by Ann Withanee — June 18, 2012—A Best of NeoCon competition Gold Award for Loon and a Silver Award for Talk were issued to Keilhauer during NeoCon 2012 at The Merchandise Mart, Chicago. The design excellence of both seating lines is surpassed only by functional purposes: Loon, a guest side/stacking chair, and Talk to encourage users to “talk” with a fair amount of privacy in open office areas.
The Gold-winning Loon guest/stacking chair offers multiple choices to fulfill requirements in a variety of facilities, from office to healthcare to reception. Loon’s designer Tom Deacon wanted to create “a more integral relationship between the steel frame and the seat and back. So I started with a slightly larger than usual tube for the legs, out of which grow the arms and back in a continuous volume.”
The Loon family of products begins with the simple stacker: with or without arms, nylon seat and back. Add upholstery to the seat, and Loon acquires a different aesthetic. An optional upholstered back pad adds dimension and extra comfort. The Loon series includes tables to complement the chairs.
Loon options are many: three arm choices, three upholstery styles, three heights, optional casters, optional ganging glides, and six tables in two sizes and two heights. A dolly is also available.
The Silver Award for Talk, designed by EOOS, complimented the new seating system of benches with backs, chairs and tables—all created to accommodate and optimize face-to-face meetings. As with Loon, Talk has a vocabulary that is simple yet produces many different configurations in seat widths and heights and backrest heights, with complementary lounge-height tables, desk-height tables, and small end tables.
“In open plan offices, there are few places where people can meet when closed-door privacy is required, but some sound and visual privacy is important,” says Mike Keilhauer, president. “With Talk benches and tables, a meeting place can be created in any space. The table’s hexagonal shape appears to be cut out of the space created when two benches are positioned opposite one another. It not only maximizes the use of the space between seats, it also creates a natural plane on which to present papers and other materials used in meetings.”
Perhaps with a bit of tongue-in-cheek, Keilhauer quips, “Talk more, text less! That’s my new mantra!”
For more information visit the Keilhauer Web site, and see the list of the Best of NeoCon winners on FMLink.
