Industrial Design
Designing a unique chair for the office
As designers, we tend to spend a lot of time in front of our systems. Which means that we tend to spend a lot of our day sitting, often extending to long stretches of time. Which meant that it made sense when we decided to create a concept product for the office environment, particularly this office chair that we decided to call Project Alpha for reasons we will not explain, particularly because we didn’t put much thought in it.
To figure out exactly the kind of chair we wanted to proceed with, we took our time in exploring the different kinds of options we can find in the market. Out of the gazillion we researched on, here were a few designs that caught our attention:
we like making things fun, hence initially the design was meant to be a prank; a chair that has features similar to that of an active chair, but would not be perceived as such, creating an element of surprise.
Based on this, we started our design ideation process with the very basic features/movements of an active chair, such as:
The idea was to build a design around these features. As per our market research, active chairs designs usually tend to be more industrial, mechanical or DIY even. However, we wanted to incorporate all the active chair elements in a more contemporary sculptural design; a design that wouldn't give away the purpose at first sight. Many iterative processes and seating type testing was involved: from a four legged stingray looking assemblage/chair, to a flow of a cobra structured bar stool (yes, we can be animal lovers at times too). Finally, we reached a form that was not only sculptural and contemporary at sight but also had a bit of our brand's identity as well: from the top, the chair kind of looked like the dot from our logo. Cute, right?
Since we like changing things up and having fun, initially, the design was meant to be a prank: a chair that has features similar to that of an active chair, but would not look like one, thus creating an element of surprise and sheer annoyance, hehe. The purpose would be to lure the user into thinking it’s a normal chair, only for them to sit on it and realize that it’s actually an active chair. Muhahaha...
Below is part of the keyword brainstorm we conducted as a team to shortlist the features we wanted our chair to have:
An active chair for your work station that will keep your body occupied while you work on your day to day tasks. The chair should be comfortable enough for the user to remain seated, but not enough to stop fiddling with it, and want to feel the need to stand up every now and then. The chair should be able to rock back and forth, also twist and turn, allowing your core to remain constantly engaged - like a healthy nightmare for us. Essentially, the chair is to be designed to have a continuous visual flow.
