The designer furniture classics to specify in an office

A loaded and perhaps overused term, designer furniture is more than furniture that’s merely there to rest on or place a coffee cup upon. This is furniture that has been conceived by the mind of true artisans, designed to fulfil not just practical purposes, but aesthetic ones too.

Properly employed, some iconic and new designer pieces can spruce up an office space (or home studio) – adding inspiration as well as functionality to your work area. With this in mind, here are Indesign’s top six designer furniture pieces to add to your office…

Eames Chair

A worldwide classic for a reason – the Eames lounge chair and ottoman have been inspiring design lovers since its launch in 1956. When the Eames Lounge and Ottoman were introduced to the world, there was simply nothing else quite like them. Sixty years later, it is an unsurpassed design icon, displayed in museums and enjoyed around the world. The design was the result of the legendary Charles and Ray Eames’ investigations into moulding plywood, and a desire to improve a familiar fixture of life – the lounge chair.

It is still hand assembled today based on the same design the Eames’ perfected in the 1950’s, the chair has long escaped its trappings as a home item. Today, Eames chairs can be seen as a statement piece on home offices and executive workspaces across the globe. A symbol that the area you’re in cares about design; about history; and about the longevity of ideas. In Australia, the Herman Miller-exclusive piece can be acquired through Living Edge.

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Draw a Line lamp

A newly launched and already beloved piece of designer furniture, the Draw A Line Lamp from Japan’s Heian Shindo Kogyo is a quirky and practical marvel. This LED interior lamp allows for flexible positioning of illumination to extend from any space. Ideal for home offices or contemporary open plan workspaces, the device is easily positioned via a telescopic tension rod that is clamped between the ceiling and floor as needed. Having secured a Red Dot honourable mention in 2017, the lamp can be easily adjusted to serve individual lighting requirements, with the body of the luminaire attached to a height-adjustable bar.

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Wassily Chair

An icon of the German Bauhaus school of design, this 1920s design icon is a piece of designer furniture that transcends its time and origins. Also known as the Model B3, the chair designed by Marcel Breuer exemplifies modernist furniture design in form and function. A comfortable and eye-catching addition to any modern office (or school, or even home), the Wassily chair is composed of bent tubular steel and fabric, offering a sturdy yet utterly comfortable place to seat.

Adding Wassily chairs to your office acts as not only a practical and designer-friendly seating solution but as a message about design. Honouring the nearly 100-year-old legacy of the Bauhaus and its modernist ideals is a way of treating the past with respect, but knowing that evolution is important and inevitable.

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Barcelona Chair

The Barcelona chair, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich, was a chair originally showcased in the iconic Barcelona Pavilion of the 1929 International Expo. This immaculately made piece of designer furniture is seen as one of the most recognised objects of the 20^th century, and an icon of the modernist movement.

Exuding the simple elegance that epitomised Mies van der Rohe’s famous approach to design of ‘less is more’, the chair is an ideal talking piece for a designer space. Adding a Barcelona chair to an office, executive office or breakout space changes the meaning of the room – this is now a space in tribute to the marriage of modern design and exceptional craftsmanship.

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The Remnants Table Series

The recent winner of the INDE.Awards 2018 coveted The Object prize, the Remnants Table Series from Josh Carmody Studio is a masterwork reinvention of how we conceive of the table. Revolving around two clamps designed to hold materials together, the series is more than a design object – this is a product that reshapes space. Each clamp is fitted with a leg component, available at different lengths dependant on the desired table height.

The single-sided clamp was designed to hold one material and act as a table leg at the corner or side of a table. The double-sided clamp can be used to hold and join two materials of equal or varying thicknesses. The use of both clamps together makes it possible to create tables of varying shapes and heights with the freedom to add structural support wherever needed.

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Cupertino Desk

Scandinavian design is a favourite of the workspace for a reason, and no list of designer furniture would be complete with a shout out to the design geniuses of the north. The Cupertino desk is designed to be everything you need in a home office or open plan work area, able to be transformed or hidden away in an instant.

The Cupertino desk combines workspace and storage in a one designer office solution. The different compartments of the piece allow you to keep your workspace mess free, while the clean of the design – and slim proportions of the desk itself – serve as a distraction-free and minimalist statement for the office.

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