Commercial Interior Design

On Tuesday, June 16th, we had what is now our annual Tangram Tuesday Dinner During Neocon (the commercial interior design event of the year) at Socca Restaurant.   Roger and his team, as requested, cook and provide as though it’s the best family dinner you’ve attended.  Needless to say, we had a great dinner with customers that were more like family than not.  Customers that work with Tangram Health+Space, Tangram Studio and Tangram were treated to a great meal. As I heard numerous times throughout the evening, the energy in the room was awesome. There were 52 of us in total and for me, the best part of Neocon, was our Tangram Family Dinner at Socca.

Old friends became better friends and lots of acquaintances became friends.  When my dad and I were running On-Site Fabricare (which specialized in refurbished office furniture), one of the great qualities of the company was how it “felt like family.”  I know that we all say that that is how we would like it at our place of employment.  I know that I say it quite often working at Tangram and although my dad is no longer with me to share the family experience, for one night lots of folks who work with Tangram got to feel and experience the Tangram Family.

Debra and I stopped by the Mannington Commercial showroom on the Tuesday after NeoCon, the office interiors event of the year, to see our Los Angeles designer friends compete to win a commercial flooring design competition…and both won!

Athena Abrol (WWCOT) won with her tx:style design named “Blue Matrix” and Laurel Peters-Harrison (AECOM) with her tx:style design named “Rainfall”. They will have a collection in Mannington’s 2010-2011 series! Way to go!

Recently, Tangram Fabricators (the commercial flooring division of Tangram Interiors) was asked to assist our friends at InterfaceFLOR in installing some of their newest products from NeoCon at their showroom in Los Angeles. Our crew helped remove and load the “old” carpet (which was still in great condition) into a truck so that it could be donated to A Better LA - an organization that helps reform gang members.

We received the following note from Abby Lenon at InterfaceFLOR:

“I just want to thank you again for getting two terrific guys over here to help us. Your team worked hard and had such great attitudes. I hope you can share this story to show other how amazing Tangram is.”

Check out the video below to see how the Tangram Lift System can remove your “old” carpet and give your office a fresh new look with minimal disruption to your employees and your business and without the need for removing any of your office furniture.


If you would like to give a fresh new look to your office space design, let us know by clicking on the “Connect with us...” icon on the right.

Tangram Fabricators, the commercial flooring division of Tangram, and Mohawk sponsored a soiree at The Annual Blues Festival in Grant Park on the Sunday before NeoCon - the commercial interior design and office furnishings event of the year!

Even the rain couldn’t dampen the Tangram powerhouse of Jessa Finnegan (Tangram Fabricators) and Paula Christiansen, (Tangram Architectural Solutions) and of course, yours truly.  We all may have needed to huddle under umbrellas to keep our manes from turning to mops, but we were jamming to some amazing blues tunes! We also had the rockstars from Los Angeles with us including Laurence Cartledge (Rottet Studio), Pam Juba (HOK) and our friends from AECOM, Tom, Meredith, Bruce, and Chris!

The heart of Blues still lives in Chicago and we had a blast experiencing it…so much that we even went to a Blues Bar outside of town again on Tuesday night. 

What has inspired you lately? NeoCon did it for me - the sights, the sounds, the movement and the new and exciting stuff in the world of commercial interior design and office furnishings.

One of the most exciting things for me was Steelcase's newest venture in the realm of furniture for education.  A new classroom chair which makes the old standard/boring tablet chair truly a thing of the past. It is called Node.

Yeah, as we all know there are plenty of names you can call the new kid in school, but once the kids get to know the newcomer, the name calling usually stops.  Such is the case with Node. Once you really try out this new classroom chair it really makes you understand how Steelcase applies their extensive research to develop products at a level that no one else does - making Node the "coolest kid in its class."

If you haven't seen Node yet and would like to...or if you have something that has inspired you lately...leave me a comment below!
  

Now you won’t find this design in a catalog, but you will see it on the Tangram Studio website, because Studio designers are constantly trying to come up with innovative office design ideas and concepts that will blow your mind. Now I am not saying this is mind blowing, but I will say I am pretty sure it hasn’t been done before.

Typically we see cork in wine bottles and most recently in commercial flooring. I have taken this material and applied it to what I think is an innovative application. Without applying any resin or filler to it, I have simply applied it to a plexi panel in its raw tile form and created an interesting tack panel. Cork is becoming a popular green material and according to an Ecolect post they believe Cork Mosaic is the forward-looking green material for modern architectural surfaces. These tiles are recycled from the cork stopper industry’s by-product and they come in 1 inch diameter tiles, which is plenty of room for your typical pin or tack! Cork Mosaic in this Penny Round style is perfect for walls and floors (or even tack panels) and is water resistant.

Now I am not certain that the water resistance is a necessary need for office interiors solutions but it doesn’t hurt to know that your tack panel can handle a good in-office water fight! And while one can duck behind their privacy panel in a water brawl and be safe from water damage, they can also be assured their office is helping in the fight to keep our earth green by using sustainable office furniture panels such as these - panels only Tangram Studio can provide!  I look forward to the client who shares a love of this cork concept as much as I do, so I can see this concept come to life one day.

The following is a guest post from Paula Christiansen on her first day at NeoCon.  When she is not selling custom office furniture with our Tangram Studio team, she is educating the commercial interior design community on the architectural products offered by Tangram Interiors.

I was anxious and excited to start the day at 7am.  I didn’t know what to expect as about 100 DIRTTBags gathered at the Hotel 71 on Wacker St for the annual DIRTT training and meeting session.  It was a great day.

Mogens was inspiring, as always, in his typical "colorful" way, followed by announcements of what’s new with the latest software released, upcoming product releases, sales updates and forecasts for 2010-2011 and strategies.  The afternoon was a session called "Thrills with Drills."  We were divided up into about 10 teams of 10 people each and handed power tools (grunt grunt)!  We were given a set of plans with an office design layout and a pile of stick built DIRTT product and a stop watch and someone yelled “go”!  We built a small office about 4’ x 4’ square about 5’ high, including power.  Each wall was different and we had to read the plan elevations to exactly match where all the tiles went, etc.  What fun!  And guess who’s team won? Yep, you guessed it.  My team, along with David Morgan from Tangram!  We made our local DIRTT reps, Donna Shirely and Mike Taylor proud.

Following this exciting activity, we walked to the new DIRTT showroom at 325 N. Wells Street for a cocktail party reception and sneak peak of what the world will see at Neocon. Wow, is all I can say. You MUST get over to the showroom to see it and bring as many people with you as you can. It is amazing.  Photos from my fabulous day and the showroom are on Facebook.

Have you ever been in a rut at work…a slave to a routine? Have you been bogged down by gobs of tasks? Have things been “too busy”, “too hard”, or taken “too long”? We all get there…but how long do we stay there? Creating “standards” or a routine kit of parts is in many cases the goal with an office design layout and commercial interior design. Cost effective and what clients request? Yes! Repetitive and possibly rut inducing? YES!

A few years ago, a certain two year old (my niece Emme) responded to questions in the following way; “too busy” (translation: No) “too hard” (translation: NO!) or “too long” (translation: NOOOOOO!!!!!!!) This drove her parents crazy. (It’s funny how her responses even at that age parallel excuses we sometimes make as adults.) Her parents much preferred (and who wouldn’t) when she answered “SURE!”

On one particularly cranky day with no inspiration in sight, too much to do and people wanting much more than I thought I could give, I gave up. I gave up the rut, the routine, the “too busy”, “too hard”, and “too long.” I changed my response and in return, it’s changing me. I decided to roll “Emme-style” and say “SURE!”…to just about everything. “Can you help me with interactive whiteboards?” “SURE!” I replied, even though I knew nothing about them. “Do you have time to review some samples from a commercial flooring vendor?” “SURE!” “Can you speak to this group of students?” “SURE!” I was surprised by what was happening. Giving more was actually taking LESS time, making it possible to break from the routine that was dragging me down! There were also unexpected opportunities: Speaking to first through sixth graders at a school career day. The best question from that day: “Do you know Oprah?” I wish!! (Note to Oprah…PLEASE call me so next time I can answer “SURE!” to that question.) Hosting high school students at our main office for a “job shadow” day and seeing their jaws drop when we picked them up in our company van. Critiquing final projects for a college course, and my favorite, actually having more time to do the parts of my job I love….working with our designers.

Signing off for now…SURE!

What does IIDA’s Haute Couture Rockstar Event have in common with commercial interior design and architecture? It takes some pretty talented people to build band costumes out of commercial fabrics and materials…on top of their daily careers!

The designs displayed at this year’s event were UNBELIEVEABLE! We sponsored Taylor Architects with their “Girl Band” theme and rocked the Spice Girls!

We worked for 8 weeks on designing vinyl masterpieces, choreographing our routine, but more importantly…getting to know each other! I found out that Vicky Goodchild from Taylor grew up close to me in Michigan and went to Kendall College of Art and Design only a couple years before me!

Opening up with “Wannabe”…the crowd sang! We rolled from one song to the next, dancing and singing, Spice Up Your Life!! We rocked out that night and had a blast…would have made the Spice Girls proud!

Behind every custom office furniture project we work on in OUR business…there are rockstars making it all happen!

Thanks Taylor Architects for a great experience!

This is my favorite time of year! The days are longer, the weather is mild and wedding invitations/graduations announcements make their way to me.

One announcement in particular made me smile….

A few years ago I met Cate when she came to interview for an intern position at Tangram Interiors. She was earnest, enthusiastic, and kooky with a good sense of design…and in the first five minutes she convinced me that we needed her as much as she needed us. During her time in our design department, she fit in well and happily completed every task we requested.

As Cate progressed, she came to realize that commercial interior design and designing office space was not for her. Fortunately, she fell in love with designing custom office furniture, and all that our Tangram Studio team has to offer. One quick change of major at CSULB (is there such a thing?) and she was on her way. She’s been helping Studio design sustainable and locally manufactured office furniture ever since.

Cate’s graduation announcement was on my desk this morning…with a note…text “YES” if I am coming…

Congratulations Cate!!!!

So, where’s the blog? Can I help?  Tim is prodding me to follow through on my commitments. And I am grateful.

I have been traveling and on projects for the last 3 weeks, in between a visit to my in-laws in Atlanta.

We presented at our best practices group on Social Media and its applications to the contract office furnishings world. I pitched my idea about not taking things personally to my wife, who subsequently burst into tears, accused me of manipulation and threw food at me, if I remember correctly.

So, I am not exactly brimming over with new ideas. And I think I will take another pass at the taking-it-personally thing. That is the great thing about working with women in management. You think you have it covered? Dude, they so know what is REALLY going on. Several theories are working. You just have to reckon honestly with where you are at and what you are up to. There lies freedom.

So I have been really social and available to our community of practice. This is from an IIDA event we sponsored in Orange County for the Architecture and commercial interior Design community. That is me with Christine Peter and Nick Varreos. Lots of projects coming my way these days, but still finding time to do my day job, which is keeping all the brilliant managers who report to me engaged, thriving and generating the energy that makes our company better. That is the amazing part.

So I am trying to get some yoga in. Haven’t been to Bikram for 3 weeks now. Can’t remember the last time I surfed, but I did put a board back in my car this morning. The water is still 55-59 degrees, which does NOT inspire me. I still weigh less, but depending on the day, gain or lose a pound or two from my lowest point three weeks ago. My private yoga practice centers me. Keeps me open to possibilities.

So, Coach Carol.

All right, I live in California. People begin sentences with ‘so’ here. Especially if they are explaining or defending something. ‘So…’. I like it. It has a neutral quality, kind of like the ‘it’s all good’ thing.

So Coach Carol, my dear friend, texts me today. I haven’t heard from her in like a year. Then this. “Where are you? When can we talk? How about our regular Sat am? Shift happens,…carol”. Isn’t that the best? Notice the form. All open-ended questions. All engaging me to want to reply. We used to dialogue every Saturday morning. Carol is who got me interested in becoming a Coach myself.

So, you. When you show up tomorrow, or this afternoon, or later this morning, what will your staff, your colleagues, your customers see? Are you engaging them? Where are you, when can we talk? Are you open to the possibility of a shift happening for the better? To what extent are you aligned with people who will be frank with you and call you on your stuff and offer you a chance to get real about it?

If you are not pleased with your reply, drop me a line. We’ll talk. I promise.

So, I live a block from a university, and on my run through the campus the other morning, I came across these signs for their coaching program. As the grads get ready to launch into real life, a coach can be a consoling resource. Maybe I will throw my card out there. Let’s be available to those who need us. Flawed though we are.

So?

If you need a reason to head to Newport Beach (and breakfast with George isn’t enough)...this year marks the eleventh annual Newport Beach Film Festival. Screenings encompassing a variety of genres run from April 22-29 in various theaters in and around the Fashion Island/Newport Beach area. This year marks the expansion of the Art, Architecture + Design Film Series.

So…how does this relate to commercial interior design or office space design? It all started with a “pop up space,” a vacant space used for a very brief period of time. Pop up spaces are used frequently as art galleries or retail stores…and they happen FAST. One of the most famous pop up spaces was a 220 foot barge tied to a pier in the Hudson River one December by Target. This time the NBFF needed a space for the Variety Hospitality Suite, and the Irvine Company delivered. Now, it was up to Tangram Interiors to develop a quick and easily executable plan for the space. We went from walking the space and picking paints on Thursday, to having a furniture plan finalized on Friday, painting the space on Saturday (thank you Miriam and friends), having IT run cables on Monday and finally having office furnishings picked up from our offices and delivered to the hospitality suite the following Wednesday.

Here's the before, during and after...

Oh…I almost forgot…breakfast with George…I do have a photo…though I must say he is a little quiet until he gets his coffee!!!

Unless you have been living under that proverbial rock, you have no doubt heard some, if not all of the uproar about Apple's latest gadget -- iPad -- and how it is set to be this revolutionary device that, "heralds a new era of computing."  Although I was immediately enamored with the new device, I was somehow able to resist the temptation to be one of the first 300,000+ people reported to have purchased it on Day 1.

But my choice to not purchase one for my personal use should not infer that I would not benefit from having one.  In fact, I believe that the iPad could truly be of benefit to me in my professional role.  So naturally, I asked the question, "How do I get my boss to buy me one?" I knew I would need some serious justification if I was even going to think of asking for one, so I decided to put that justification in the form of a letter.  Here is my best attempt...

_______________

Dear Boss,

I am writing to officially request the purchase of an Apple iPad for my daily use here at Tangram Interiors.  I truly believe this request will directly benefit the company through increased production and efficiency of my work.

As the Director of Interactive Media & eBusiness, almost all of my work is done on the internet. In any given day, I could be updating our Twitter account with informative links to articles on commercial interior design websites or posting pictures from our latest installation of office furnishings to our  Facebook fanpage.  Or I might find myself filming, editing and uploading a video to YouTube or as I did this morning, helping one of our employees update their profiles on LinkedIn to enhance their networking ability within the industry.  I also spend time editing and submitting posts from our internal bloggers here on the Inspired blog.  I often create and upload new content to our many websites, including my most recent work in project managing the redesign of the Tangram Studio site. A large portion of my time is spent managing our CRM (Salesforce.com - also web-based), like creating reports to track upcoming opportunities for commercial flooring or refurbished office furniture installations.  And while all of that is happening, I am often creating or editing our eBusiness web portals for our many customers so that they can manage their facilites and procure furniture assets easier.

So what does all of that have to do with the iPad?  Well, no one could explain it better than Apple themselves.  But if that wasn't enough, there are also the countless custom applications built specifically for iPad, like TweetDeck for Twitter and a new custom interface for Salesforce.com - applications aimed at increasing productivity.  And what about being able to support our internal users via the Tangram IT Help Desk?  No worries - the iPad has a built-in VPN client and free Remote Desktop applications that would allow me to connect to any computer or server on the network from wherever I am.

All in all, there is no better device available suited to help me be successful in what I do!

Thanks for your consideration,
Tim

_______________

So, what do you think?  Think it will work?  Would you buy me one?  No, seriously...would you?  Because he might not, and I still want one! ;)

I went to my mailbox at the office today and like we all do, I went for the larger of the envelopes. The first envelope was from IIDA.  I opened it up and out came the certificate identifying Tangram as a Calibre 2010 - Design Team Nominee for the National Typewriter Company with the Shimoda Design Group.

Better yet, there were more like sized envelopes as this one and just like a little kid looking to see how much money Uncle Les sent me for my birthday, I then ripped open, in succession, nominations for the William H. Hannon Library with AECOM, Miller Children's Hospital with Taylor, SCAN Health Plan with the Urquiza Group, Beachbody with Wolcott and HLW for their own offices.

I think that it is safe to say that anyone that works in the commercial interior design industry or has any involvement in dealing with office furnishings would agree it is easy to become overwhelmed with the countless products to choose from when creating an office space design.

From the floor to the ceiling, it could be the thousands of patterns and colors made available by the commercial flooring vendors to the more technical components of healthcare environments that could put any experienced professional into a tail spin.

But every once in a while a product comes along that is not only simple to specify, but more importantly simple to use - especially when that product is integrated with technology.  Such is the case with media:scape by Steelcase.  A seamless integration of furniture and technology, this product allows a user to quickly and easily "walk up and connect" their laptop to a table which is attached to as many as four screens.  No longer does a single person have to control the projector and sharing of information - now data can be shared from multiple sources, by multiple people - all at the same time!

Obviously, since Tangram Interiors is a Steelcase dealer and office interiors solutions provider we have access to use their full line of products - which is evident upon visiting any of our four showrooms in Los Angeles, Orange County, the Inland Empire and San Fernando Valley.  We have already installed two standing-height media:scape stations in our Santa Fe Springs showroom, one lounge-height station in Santa Ana and have multiple others that we are using in a "test drive" program where we deliver it to our customers' own offices so that they can kick the tires and use it for a week or so.

I must say that media:scape has definitely created an unusual buzz in the office, unlike any other I have witnessed in my tenure here.  The stations rarely go unused; from impromptu meetings to review documents between two individuals, to full conferencing sessions between our two showrooms using our WebEx meeting center for real-time document sharing as well as our latest addition of a video conferencing solution from LifeSize (of which Tangram is now an authorized dealer!) to allow for more personal interaction.

I may be a bit partial since I love technology, but I truly think that the office design layout and the way in which people interact within it is about to dramatically change thanks to technology solutions like media:scape.

If you have any thoughts on the use of technology in the workplace or if you would like more information on how we have integrated it in our offices, I would love to hear from you in the comments below!

WOW, what a fantastic place Pasadena is to have a drink and laugh with friends!!

Debra Haas (Tangram) and Marci Loftin (Corporate Contractors) put together "Mrs. Robinson's Night Out" and it was evident that this group needed a night off.  We all needed a break from the world of office furnishings and commercial interior design, so amongst some of the best in the industry we toasted with a glass of wine at Bodega Wine Bar!

After blinding Michele Sterling (Leo A Daly) by utilizing my fabulous photography skills, I ended up with a great picture of all of us...thanks for being a trooper Michelle!When you work hard, you must play hard as well - so as the night started with wine, cheese and tasty pizzas, it ended with dancing to the best music from the '90s!  You know once 'Hotstepper' (by the Lyrical Gangster himself, Ini Kamoze) hits the speakers it's time to dance!

Although I haven't had the pleasure of working with any of these great guys and gals yet on a custom office furniture project yet, we all have a common design bond and I look forward to collaborating with them in the future!

I would love to hear how you maintain your work/life balance in the comments below!  

As an active member of Upward Gravity, I attended Community Day at Environmental Charter High School and spent a couple of hours touring their campus and learning about what and how they learn.  I was truly inspired!

The dedication the students have to the environment and education is nothing less than progressive; it was truly amazing!  There were debates on technology (on whether it is bad for the environment), presentations on topics such as quality of life, what progress means, how to make the American Dream sustainable and senior theses on a newscast about our individual impact on the environment.  Some of the students have even given presentations to community leaders in Los Angeles about what needs to be done locally to make a difference.

During my visit, I met many supporters of ECHS, one of which was Jayni Chase, founder of The Center for Environmental Education (and wife of actor Chevy Chase).  The CEE was started in 1988 "acting on the belief that positive environmental change must begin with the education of our children."  Jayni's commitment and dedication to this belief is immediately evident.  I also had the pleasure of meeting Sara Laimon, Director of the Green Ambassadors, the outreach program of ECHS that, "empowers youth to be agents of change in their communities and world."  ECHS is making strides that ranked them in the top 3% of public high schools by U.S. News & World Report and have earned them an EPA Environmental Award.

Upward Gravity and ECHS have started a partnership which will enable student involvement in the creation of solutions to environmental and sustainable challenges through design competitions.  We have already stimulated prompt involvement with the Art and Algebra teachers by offering them materials and supplies (provided by TangramStudio) to engage the tie between these subjects and their relation to commercial interior design, office furnishings and their effects on the environment.

ECHS is the school of the future...