Boring work meetings meet beautiful design

I'm a fan of good design. Unfortunately, my decision to now love mid-century modern design is trumped by my inability to buy all new furniture. So I continue to refer to the style of my home as "eclectic."

My house has been "staged" for 3 months. Three! As oppressive as I thought this would be, grudgingly packing my storage pods thinking my house would sell in a month, I found that I have really only missed 2 things: books and my cupcake carrier. I know. So now I think I can add "minimalist." to my style descriptors. Not everything is coming out of those pods...at least not into my new place (see? I am talking about my new place like it's happening soon).

I'm not sure if it's coincidence or just a series of events that led me here. Probably the latter. I have been reading, both in psychology books and Buddhism books, about attachment to things; how they are used to bolster the ego and the impermanent nature of them. We all need "things" to survive, besides that, the relationship with things is a precarious one. Enjoy but don't get too attached. And I was. I built a little cocoon. And now I am kind of feeling the butterfly stage. I don't need all this sh*t. Holla!

There was a point I was trying to make here. And it had nothing to do with butterflies...

Beautiful design. And modern minimalism.

Think about how much time many of us spend in conference rooms. In the last two weeks, I have had three full-day meetings. Like the "bring the lunch in" kind. At Microsoft, assessing the office furniture is kind of like counting the rings on a tree. One thing they all have in common is that, while the functionality improves over time, they are all relatively....uh...how do I say this?...unattractive. This isn't a criticism of Microsoft. Office furniture is generally unattractive by definition. Here, it's modular and neutral. Anyone else thinking about how they may have a little too much "modular and neutral" in their life?

OK, so check this out:

And read about it here. Created by the designer of the new slim XBox, it truly embodies great design. I'm just hoping that we see some of this beautiful furniture at work.

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 16, 2010
  Not a big fan of this particular setup.  The people in the middle either don't have a table directly in front of them, or have their back to half the group. The chairs look nice - if only more companies would actually consider paying more than $35 for office chairs.

• Anonymous
  June 16, 2010
  Yeah, just a matter of moving the tables together. I suspect that the setup was just used to show that the tables are modular. The other photo in the article shows a better setup. Nice chairs would make such a difference to me. Especially if they are water proof. I can't stand chairs that have some funk on them.

• Anonymous
  August 24, 2010
  i really like the chairs, and the table too. great technology!