May 24,2016

Highlights

  • Herman Miller presents Industrial Craft: Designing the Keyn Chair Group at Clerkenwell Design Week                                
  • This environmental installation will present and unveil this new group of meeting and side chairs that offer responsive movement and immediate comfort for collaborative spaces                                
  • The installation will introduce the visitor to the thinking behind the chair’s design, the designers and display highlights from the Keyn group in a number of environmental settings                                

Coinciding with Clerkenwell Design Week 2016, Herman Miller presents Industrial Craft: Designing the Keyn Chair Group, an environmental installation to celebrate the launch of the company’s latest range of meeting chairs. Held at Herman Miller’s pop-up showroom on 102-108 Clerkenwell Road, Industrial Craft will present and unveil the Keyn Chair Group, a new group of meeting and side chairs that offers responsive movement and immediate comfort for collaborative spaces. The installation will introduce visitors to the thinking behind the chair’s design, the designers, and display highlights from the Keyn group in a number of environmental settings.

This latest range of chairs from Herman Miller brings together the company’s design leadership in office furniture and specific expertise in performance seating.

Stephen Perkins, Vice President, International Research, Design and Development explains: “From our research, we know that people move around on average of 53 times an hour when seated. Chairs in meeting rooms tend to be inflexible, meaning a user’s natural movement isn’t encouraged or supported. This results in people being less engaged in the meeting as they become more uncomfortable. The Keyn Chair Group is designed to respond to a user’s movement, supporting their body as they move in their seat.”

Mr Perkins continues: “Keyn provides instant comfort through the flexible seat shell, which remains in contact with your body from the moment you sit down. Herman Miller’s unique ‘CradleFlex’ system enables the chair to naturally respond to your movement as you shift your position.”

The Keyn Chair Group was designed by London-based design company forpeople, who share the same goals as Herman Miller - both companies are driven by a continuous search for new perspectives and insights, brought to life through human-centred design, cutting-edge engineering, and responsible manufacturing.

Richard Stevens, founder and Creative Director of forpeople says: “The Keyn Chair Group brings together the people­first approach of both firms to create chairs that users don’t need to think about because Herman Miller and forpeople already have.”

Forpeople was founded in 2004 and the key to their philosophy is contained in their name; a firm belief that design is not an abstract, theoretical exercise but has to be first and foremost for the people who use it. Their previous work includes British Airways, The Boeing Company, BMWi, Coca-Cola, Panasonic, and Yamaha. Development of the Keyn Chair Group is forpeople’s first step into the office furniture market.

“We are incredibly proud to be working with Herman Miller,” says Mr Stephens. “Becoming part of their extraordinary team, and joining such an outstanding design heritage, is precisely the reason we started forpeople back in 2004.”

With Industrial Craft: Designing the Keyn Chair Group Herman Miller invites guests at Clerkenwell Design Week to discover this exciting new range of human-centred seating for themselves.

Notes to editors
Industrial Craft: Designing the Keyn Chair Group will be on display at Herman Miller’s pop-up showroom during Clerkenwell Design Week:
102 -108 Clerkenwell Road
London
EC1M 5SA
Tuesday 24th May 10am to 5pm
Wednesday 25th May 10am to 5pm
Thursday 26th May 10am to 4pm

www.hermanmiller.co.uk/cdw16

About Herman Miller
Herman Miller’s inspiring furniture designs, inventive technologies and strategic services help people do great things and organisations perform at their best. The company’s award-winning products and services generated approximately $2.1 billion in revenue in fiscal 2015. Their designs can be found not just in offices and workspaces around the world, but also in the permanent collections of museums and galleries. Innovative business practices and a commitment to social responsibility have also helped establish Herman Miller as a recognised global leader. Herman Miller is included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol MLHR.

About forpeople
A design company that has partnered with Herman Miller since 2009, forpeople follows a design philosophy that is contained in its name. forpeople believe that design is not an abstract, theoretical exercise. It is first and foremost for the people who use it. All of forpeople’s work—design for products, services, experiences—starts with how people feel, think and do. And it ends with improving people’s lives.

About the Keyn Chair Group
The Keyn Chair Group is a range of meeting and side chairs that offers responsive movement and immediate comfort for collaborative spaces. The design, by the London firm forpeople, uses four key parts to create every model in the group, so each retains the same visual appeal. For extra comfort, Keyn’s CradleFlex movement responds to shifts in posture, reclining up to 10 degrees.