JRuiter

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Nuctraft, Passport “BEST OF NEOCON AWARD | Jun 2012

Getting Static Conference Rooms Moving

The development of Passport conference furniture, Nucraft’s award-winning meeting and collaboration solution, started as an open-ended question: What’s a better way to accommodate project teams in conference rooms? To find the answer, Nucraft turned to the experts: Its customers. Over the course of six months, Nucraft conducted extensive customer-site research with users, facility managers, and designers into the issues that they face every day with conference rooms. What obstacles do they face? What do they need to enhance people’s productivity, efficiency, and comfort? “We know conference rooms are in high demand and often used by different project teams,” said Matt Schad, (Director of Marketing and Business Development). “The concept of a single project team reserving a conference room for weeks or months at a time is no longer viable, because the rooms are often left vacant. It’s a waste of space. But how do we make them efficient for multiple users?” He said Nucraft didn’t draw any conclusions ahead of time, and didn’t have any preconceived notions about products. “Our goal was to define the issues up front and let that guide product development.”

Joey Ruiter: The Designer for the Job

Accompanying Nucraft teams on research visits to customer sites was Joey Ruiter, Nucraft’s choice to design the solution. “Joey was perfect for it,” said Schad. “When we have a tough problem, we always bring it to Joey because he’s such a creative thinker with a sophisticated, innovative, and elegant design sense.” Ruiter, a Grand Rapids, Michigan industrial designer, has a strong relationship with Nucraft. He’s previously designed Nucraft’s Cavara casegoods and Flow conference table. And he is gaining worldwide recognition for his ability to look at common products, like bikes, cars, and boats, in new ways that embrace today’s materials, technology, and trends. “I want to give people something they can own, or discover, or conquer,” he says. “Something that they deserve and makes them feel better about themselves.” For this project, he put the challenge this way: “What is a hard-working room today? Once we learn that, what kind of products do we want to work on?”

The Roots of an Idea

Passport designer Joey Ruiter says he drew inspiration for what a project room could be by studying Winston Churchill’s war room. After studying the Nucraft research, Ruiter started to come up with concepts for what might be a solution for conference rooms. His early sketches for the project show that Ruiter had devised the basic concepts for Passport almost immediately, which is fairly typical for the inventive Ruiter. “Here’s the secret to my process,” he said. “I start with a schematic drawing to define users’ needs and the design constraints.” To illustrate, he sketches his thinking process for a new stool he developed, starting with the measurements and angles that people require for ergonomic sitting. The simple lines and proportions of the stool logically and quickly followed, and the design was well underway. For Passport, Ruiter first considered the basic possibilities for a conference-room-size space: One table that doesn’t move; mobile tables that users can reconfigure; or a fixed table that moves. And what about the walls? How can they be used more efficiently and effectively? And then there’s storage to consider. Ideas, explorations, and sketches turned to detailed mechanical drawings and a proposal for Nucraft, whichincluded two industry-firsts that make Passport a unique and truly innovative solution.

Passport adjusts the conference room to the guests, instead of the other way around. Its unique sliding top, the first of its kind in the industry, lets users properly position the table relative to the marker surface or monitor, reconfiguring easily to solve any meeting or project need. Power/data access is designed to move with the table top, remaining fully connected in every position.

The Passport activity wall features a vast presentation/marker board with concave curves that wrap toward the audience and built-in storage for racked equipment and other items. An optional mobile display panel lets you adjust flat screen monitors horizontally and vertically while neatly managing cables.

visit http://www.nucraft.com for more information, images, and pricing

izzy wins GOLD! | Jun 2012

check out the fly through of the Neocon showroom 2012 for izzy-
http://vimeo.com/44472285

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Neocon 2012, Nemo by Izzy design | Jun 2012

Nemo Bar and Trellis

NeoCon World’s Trade Fair 2012: June 11-13, 2012
The Merchandise Mart, Showrooms 11-100

CHICAGO – June 2012 – Through the years, Joey Ruiter and Chuck Saylor have dedicated untold hours to sketching out and thinking through furniture that can support a balanced approach to new styles of working and learning, both for individuals and for teams.

The result of that effort and inventiveness is being introduced to the contract interiors marketplace at Neocon 2012, with the commercial launch of the Nemo Bar and Trellis by izzy, two pieces that can function very well independently but may be even more effective and better together.

“This is step one of a continuing journey at izzy+ to create products that inspire, encourage and support the power of collaboration,” says Saylor, founder and CEO of izzy+.

“We’re lowering the barriers to communication and connection,” adds Ruiter of JRuiter + Studio in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a long-time collaborator with Saylor and izzy+. “People need space to develop and share ideas.”

The Nemo Bar and Trellis by izzy, both of which were shown in concept form during the two previous NeoCon shows, help create inspiring spaces for next-generation knowledge workers and learners. The Bar offers a hub for connection and collaboration, where ideas may be freely shared. The Trellis provides a sense of enclosure and privacy for one individual to several people at a time, along with options for power and technology.

Equally at home in a corporate office, college setting or airport lounge, the Bar and Trellis create a flexible environment that fosters, supports, and stimulates a free-flowing exchange where two or more are gathered, while also providing a sanctuary for semi-private work or reflection, according to Saylor and Ruiter.

The Bar is available both in counter and bar height and the tabletop surface comes in 8, 10 and 12-foot lengths to accommodate 6, 8 or 10 people. The surface choices include an array of veneers or laminates. The Trellis, both freestanding or wall-mounted, can be ordered in 20 standard configurations.

Both the Bar and Trellis are built primarily of steel and cast and extruded aluminum for maximum durability and recyclability to reduce the impact on the environment at the end of the product’s life. Customer and designers are free to specify materials to fill in the frames of the Trellis or the leg base of the Bar to make a colorful and customized design statement that can change over time. The fresh and extensive izzy+ flavors palette offers designers a plethora of choices in materials and colors.

Consistent with the izzy+ modernist design philosophy, the Bar and Trellis reflect clean and simple geometric forms. Both elements support the ideas associated with layering, change of scale and intuitive functionality. Using recyclable materials, both the Bar and Trellis strive for a balanced, organic pureness of form that elegantly fulfill the desired function of each.

Ruiter and Saylor continue to hone and develop new concepts for the Nemo collection, and several prototype pieces, including lounge seating, low benches, tables and privacy “cocoons” for heads-down work, will be shown in the izzy+ showroom space 11-100 during NeoCon 2012.

By providing some structure for informal space, says Ruiter, community is created and information can be quickly shared. “This is how learning happens today,” he says.

“Encouraged by easy access to information, transparency, a strong desire to contribute and grow,” says Saylor, “people are increasingly seeking to leverage each other and looking for inspiring places that encourage spontaneous interaction and reflection.”

With Nemo Bar and Trellis by izzy, he adds, the interactive and reflective adventure has just begun.

About izzy+

The employees of izzy+ (http://www.izzyplus.com) design, manufacture and market office furniture and seating that solve real problems for real people. The focus is to provide designers with the tools to create inspiring work spaces for forward-thinking customers in home offices and small businesses, in executive offices and board rooms, in hospitals and classrooms. Its award-winning products are marketed under the brand names izzy, HÅG, Harter, Fixtures Furniture and ABCO. Based in Spring Lake, MI, izzy+ is a business of JSJ Corporation of Grand Haven, MI.