Our Top Picks From NeoCon 2021
NeoCon is one of the most exciting events of the year for the commercial design industry. Each year, manufacturers across the commercial design industry compete for recognition for their latest product introductions. Here are our favorite picks from Neocon 2021.
1. Essa Chair by Teknion
Best of Neocon 2021
Designed for Teknion by Pearson Lloyd, the Essa task chair takes its name from the word essence, selected to capture its pared-down scale and pure, sculptural shape. A soft task chair, Essa takes cues from a classic club chair – stressing simplicity, softness, and rich materiality. In essence, the chair looks like the comfort that it is.
Given the move towards an office with a “softer edge”, the need for a light, less technical task chair has emerged. Essa combines elegance with ergonomics, providing just the right amount of support through curves and contours rather than multiple adjustment mechanisms. Promoting natural shifts in position, Essa is ideal for mobile workers and active work settings.
2. Hex by OFS
Hex was designed for these purposes, inspiring creativity in workspace or education environments. The honeycomb shape of Hex allows for easy reconfiguration and adaptability to create more inviting layouts. Integrate a wall for division and privacy, add power for that extra charge, accessorize with a markerboard or purse hook, or be playful with contrasting textiles. Hex offers the opportunity for your imagination to let go and create spaces where you can thrive.
3. Hag by 9to5
HiP Award winner 2021, Metropolis Likes 2021
9to5 Seating is excited to announce the US arrival of the HÅG Capisco and HÅG Capisco Puls — movement task seating solutions timed perfectly with the active seating movement. The HÅG Capisco and HÅG Capisco Puls, designed by legendary designer Peter Opsvik, have curved seats, reminiscent of a saddle to promote natural upright positioning along with treaded footrests for relaxation or to help you shift into different positions.
4. Routes by Teknion
HiP Award winner 2021
Routes depart from conventional contract furniture with a toolbox of boldly conceived products that are simple and able. The collection allows one to build up a complete workspace for a small, tight-knit studio or create casual “pop-up” work hubs across the expanse of a corporate headquarters. Routes readily adapt to spaces big and small, to the requirements of an established enterprise, and to the needs of those who work at home.
Light, agile and mobile, Routes encourages people to move about and to move their furniture around, to make or unmake a space in which to think, meet or create. The collection is made up of furniture, lighting, and accessories, given fresh yet familiar forms that are easy to understand and to specify; easy to assemble, configure and use.
5. Fractals Nook by Studio Tk
HiP Award winner 2021
Fractals Nook, an extension of the Fractals Seating product, uses an organic high shell with an added worksurface to create an intimate desk carrel for heads-down work. Fractals Nook allows users to create a distraction-free zone for work. The natural curves of Fractals create unique space planning capabilities for social spaces that require the need for privacy. The addition of the Fractals Nook now allows for new planning scenarios for the complete Fractals line. It offers the ability to intertwine high back lounge pieces with high desk nooks.
Fractals Nook allows the same broad canvas of the lounge series for the selection of multiple fabrics and finishes to create your own distinctive look. Powdercoat finishes on both the legs and the inner frame are chosen individually as well as inner and outer fabric selection for those environments that encourage space division emphasized by the finish.
6. Adapt Sectional by Hightower
Metropolis Likes Award Winner
Hightower’s Adapt lounge seating line comes from a partnership with Australian design firm Ross Gardam. The piece aims to reflect the ‘Australian lifestyle’ with its casually sophisticated expression. Soft lines and multiple reconfiguration possibilities allow it to complement any space from corporate to hospitality settings.
7. Crop by Allermuir
Best of Neocon
Crop is a cute and simple – yet very durable – family of outdoor chairs from Allermuir. The seating line gets its name from the enigmatic rolling fields of crops in the British countryside, which are represented in the flowing parallel wires of the seating forms. Great for café and outdoor lounges in residential, commercial, and hospitality settings.
Written by Devon Smout at The Collective
Whether you are working at home or back in the office, staring at a computer screen and the same four walls for over eight hours a day is mentally and physically exhausting. Below are five tricks to staying healthy in the workplace… wherever it may be.
Get up from your chair once every hour.
Human beings were not designed to sit sedentary for 8+ hours a day. Sitting for too long is not good for our physical or mental health and may increase the risk of chronic health problems. Break up long sitting periods with movement – even just 1 to 2 minutes can help. The key here is to move more and sit less. After all, your next posture is your best posture.
This one goes hand in hand with staying hydrated – if you’re drinking plenty of water, getting up once every hour should be easy!
Stay hydrated.
Have you ever looked at the clock and realized that it’s lunchtime before you haven’t even had your first sip of water? Water is so important to prevent brain fog and flush out all the toxins in your body. I have had many conversations with others who gripe that drinking water “means I have to go the bathroom too much”. Going to the bathroom is actually a good thing! It means your body is benefiting from your intake of liquids and flushing out all those toxins.
Take breaks and make them productive.
It is so easy when working from home (or anywhere really) to forget about lunch. Eat a healthy lunch. So that lunchtime doesn’t become a burden during the workday, try planning ahead. Meal prep on Sundays and midweek – chop your veggies, cook your quinoa, OR if meal prep isn’t for you, make extra dinner the night before so you have lunch already prepared for the next day. Easy!
Incorporate movement as much as possible. My favourite part of the workday is a quick walk around the neighbourhood. If you can, 30 minutes at lunchtime, after you eat, can work wonders. If you don’t have 30 minutes to spare, even just 10 minutes will positively affect your mindset. Plus, if you’ve already prepped your lunch, you can use the time you would have spent making food to incorporate a daily walk instead.
Keep organized and shut it down.
At the end of each workday, clean and organize your workspace. Put away your laptop and shut it down, like really shut it off. Cleaning and organizing your workspace at the END of each day helps keep your mind clear in the evening, and you will be starting each morning fresh.
If you find yourself working late at home, try putting your documents away after dinner, at least in some organized pile. Organizing your workspace won’t tempt you to return to work later in the evening and stay awake into the night. Not to worry, your work will still be there tomorrow.
Practice self-care in your free time.
Self-care is different for everyone. It doesn’t necessarily mean a bubble bath with a face mask and a glass of wine. It can mean spending time outdoors, connecting with friends and family, exercising, journaling, practicing a mindfulness exercise. Take care of yourself by doing the things that you really LOVE to do.
Follow The Collective on Instagram for more wellness tips and tricks!
Welcome to our new brand and website! We are so glad that you’re here.
For over 30 years, VCO, Office Source, and SCI have grown into multi-national companies with client bases ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Over the last decade, we have slowly merged our teams, processes, and values to provide better furnishings and services to our North American clients. So it was natural to create a new name that captured our companies coming together: The Collective.
In collaboration with our friends at Siren SF, we developed an identity that embodies our unified company’s essence. Looking at wood joinery as a metaphor for coming together — we crafted a symbol that realizes this newly forged bond. Layering in materiality and bright earth tones, this identity embodies the essence of the furnishing industry.
Developing a new brand allowed us to pause to reflect on how we approach our work within the furnishing industry. We believe that the most gratifying workspaces are more than the desks and loveseats that fill them. They are relationships. They are the time and energy spent taking a thread of a thought and weaving it into a fully functioning workspace schematic.
Our team aims to be the “go-to” to design and furnish your space comfortably, safely, and ergonomically. We invest in forward-thinking workplace technology, foster relationships with hundreds of furniture manufacturers, and staff a stellar team of experts. From a single conference room to a sprawling campus, we are your people.
Please don’t hesitate to drop us a note or give us a follow on social media! You can also head over to our frequently asked questions page for more information.
The Collective worked alongside Design Blitz to create a workspace for Publicis Groupe that consolidated multiple international brands under one roof in San Francisco. The project was completed under a very short time frame: Publicis Groupe was the last tenant to sign their building’s lease but the first to move in.
The new office has an abundance of free addressing work points – also known as “hot desking” spaces that aren’t assigned to an individual – to create a free-flowing environment for employees to work. Contrary to the design of popular San Francisco workspaces, Publicis Groupe has zero height adjustable workstations. Instead, The Collective and Design Blitz accommodated various work postures with seated, lounge, and bar height work points throughout the office. All of these work points were powered for workers to accomplish heads down work and meetings without worrying about charging their devices.
The Collective procured and installed all furniture across three floors. Workers have personal lockers to drop off their belongings. Fixed height Teknion workstations with storage and privacy screens are placed around the open office with custom planters. Egg-shaped “nest” chairs hang from the ceiling for workers who prefer a more creative environment. A speakeasy-style bar with beer on tap hides behind a secret door. Custom-crafted banquettes nestle between alcoves for workers to relax, eat, and meet. The Collective contracted with local millwork companies to create custom cabinetry, benching, and tables. Bright colors and custom finishes pop throughout the playful space.
We are so proud to have been involved in this project!
Updated: 4/21/21
Sustainability + Manufacturing
A sustainable manufacturer embraces the circular economy. According to the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, the circular economy is based on the principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. Historically, the furniture industry has participated in the take-make-waste industrial model, leading to some pretty staggering statistics.
According to data gathered by Rubicon Global:
- Nine-tenths of all solid waste in the United States does not get recycled.
- Landfills are among the most significant contributors to soil pollution – roughly 80% of the items buried in landfills could be recycled.
- According to Environmental Protection Agency estimates, approximately 3 million tons of office furniture and furnishings are discarded each year.
But it’s not all doom-and-gloom. Furniture landfill waste can be avoided by pursuing three possible sustainable alternatives: liquidation, donation, and recycling. Each of these environmentally sustainable disposal methods has comparable costs to sending furniture to a landfill.
Through a Teknion program called Divert, The Collective and Teknion focus on creating financially, socially, and environmentally sustainable channels for furniture.
Reducing Furniture’s Environmental Footprint Three Ways
Liquidation
Liquidation, the process of exchanging old furniture for cash or ‘liquid’ asset, is the most common furniture disposal for its simplicity. This method allows businesses to quickly remove their old furniture and materials, so it is often deployed during projects with a short time horizon.
The Collective and Teknion engage regional partners to assess the value of the furniture. Under the Divert program, 100% of the furniture value returns to the end-user.
Donation
Donations are another method to rid of unwanted furniture while also benefitting the local community. In many cases, end-users are eligible for a charitable tax receipt.
Through the Divert program, Teknion and The Collective have access to a robust portfolio of regional non-profits, schools, and charities who could benefit from a space transformed by high-quality, modern furniture. Following the donation, Teknion’s internal Divert team can create marketing resources to help the end-user tell the impactful, social stories resulting from their philanthropic donation. Even after the legal transfer of title is executed, the Divert team maintains relationships with the furniture recipients, ensuring that the products are recycled at their end of life.
Recycling
The final solution is recycling, an often overlooked yet highly environmental solution to dispose of furniture.
The Divert program works with furniture decommissioners who distribute the product components through the proper recycling channels. Similar to the liquidation channel, the value of these product components are returned to the end-user. Teknion purchases materials and parts from the same recycling streams that Divert furniture adds to, creating an indirect closed-loop system.
Participating in Divert is an effortless commitment as Teknion’s internal team and the regional partners collaborate to handle all the project management, pickup logistics, and detailed sustainability reporting.
To get started with a furniture liquidation or recycling project, contact us.
For questions specifically about Divert’s program, email divertnow@teknion.com.