London, United Kingdom
“We reached out to Layer to advance our design story and think outside the box—we were impressed with the softer, sculptural work the studio had done and wanted to see how that approach could be applied to office furniture,” states Evan Aschbrennerm Sr. Product Portfolio Manager, Allsteel.
Layer’s Benjamin Hubert and Allsteel’s Evan Aschbrenner have unveiled the ultimate, essential task chair, which was in development for two years and its launch marks the first collaboration between Layer and Allsteel—one of the world’s leading office furniture brands.
O6 is a visually soft and simple task chair for Allsteel that responds to our changing definition of the workplace.
“Task chairs typically have a highly technical expression that reflects their focus on functionality,” states Benjamin Hubert.
“Our collaboration with Allsteel was about finding a way to reduce that technical expression to enhance the sense of visual comfort and create a simple appearance.”
This simplicity also elegantly conceals the chair’s 6 functions that elevate the user’s comfort.
The idea for the O6 was to create a design that embodies the aspect of easy and comfortable productivity, rather than taking on a highly technical design that looks like an engineer’s sketch with hardly any ergonomic considerations.
The design is defined by the large O-shaped frame that supports the generous mesh backrest and its gently contoured seat.
The intuitive functionality, inviting form, visual reduction, and wide range of colors set a new standard for welcoming and approachable workplace furniture.
The inviting contours of the O6 task chair are visually evocative of its high levels of comfort.
The chair’s name also pays a hat-tip to the six key interactions that enable the user to configure the O6 for ultimate comfort.
These adjustability controls include the vertical movement of its armrests; the multi-directional movement of the arm pads; the vertical and horizontal movement of the seat; the tilting backrest; and the adjustable lumbar support.
The controls are streamlined and intuitive, enabling ergonomic comfort without visual complication.
With exceptional cushioned support and responsive flexibility, it has been designed to facilitate long-term comfort in a variety of work environments.
Designed to blend into your muted office setup (rather than act as a vibrant statement piece), the chair sports a greyscale color palette and comes in 4 color options for the frame going from a light neutral grey all the way to black.
Users can further customize the chair’s design by choosing from as many as 22 different colors of Spectrum mesh for the back and seat and six 4-Way Stretch mesh back colors.
“With the O6 task chair, we wanted to shake things up and Layer pushed our limits on multiple fronts.”
Layer approached the design from the customer perspective to create a modern take on the traditional task chair,” continues Aschbrenner.
“The team works differently than other design studios, and each time they presented to us they nailed it!”
“The result goes beyond the mechanical chairs we have done in the past—it exudes comfort and will soften the landscape of the workplace.”
Project: O6 Task Chair
Designers: Layer
Manufacturer: Allsteel Inc.
