Neocon, Chicago - June 2015

New 60yd long ‘park’ in front of the Merchandise Mart

~ Advising office furniture businesses around the world ~

4th

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©John Sacks 2015. All rights reserved

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The Neocon Show - June 2015

Judging by the vast hoards of visitors, this Neocon was a return to the good old days. They thronged

the aisles, and showrooms – and of course those notorious elevators – in numbers not seen for

many years. And it remained crowded to the end. Not this year did the show start emptying out

rapidly from Tuesday afternoon onwards. The hustle and bustle and crowds stayed on right through

to the bitter end on Wednesday afternoon. It was as if no one wanted to give up on the excitement,

or risk missing something.

Why the turnaround from recent years when Mad Monday quickly turns into Tedious Tuesday and

Wearisome Wednesday? Well it wasn’t the launching of sparkling, exciting new products that was

turning everyone on. Yes there were some, but it wasn’t as if the industry had suddenly decided to

present the results of massive new investments in development and tooling. Nor was it any

organiser-provided entertainment or eye-catching displays. There weren’t any this year. The cynics

said it was the atrocious weather – gales, lashing rain and even a hailstorm - which kept the visitors

in the Mart but whatever the reason, the show was a great success.

It was good that the massive crowds didn’t just hog the 3rd floor showrooms. To the delight of

exhibitors on the other four floors, they also were very busy from the moment the show opened,

and remained so throughout the three days. Perhaps visitors were helped to find the less obvious

exhibitors by the excellent new app that launched a few weeks before the show opened. As well as

providing customisable agendas and GPS-aided maps and routings around the show this listed, and

allowed you to link with, other registered attendees.

If a shortage of dramatic new products could have dampened the enthusiasm, many of the new and

newly-refurbished showrooms themselves were stunning. Haworth, Herman Miller, OFS Brands,

Okamura, Allermuir, Sedia Systems and West Elm Workspace (a new partnership with Inscape)

were just a few notably striking examples of generally excellent designs.

A crowded Herman Miller showroom.

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One odd trend which jarred however was the way, this year, so much of the furniture was massively

over-propped. It was as if some companies, especially the larger 3rd floor ones, were trying to hide a

lack of novelty in their products by covering them up with bric-a-brac.

Neocon is in theory a three-day show, starting Monday at nine and closing on Wednesday at three.

Many of the exhibitors however are increasingly extending the event, and trying to even out the

flow of visitors to more manageable levels, by starting activities earlier and earlier. Haworth’s first

guests – several hundred invited dealers and architects – arrived the previous Thursday! Maybe it’s

time to think about reintroducing a fourth day to the show by officially opening on the Sunday,

perhaps at 11am?

Directions

Rather than being the launch pad for dramatic new concepts, themes, or creative technologies, this

year’s Neocon concentrated on developing and refining many from last year. We knew that sit-stand

would be everywhere – and it was, with a vengeance. For some like Linak of Denmark, Logicdata of

Germany and Focal, it’s all they do. For others such as Teknion, Steelcase and Herman Miller, it’s

part of a well thought through, health-related strategy with integrated workstation and seating

products, and philosophies that mesh seamlessly with the rest of their offering. Some of the

companies bringing up the rear just dotted one or two height adjustable tables around their stand,

without the faintest idea of what they were really for.

Height-adjustability – Bivi from Steelcase

As with many of the most notable product ideas in the office furniture over the years, such as 5-star

bases on swivel chairs, monitor arms, soft-close drawers and adjustable lumbar support, the extra

cost of being able to adjust the height of a workstation is legitimised on the grounds of a healthier,

and therefore more efficient, working environment. However, ‘Sitting is the new Smoking’ must be

one of the most risible slogans ever coined.

Soft seating, enclosures and screens, some with acoustic properties, of all shapes and sizes and

colours were everywhere. Whereas in Europe, these are generally presented as products for office

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breakout areas for groups or empowering individuals to work in different ways or styles, here they

were generally just haphazard items shown without explanation. There were exceptions such as the

way Patricia Urquiola has further developed Openest for Haworth with worksurfaces, power and

data.

Openest with worksurface from Haworth

Another aspect of the changing work life balance could be seen in the ongoing convergence of the

styles, finishes, textiles and colours of furniture for work and at home. It is becoming increasingly

difficult to see any differences between many of the tables for meetings and dining, and between

soft seating for offices and home lounges.

The Products and the Companies

Herman Miller’s very large showroom is frequently the first that visitors come across, and the most

popular meeting point. The company featured their Living Office concept, balancing the

requirements of the organisation with the needs of the people that work in them.

One of the settings was Locale described as creating a clubhouse setting for teams, where people

can move from a collaborative group to individual work, and then on to a social activity.

Herman Mille’s Locale

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Coalesse, a member of the Steelcase group, invariably displays a series of vanguard products from

named designers and the company’s design team, many of which eventually make their way into the

mainstream Steelcase offering. Their large showroom included products from Lievore Altherr Molina,

Jean-Marie Massaud and Hans Wegner.

Fourfiveone_Co table and sixfivezero_Co_stools by Molina for Coalesse

Wilkhahn from Germany won a Gold Award for their In chair, from Wiege

Design and Michael Englisch

Other new offerings in the very crowded Haworth’s showroom included stylish upholstery from

Jasper Morrison and Jean-Marie Massaud, alongside further developed Workware technology and

some attractive accessories.

Desktop accessories from

Hawor Haworth

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Humanscale added technology to height-adjustability by joining up with an IT company, Tome, to

create software controlled movement to their workstation. KI’s attractive Sway Lounge Collection

was based on a 3D orbital motion allowing users full freedom to move in all directions. The large

and impressive Okamura 11th floor showroom showed a new range of Plimode task chairs as well as

Muffle enclosures for individuals or small groups and the Gold Award winning Traverse table from

HOK Product Design.

Traverse table from Okamura Sway from KI

OFS Brands, Koleksiyon from Turkey and Palmer Hamilton, who partner the UK company,

Connection, all showed European styled hubs which offer high walled enclosures with acoustic

properties for meetings. Neocon newcomer Koleksiyon with a large space on floor 7 also showed

their Partita high table.

OFS Brands’ Hub Partita table from Koleksiyon

With one of the largest showrooms on the 10th floor, Teknion were able to display elegantly their

extensive collections of Italian-influenced upholstery and workstation furniture. Featured separately

was Teknion Studio with their partners B & B Italia, and a display of new occasional pieces from the

British design duo, Pearson Lloyd.

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Loveseat from Pearson Lloyd for Teknion

The Davis Furniture showroom is always a design delight; one of this year’s highlights was the Tre

bar table and stools designed by Jehs+Laub.

Tre bar table and stools from Davis Furniture

Real wood featured extensively, both in solid timber form as well as the use of natural and

engineered veneers. There was no real consistency in the species chosen and we saw furniture

made variously from Walnut, Rosewood, Mahogany, Tiger wood and others.

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The cocoon-like Brody WorkLounge from Steelcase, like similarly inspired products seen in Europe

earlier this year seems to take its theme from business class airplane seats.

Brody WorkLounge from Steelcase

The giveaways were few and far between this year. No leather baseballs or cardboard luggage on

wheels; there were however some teddy bears which a few intrepid visitors managed to grab.

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And finally ……..

The most outlandish product spotted was Neutral Posture’s

Guardian task chair which for less than $2000, incorporates a

removable, wearable, velcro-fastened, double-sided bullet resistant

vest, offering protection against a .357 Magnum.

John Sacks

JSA Consultancy Services

www.jsacs.com

info@jsacs.com

T: +44 20 7242 8556

21 June 2015