens with specially devel-oped Eames swings to various types of meeting spaces and large kitchens and cafeterias. The meeting areas are en-tirely equipped with magnetic whiteboard walls or with walls treated with blackboard paint. In addition to Projekt Collins, PLY also shared its designs for Deloitte Digital (Düssel-dorf, 2016); Converse (Berlin, 2015); Geometry Global (Hamburg, 2014); and Col-labor8 Co-working Space for Otto (Hamburg, 2017). Read More

EVENTS>Allsteel National Architec-tural and Design Manager A.J. Paron-Wildes will share her expertise in Universal Design on a panel Nov. 8 at Greenbuild in Boston, 4:00-6:00 p.m. She will join architect Hansel Bauman, Co-director of DeafSpace Institute at Gallaudet Univer-sity; Katie Osborn, Principal

& Wayfinding Strategist at Via Collective; and Victoria Lanteigne, Senior Acces-sibility Consultant at Steven Winter Associates, Inc., to discuss “Trending Strategies for Universal Design.” The panel will explore four innova-tive approaches to practicing Universal Design in today’s building industry: Designing for Health, Designing for Deaf Space, Designing for Autism, and Wayfinding. Read More

>CetraRuddy cofounder Nan-cy Ruddy on Monday, Nov. 13 will lead a panel discus-sion at Boutique Design New York called “Stunning Second Acts: Adaptive Reuse.” The

CEU session, 2:30-3:30 p.m., will feature hospitality leaders Michael Overington, president of Ian Schrager Co.; Mark Gor-don of Instrinsic Hotel Capital; and Houston-based architect and interior designer Lauren Rottet. Rounding out the panel is building codes expert Frank Fortino. The group will discuss why adaptive reuse is a growing trend for hospital-ity projects and often highly attractive to owner/operators. They will also tackle a few of the thornier issues such as

zoning and codes challenges, methods for boosting market appeal, and bottom-line chal-lenges. One good example of such a project is Ms. Ruddy’s design for the Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill, which debuted last month in Brooklyn’s historic Empire Stores building. Read More

>IDLNY, IIDA and ASID will join forces in Albany, NY on Wednesday, Nov. 1 for “What’s Next in New York State.” The event offers education and empowerment

Allsteel: A.J. Paron-Wildes

CentraRuddy: Adaptive Reuse - SugarCane Raw Bar Grill by Nancy Ruddy

IDLNY: What’s Next

10.23.17 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 30 OF 34

officenewswire

to support advocacy efforts for the benefit of the interior design profession. It starts with a tour of the New York State Capitol Building, 3:00-4:00 p.m., and then contin-ues at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center, 4:30-7:00 p.m., with a networking reception, speeches from industry advocacy leaders, and a CEU presentation. Read More

>IIDA NY Rochester City Center on Thursday, Nov. 2 will host ROC N Rollin’ – a pedal tour of the city’s lively and artistic South Wedge neighborhood. The group bike networking event, 6:00-8:30 p.m., will begin at Marshall Street Bar & Grill and continue from bar to bar with complimentary drinks, snacks, and music. Read More

>Organizers of NeoCon East shared a sneak peek at a few of the 150 companies that will be showcasing products Nov. 15-16 at the Pennsylvania Conven-tion Center. New exhibitors this year include Adotta America (#1620), Andreu World (#943), ASSA ABLOY (#1048), Bradley Corporation (#1544), Framery (#1013), Gantner Technologies (#1515), Halcon (#1042), Iron Age Office (#731), Milliken (#1539), MOVI

Workspace(#1337), Ottlite Technologies, Inc. (#743), Philips Lighting (#1445), Sectis Design (#832), and Tectura Designs, A Wausau Tile Inc. Brand (#1437). “From intelligently-designed furniture to high-performing acoustic solutions, there is a wealth of new-to-market op-tions across vertical markets for attendees to discover,” said NeoCon Shows Vice President of Exhibitor Sales Julie Kohl. Read More

IIDA NY Rochester City Center.ROC N Rollin’NeoCon East exhibitors

10.23.17 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 31 OF 34

businessBUSINESS AFFAIRS>AIA reported the September Architecture Billings Index score was 49.1, down from a score of 53.7 in August. This score reflects a slight decrease in design services provided by U.S. architecture firms (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index waas 59.0, down from a reading of 62.5 the previous month, while the new design contracts index eased somewhat from 54.2 to 52.9.

“We’ve seen unexpectedly strong numbers in design activity for most of 2017, so the pause in September should be viewed in that context” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker. “Project inquiries and new design contracts remain healthy, and the continued strength in most sectors and regions indicates stabil-ity industry-wide.”

Regionally, the Northeast showed the highest three-month moving average ABI (56.9), followed by the South (54.0), Mid-west (50.4), and West (48.8). By sector, commercial/industrial averaged highest (54.0), followed by mixed practice (52.2), multi-family residential (51.0), and institutional (51.0). Read More

>Upcoming quarterly reports this week:

-HNI Corp. will release third-quarter fiscal 2017 results on Monday, Oct. 23 after the close of the market; conference call webcast scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 24, 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time (10:00 am Central). http://investors.hnicorp.com

-Interface, Inc. will release its thrid-quarter 2017 results on Wednesday, Oct. 25 after the close of the market; conference call webcast scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 26, 9:00 a.m. East-ern Time. http://interfaceglobal.com/Investor-Relations

-Knoll, Inc. will report third-quarter 2017 results on Monday, Oct. 23 after the close of the market; conference call webcast scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 24, 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=66169&p=irol-irhome

-Mohawk Industries, Inc. will issue its third-quarter 2017 earnings release on Thursday, Oct. 26; conference call webcast scheduled for Friday, Oct. 27, 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. http://www.mohawkind.com/CorporateIROverview.aspx

-USG Corp. will hold a conference call and webcast to discuss third-quarter 2017 results on Thursday, Oct. 26, 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time (8:00 a.m. Central). http://investor.usg.com

10.20.17 9.29.17 6.30.17 3.31.17 12.30.16 9.30.16 %frYrHi%fr50-DayMA

HMiller 35.8 35.9 30.4 31.6 34.2 28.6 -3.4% 2.3%

HNI 42.9 41.5 39.9 46.1 55.9 39.8 -24.7% 7.4%

Inscape 3.5 3.6 3.7 4.3 5.0 3.2 -34.0% -3.1%

Interface 22.1 21.9 19.7 19.1 18.6 16.7 -2.4% 4.2%

Kimball 20.2 19.8 16.7 16.5 17.6 12.9 -3.8% 6.6%

Knoll 20.0 20.0 20.1 23.8 27.9 22.9 -29.5% 4.6%

Leggett 48.9 47.7 52.5 50.3 48.9 45.6 -11.0% 4.0%

Mohawk 264.5 247.5 241.7 229.5 199.7 200.3 -0.1% 3.9%

Steelcase 15.5 15.4 14.0 16.8 17.9 13.9 -14.6% 5.1%

USG 33.7 32.7 29.0 31.8 28.9 25.9 -2.7% 5.9%

Virco 5.7 5.5 5.4 4.0 4.3 4.2 -3.4% 0.4%

SUM 512.7 491.4 472.9 473.6 458.8 413.9

DJIndust 23,329 22,405 21,350 20,663 19,763 18,308 0.0% 3.8%

Industry Stock Prices

10.23.17 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 32 OF 34

technologyTECHNOLOGYConfigura’s CET Designer User of the Month is Emily Cooper of Denver-based OfficeScapes. She is also a presenter at the 10th annual CET Designer User and Developer Conference Nov. 8-9 in Las Vegas.

Growing up in a military family, Ms. Cooper attended many different schools throughout the country. “It amazed me how much the design of each space impacted my learning and overall wellbeing. I could see the difference between the classrooms and ever since have had a strong belief that space matters,” she said.

She recalled one family move in which she had the same math class but in two different classrooms. “One class was in a beautiful new school and the other in an ‘extra space’ trailer parked alongside the school. I could see the difference in the two classes’ understanding and willingness to learn. The class in the pull-up trailer was distracted, cranky and took longer to learn.”

The experience and revelation shaped her future career choice. Ultimately, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in interior design from Colorado State University. After graduation, she worked for a short time at an Ethan Allen store before joining a Herman Miller dealership. There, she was a combination salesperson, designer and account coordinator. “I learned a lot of the ins and outs of the business very quickly,” she said.

From there, she moved to OfficeScapes, a Steelcase dealer. As a senior project designer at OfficeScapes, Ms. Cooper uses CET Designer almost every day to specify and design spaces for clients. Her biggest challenge when switching to CET De-signer was learning everything that the program can do. “CET Designer is such a powerful tool, and I’m constantly discovering new aspects of the program,” she said.

Being able to sit with a client and have an active design session has been the biggest benefit of using CET Designer. “It used to take many emails back and forth with a client to get to exactly the design they were looking for. Now, they can immediately see the impact of the choices they’re making – both aestheti-cally and financially.”

One of her favorite CET Designer features is the calculation tool. “It makes it easy to create budgets for my clients,” she explained. “Because everything is captured in the Calculation View, I can easily apply some blanket discounting and give clients an idea of what they are likely to spend. This adds to cli-ents’ peace of mind and helps reduce the number of revisions that I have to complete.”

She used CET Designer to win a recent project: “The client re-ally loved the detail that the architect had put into their space. The fact that we were able to recreate that in CET Designer, and put our furniture in it, really sold our product,” she said.

Her favorite CET Designer tip is to use “schemes.” She has a basic scheme set up in almost every tab that is essentially a complete spec – so when beginning a new project, she already has a semi-accurate budget and can render the space in “blank canvas” finishes, saving a lot of time and effort.

When Ms. Cooper isn’t designing fabulous spaces, she’s with her husband (her high school sweetheart) donning full head-to-toe costumes and attending the local Renaissance Festival and Comic-Con events. Read More

CET Designer User of the Month Emily Cooper

Rendering created in CET Designer by Emily Cooper

10.23.17 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 33 OF 34

JOB SITETo place ads or to get a price quote contact Bob Beck bob@officeinsight.comT 972 293 9186

Find all our ads all the time at www.officeinsight.com/careers.

Senior Marketing Manager

AIS is a leading manufacturer of commercial office furniture and boasts one of the most impressive stories of growth and success in the industry. We are seeking a Senior Marketer to join our high energy team and drive strategic marketing initiatives.

RESPONSIBILITIES

> Understand brand strategy and execute it across all marketing channels with ef-fective messaging, a unified look, feel, and style that is easily recognized as AIS

> Manage industry trade-shows with a comprehen-sive strategy, budget, and schedule

> Support new product launches and marketing programs

> Lead high-quality design and content creation for print and digital tools

> Oversee creative partners (i.e. agencies, web and graphic designers, photog-raphers, etc.)

> Manage content and func-tionality of public + internal websites

Must be able to creatively execute at high levels in a fast-paced environment.

Review full job details and qualifications here:

http://aisinsidesales.blob.core.windows.net/files/AIS%20Job%20Description_Sr.%20Mktg%20Mgr_Bellow.docx

10.23.17 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 34 OF 34

JOB SITETo place ads or to get a price quote contact Bob Beck bob@officeinsight.comT 972 293 9186

Find all our ads all the time at www.officeinsight.com/careers.

PO Box 967Cedar Hill, TX 75106

Robert Beckbob@officeinsight.comT 972 293 9186

Mallory Jindramallory@officeinsight.comT 219 263 9006

www.officeinsight.com© 2017 officeinsight,LLC

Bradford J. Powell, Hon. FASIDbrad@officeinsight.com T 203 966 5008

Director of Administration - NYC

Allow Your Expertise to Soar

Our company is a growing entrepreneurial company in the field of providing high quality office furniture and architectural products to our clients. We’re seeking an outstanding Director of Administration to report to the COO and work close with the founder of the company. Our experienced staff has helped hundreds of clients with great quality products & service.

Do you wish you could work with a team that trusts you, who rely upon you for your insight, relish your analytical depth, your listening and compassionate skills and are blown away by your productivity and efficiency, and are awed by your wizard-like management and teaching skills? How about working for a team who truly recognizes your hard work and commitment? What if every morning when you wake up you cannot wait to get to work? What if the variety of work, the range of people, and the personal growth and learning was extraordinary? If this sounds like an unattainable dream job, it’s NOT? A few of these star opportunities do occasionally become available to talented individuals – it’s rare – but it happens.

Our ideal candidate will have worked as a Director of Administration or Operations Manager in an entrepreneurial company, preferably in a sales/service oriented business. You need to have over five (5) years of management experience, Office Furniture experience preferred and can manage a minimum of 10 employees. You need to be smart, hard-working, likeable, proactive and nurturing and will have direct responsibility for

> Improving the overall consistency of our process that staff needs to project execute on.

> Recruit and hire “A” talent and always be searching for “A” talent.

> Manage all direct reports workload and set the ex-pectations.

> Be proactive with challeng-ing the staff on possible issues that arise and the appropriate responses.

> Treat people with respect, inspire trust, work with integrity and uphold the company’s values

> Coach and mentor the staff on problem solving, performing under pressure, interacting with clients and stakeholders.

> Ability to delegate work to internal team and to contractors and oversee final deliverables to ensure accuracy and that dead-lines are met.

> Set challenging goals for yourself and your team

> Look to improve and pro-mote quality, accuracy & customer satisfaction.

> Excellent communication & writing skills.

> Ability to learn required software, knowledge of Core operating system a plus

Please send resumé to: resumes@benharoffice.com