Josh's tweet about one particular office chair from Haworth (pictured below) got me thinking about this vital piece of equipment in our lives these days. I work behind a desk at least 8 hours a day, often continuing at home so ergonomics, flexibility and comfort are pretty high up on wish requirements list for a proper work chair.
The ones we have in GrabCAD's office are fairly… modest affairs to put it mildly. Hey, we're a startup, we'll get to the nice stuff a bit later. Before joining GrabCAD I enjoyed Herman Miller's wonderful model Mirra at Skype. And even further back went through a variety of fairly crappy chairs. Sadly, my lower back also disagreed with them.
Point is - chairs matter. Their design, functionality, ergonomics and durability matters. Dug around the internets for a couple of noteworthy chairs and glad to see that there's a decent choice if you're looking for something good for your posture and body and care about the looks too.
My current favorite, Herman Miller's SAYL. Design inspired by suspension bridges. Helps that it's way more affordable when compared to their iconic Aeron.
Steelcase's Think is another interesting option, lots of though has gone into the industrial design and they look good too.
Humanscale's Freedom promotes itself with weight-sensitive recline, ynchronously adjustable armrests and dynamically positioned headrest. It's got a few design awards under its belt so the designers must have got a few things right with it.
I'll finish with one too-bizarre-to-be-real (and yet it's your for £39/$65) real and one concept chair of the tomorrowdays.
Who on earth though that would be a good idea? "Exercise While You Sit, Therapy While You Work!" Somehow these haven't become the top selling models.
This one's for the future. The idea is that it self-adjusts the position to give you the best position to reduce the strain on lower back, give extra lumbar support etc. More after the jump.
Have you ever designed a chair? We don't have too many in GrabCAD, excellent opportunity to become the first chair expert in the community :)
