7 Trends From NeoCon 2022
Our team spent three jam-packed days at NeoCon 2022 and Teknion’s inaugural WorkWell Chicago event. We had a blast absorbing fresh furniture solutions, ways to address the new workplace, and other innovative ideas from some of the industry’s most influential designers and thought leaders.
The Collective Design Specialists, Eva Lindstrom and Rafael Martin, compiled common themes from the tradeshow that we feel will set the stage for the new workplace. Read them below!
Space Division
Before 2020, there was a simmering interest in additional space division, perhaps due to the growing backlash of noisy, open office environments. The pandemic accelerated this trend dramatically and pushed furniture experts to be more creative in adapting to clients’ needs, whether for health/safety, wellness, or worker productivity. As a result, these solutions involve more acoustics, visual privacy, and combinations of materials.
Spacestor, Arcadia
Stylex, Still
Teknion, Expansion Cityline A Frame
Mobility
Manufacturers are adding casters to their furniture in response to the trend of creating flexible spaces. Mobile furniture allows office leaders and end users to adapt rooms to their working styles, which can be especially useful for those clients that have downsized to a smaller office footprint. Adding mobility to furniture makes the office more playful.
Senator Group, Adapt
Teknion, Routes (stackable)
Martin Brattrud, Trestle Table
Planters
It brought us so much joy to see that nearly every brand incorporated greenery into their products in some way, shape, or form! The trend toward planters drives home the widespread desire to bring the outside inside and stimulate Biophilia, otherwise known as the natural human instinct to connect with nature. Bringing greenery into a space, whether through a large plant, moss wall, hanging plant from a workstation, or just a tiny planter hanging from a workstation, can tremendously impact employee well-being.
OFS, Kaleid
Teknion, Kiosk Planter
Nordgrona, Moss (can help with acoustics)
Textured Fabrics and Elevated Finishes on Day-to-Day Pieces
By now, most know about the Resimercial design trend, the blending of ‘residential’ and ‘commercial’, which has been a welcome departure from bland, dull, mainly vinyl fabrics. More manufacturers showcased highly textured fabrics on their furniture to perhaps add a “cozy and “homey” feel that resembles styles one might see in residential design. Screens with highly textured fabrics elevated the look of the workstation, and chairs with textured fabrics were too inviting to pass up a seat.
Allermuir / Senator Showroom – Chair finish
SitOnIt Ped Cushion
Naughtone Showroom Finish
Elevated Power
Power solutions were no longer an afterthought. Manufacturers are integrating power inside upholstered pieces, adding different color options, and even creating bold freestanding power modules. With the workplace so reliant on technology, it was refreshing to explore innovative solutions for power.
EVOline
Watson, Haven (integrated power in light fixtures)
Byrne, Vesta
Senator, Mote
Teknion Untethered
Hightower, Niko Power
Terracotta Color Palette
Will Terracotta be the next Pantone Color of the Year? Manufacturers seemed to trend towards blush finishes, wood-tone finishes, or other materially inspired finishes. This finish color communicated a soft, warm, and welcoming look/feel that we absolutely loved.
HBF, Note Touchdown Desk
HBF, Textiles
Hightower, Kona Sectional
OFS, Hydra
Teknion, Zones Modular & Studio TK, Qui
See something that you like? Contact us to get in touch with a furniture expert.
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.