bfi News

The Leaf personal light from Herman Miller, Inc., has received the much-coveted I.D. magazine Annual Design Review "Best of Consumer Products" award. Over 400 entries were submitted to the competitive category, which highlights sustainability, innovation, and ease of use.

Introduced in 2006, Leaf is an LED (light emitting diode) table-top light--a result of collaborative engineering and design development between Herman Miller and Yves Behar's San Francisco-based studio, fuseproject.

Leaf's design encourages the human senses to become engaged by allowing the user to choose the intensity and color of light. Additionally, Leaf's LEDs consume less than eight to nine watts of power, carry a lifespan of over 60,000 hours at the full-power setting, and cut energy use by 40 percent compared to a 13-watt compact fluorescent bulb.

Jurors hailed Leaf as a technological breakthrough, noting its contribution to energy efficiency and sustainability.

"It looks beautiful," said juror Paul Priestman. "And any beautiful design that uses less energy is a good thing."

Approximately 2,000 entries were submitted to eight categories for the 53rd annual design competition. Award recipients are featured in the magazine's July/August 2007 issue.

If you're lucky enough to work outside a traditional office, congratulations! But now what? Choosing the most productive spot--cafe, library, bookstore, home--can be complicated. Find out more. Read this issue of Jugglezine.

Jugglezine is sponsored by Herman Miller, where great minds frequently ponder things like alternative workstyles.

Herman Miller swept the Workplace Technologies category of the Best of NeoCon competition on Monday, with Convia Programmable Infrastructure capturing Gold and the C2 personal climate control device winning the Silver award.

The awards were presented at the opening of the 2007 NeoCon World's Trade Fair at Chicago's Merchandise Mart, running June 11-13.

Discover NeoCon 2007 Convia is distributed by Chicago-based Convia/A Herman Miller Company, and C2 is part of The Be Collection, a new collection of accessories introduced at NeoCon.

Herman Miller marketing alliance partners Baker Manufacturing and Brandrud also won Gold awards at the Best of NeoCon competition. Baker's NEXT table series won in the Height-Adjustable Worksurfaces category, and Brandrud's Pause won Gold in Healthcare Seating.

The Office Furniture Dealers' Association also announced its annual awards at the opening of NeoCon, with Herman Miller winning in the key categories of products and technology.

Labels: Awards, C2, Herman Miller

If you work in an office building, it's probably happened to you, especially in the summer. The air conditioning kicks in and suddenly your workspace feels more like a meat locker than a place of business. Meanwhile, just a few feet away from you, someone else is complaining that's it's just "too hot in here". It turns out you're not shivering or sweating it out alone.

A survey by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) shows being too hot or too cold is the number one complaint in workplaces, beating even gripes about computers, workspace, noise and bathroom facilities. But now furniture company Herman Miller may have finally come up with an environmentally friendly answer to the problem that literally blows hot and cold.

It's called the C2. It weighs about a kilogram, it's the size of a kettle and it sells for around $300. It's a kind of desktop environmental regulator which Herman Miller claims can lower the temperature by about 13 degrees or raise it by 20-30 degrees within six inches of the machine. It's also said to use 90 percent less energy than an average space heater and is fully recyclable.

It can potentially solve the dilemma of the single worker who sits under a vent and always feels that draft, while everyone else is perfectly comfortable. "(Maybe) something like this could bring that person into the comfort zone," suggests the IFMA's Donald Young. "It's light, it's portable. I'm not aware of any devices quite like this one."

The product will be available in this summer. It's being introduced this week at NeoCon trade show. It's sure to be  - pardon the expression - a  hot seller!  If you live in the NJ area, you can order this unit from bfi at 908.355.3400 or visit http://www.bfionline.com.

Labels: C2, office accessories

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes posted an article on ZDnet's blog titled "Is the Aeron the best office chair?". We know that the Herman Miller Aeron chair is the best office furniture chair because we sell them and our entire office sits in them. One of the nice perks for working for an office furniture dealer is that you get to sit in the coolest office furniture.

But I was thinking perhaps you, our customers, can respond to Adrian's blog post and comment on your experience with sitting in your Aeron chair.

Herman Miller has recently launched the Be Collection — a group of office-oriented accessories to assist one to Be Comfortable, Be Organized, and Be Connected. Described as "essential ingredients for personalized comfort", Be Collection includes lamps (like Yves Béhar’s LED Leaf Light, above), space dividers, various desk organizational tools, monitor arms, keyboard trays, etc. The entire collection falls into Herman Miller's Design for the Environment protocol (DfE) for material selection and product design. You can read the entire Press Release.