More 2022 NeoCon and Design Days Takeaways

As NeoCon and Design Days 2022 is our witness, the workspace is back and better than ever with vibrant color, dimensions, cool solutions for space division, and people-centric corporate furniture products.  Manufacturers showed us the road back to the office for all our markets is paved with comfort, collaboration, and all the feel-good spaces humans need to make work their jam.


The Space to be Colorful

NeoCon and Design Days 2022 painted a vibrant scene of where work is going. We caught a real 70's color vibe with yellow dominating the textiles, furniture, metals, and architecture. But we also saw heavy doses of cobalt blues, emerald greens, and metallic oranges kicking it across the kaleidoscope of settings. Playing with colors helps us saturate our surroundings and gets people in the mood to collaborate. As we continue to attract people from their more relaxed remote work settings, we can lean on vibrant colors to make the workspace everyone's happy place.



The Space to Adapt

 This year's design conferences showed us customization is king. It's not about specialization but more about the plethora of choice for personalized options. From workstations to benching and private office set-ups, manufacturers like Darran, Formaspace, MillerKnoll, AIS, and others obliterated the cookie cutter cubicle.  We experienced more flexibility in height-adjustable tables, personalized storage, and more. We saw things on wheels, unique ergonomic seating, a rainbow of color integrations, new acoustic solutions, and countless ways to "create your own" environments. 



The Space to Work

Both NeoCon and Design Days scored big with touchdown spaces. We love the height adjustable M Wall from HAT Collective for our healthcare settings but also see it inspiring spontaneity in any small space.  The small profile Peter Pepper iBooth  is mountable or free-standing and light enough to move around for agile work. The MillerKnoll OE1 Collection  gave us so much to think about when designing spaces for mobility.  The  Extremis Virus Collection  compact picnic table is perfect for indoor and outdoor settings and Knoll's Antenna Switchseat is a mobile, stackable seating option with a certain je ne sais playground appeal.  Nook also showed us some fun and creative ways to take space private with closed or semi-closed pods.



The Space to Shape

What's the shape of things to come for the office? Shapes, shapes, and more shapes. Whether geometric, natural or abstract, shapes help shift our way of thinking. We say bring on the angles, sides, spirals, and curves and let's see where it takes your creativity. For storage, we loved the slanted locker solution from Global and a huge shout to AIS, Enwork, and Nucraft, who turned up their angle game with floating credenzas, v-shaped desks, and triangular-finished table tops. We also liked how Magnuson Group brought natural and geometric shapes together with beautiful, biophilic dividers.



The Space to Define

Design trends and product innovations continue to transform open layout spaces.  We saw plenty of colorful, shapely, and art-worthy acoustic mobile screens from  Clarus, Darran and more.  We loved the translucent, sexy curves of the KI Connection Zone Screen with below-deck storage and the interesting ways OFS used eco-planters to define space. BuzziSpace offers a cushy way to cubicle with superbly fun colors.  From personal workstation screen dividers to big room bifurcation solutions, manufacturers continue to break down the barriers to create more connected environments. It's the addition by division mentality we look forward to showing our clients.