Tangram Interiors

I was going to write about this large office furniture services contract we just won, but the truth is that we have no idea how large of a contract it will be. But I do know how large of an effort we put into winning our portion. Someone, someplace told me that it takes about seven touches to secure a purchase order. And when you start with a new relationship, you cannot see someone everyday for 7 days and make a friendship. Perhaps in the movies you can. But you cannot rush a relationship.

So when the “new guy” in charge of procuring office furnishings took on his position, we made certain that there was some “touch” every 3 or so weeks. If I do the math correctly, 7 touches every 3 weeks and it’s 21 weeks later; with some rescheduling thrown in and it’s 6 months later.

Starting with a cup of coffee, we progresseed to a glass of wine and then dinner and we now laughing to “congratulations.” We received the “word” last week. But what was totally awesome was the effort by my teammates in getting us this far. Dilligent. Resourceful. A plane ride in the middle of the night to make a surprise dinner on the east coast. Everything you would want from your team; all of the extra effort. And yes, I can confirm some tears along the way.

As I am constantly reminding my team, we control two things. Effort and Attitude. We have little to no control over the purchase order making its way to us. But we do control our effort and attitude in the process. And is there anything better when that effort and attitude are recognized by the economic buyer we are are pursuing? Not so much.

Sitting down to collaborate on a new custom office furniture project, the Tangram Studio designers grab their tracing paper and Sharpie pens to begin in their design process…

The discussion begins with the question, "Who is the client and what do they do?" The answer: A post production agency is in need of an 8 x 8 workstation that provides storage and a U-shaped worksurface. They want a mobile pedestal and also want wood veneer. We begin discussing ways to integrate the oak veneer in a cost effective and aesthetically pleasing way. We ask questions like, “where can we cut cost and promote function?” After the back and forth, we are left with a hand sketch similar to the one below. With a fixed box-box-file we are reducing the cost of the mobile pedestal, but also adding more storage and a support element for the worksurface. Unfortunately, their budget doesn’t allow for the use of a lot of veneer, but we can eliminate some of the cost on extra legs by utilizing the veneer as functioning support as well as a beautiful form. Anytime we can give a component multiple functions we are reducing cost and promoting good design.

When I travel, I see things in a different way. I know, Hello Obvious, but bear with me. They say you should only travel with those you love. That is so true, especially when you are traveling alone. I have to get myself into the head space of loving who I am and staying in a receptive and resourceful state if I want to have any fun. That head space allows me to change my perspective of the world. It’s like clearing the camera lens with a cloth. Suddenly you can see things clearly, perhaps closer to how they really are.

So, in travel, whether I am reading a magazine, listing to my iPod or looking at the zillion pictures I have on it, because of the time I have, my perspective changes. I get informed by the past, by familiar music and images, and inspired by the new settings around me.

She came from humble circumstances, but brought a sharpness, inquisitiveness and an acumen for business uncharacteristic of many in her industry. She sold elegance. She exuded elegance. And she had a private plane at Le Bourget, relationships with the most influential people of her day, made a ton of money and left a trail of iconic beauty and elegance.

In business, we prize an elegant solution. It is stylish, well-crafted and simple, with great bone structure, just like in fashion, architecture and office furnishings. It endures. The most elegant things do. It’s not about ornateness or gilding. It’s just that all the parts work perfectly and beautifully together.

Some seem to come by elegance easily, but frankly if it was easy, we’d all be there. It takes work, and an elegant solution might go through tons of iterations and distillations before it seems remotely elegant. It takes refinement, restraint, to arrive at an elegant solution.

Or it might just appear miraculously, and forever change the landscape of the world around it.

But don’t count on that only! Do what Chanel did. There is the old tale of how she selected the fragrance of the enduring No. 5. Rows of white handkerchiefs lined up on the mirrored mantle, the result of years of research. Each one sniffed, evaluated, ruthlessly scrutinized, even though she reputedly had a migraine that day. Shades of minor distinction to choose from. All her life experience to that point in the setting of great personal weakness informed her final choice. The result endures to this day.

An elegant solution.

The "bucket list"....one hundred things to see/experience/become before you die. Do you have one? Do you need one? Each year, I check a few things off my bucket list, and add a few more. Some things are highly unlikely. For instance: "Become President of the United States".

But what if....what if you wished for something wild and in spite of the odds and obstacles it happened?

I come from a family that loves baseball. As a kid, my parents ignited that passion by taking my brother and I to the Angels games. This was "back in the day" when Bobby Grich, Nolan Ryan, the great Rod Carew and many, many others played for Angels. My grandma, who turns 96 in less than three weeks still watches "her team" play every time they are on TV. (Full disclosure: Grammy now lives in Arizona, so she is a Diamondbacks fan now...but that's a whole other blog.)

At any rate, I grew up loving baseball, and watching certain baseball milestones are on my bucket list.  For instance:

• Angels win World Series - check October 2002...saw it with my own eyes!!Gotta' love a comeback story!

• See World Series Trophy in person - check July 2010 Fanfest...and I've got the photo to prove it.

I checked the most recent items off my list occurred yesterday and here's the adventure:

Attend All-Star Game want (need) tickets. Tickets confirmed July 8...work calendar clear! Oh wait...shortlisted for an office furniture services bid, presentation on July 13 in the afternoon...no problem, I'll bring a change of clothes. Customer running a bit late...no problem! Presentation done, clothes changed, on road...no traffic...this is an epic gift from the traffic gods! Pick up husband, grab tickets, grab snacks, set tickets down and head to game. Yep, I set the tickets down!!!!!!!! When did I realize this? One mile from the stadium! Crap!! Head home in traffic, pick up tickets and head back to stadium. Cannot access parking in stadium, head to off-stadium lot, pay $20...no spots in lot. My sweet and resourceful husband, spots tailgaters and convinces them to let us park under their awning (meaning they can't leave until we leave.) Walk with crowd to stadium...jaywalk...cops whistle and yell, but a bunch of people follow us, and they can't catch all of us. Make it to seats, with husband, with snacks and with marriage intact. Now surrounded by cool people in 85 degree heat. Watch MLB's greats put aside their normal rivalry and show their stuff. That is enough for me! But wait, there's more....in the 7th inning, Torii Hunter is at bat and FOX cuts away to a crowd shot...and well, my sweet husband and I were on TV (a secret item on my bucket list.) How do we know? We started getting phone calls and text messages from family and friends who knew we were at the game...and the tailgaters who let us park under their awning? As soon as we returned to our car, we were greeted with "Dude...you guys were on TV...we saw you!!!! Seriously!!!"

Two wild and secret things on my bucket list, DONE!!  I've got a new item on my bucket list..."win lottery"...you just never know!!

Cheers!!

Last Tuesday was Nervous White Man Day. How did I know?

The day began with a bunch of emails on a wide variety of subjects.

They all had the following in common:

1. Vague description of a problem
2. Assumptions about the problem
3. A vague sense of malaise on top of the vague description of the problem
4. Guilt about the problem (even that was vague)
5. The problem was being handled for others who might be Less Fortunate
6. Value judgments, centered around the problem

Oh, and the authors were, well, white men. Nervous ones.

Of course there had to be follow-up emails. And calls. To make sure the magnitude of the situation was underscored.

Today is Monday and I still cannot recall what was important about any of those emails last Tuesday. None of them are in play any more. Maybe it was just Nervous White Man Day.

Sad to say, I was one of them. Yes, I am a Nervous White Man.

So, what‘s an NWM to do? What can you do if you get NWM’d?

• Convert the vague to specific
• Identify the real request (if there is one)
• Decide what you are willing to do (this might involve the Delete key)
• Exhale

If I sell this idea to Hallmark, I might be able to retire after all. But the thought of it makes me nervous.

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.

The party everyone talks about but never knows what to call…was the best event for the group yet! Some call it Young Downtown Los Angeles, others No Networking Allowed Event, and only the brave call it 2 Jews and a Blonde Dude…whatever it’s called brought in over 600 guests to the Penthouse Suite of the AT&T Center last night!

Justin Weiss, Azzi Kashani, and Mitch Carricart make up the threesome people call “2 Jews and a Blonde Dude" - a group of friends that were sick of stuffy networking events where the one goal is to get business cards of prospective clients or partners. They started having these events about a year and a half ago and it’s grown into the sensational event it was last night!


This event brings out Los Angeles’ finest from businesses like Northrop Grumman to organizations like the Weingart Association. Tangram sponsored the event with office furnishings from Steelcase and Coalesse…but the hottest part of the design came from a last minute inspiration from our commercial flooring division. Fred McGinn from Tangram Fabricators came through with some sexy red carpet tiles that were strategically placed throughout the space. What a hit!

The chairs were full, the music was pumping and the drinks were flowing. It may have been “No Networking Allowed” but when hundreds of people are crammed up against the bar to get a drink…you get to know each other pretty well! If you’re interested in attending the next event please contact me and I’ll get you on the list!

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!

So it's been awhile since my last post in which I was listing the benefits of the Apple iPad and its potential to positively affect my daily routine here at Tangram Interiors.  It's been so long in fact that the buzz about Apple's latest product isn't even about the iPad anymore thanks to the recent release of the iPhone 4.

Since my efforts to be an "early adopter" like Phil from Modern Family (arguably the best show on television) were successful (yes, I now have my very own iPad) I thought I would share with you one of the most recent FREE Apps that I downloaded.

Now, office furnishings and office space design might not be the first thing you thought of, but that is exactly what Steelcase had in mind when they developed Roam, which provides you with an interactive tour of the Chicago WorkLife Center located in the iconic Merchandise Mart, recently renovated for NeoCon 2010.

For every solution displayed in the showroom, Roam gives you an interactive floorplan complete with beautiful high-resolution photos (that can be saved or shared via Facebook) along with 3D visualizations, footprints and measurements, the design intent that led to the application, the types of work the solution supports, the products that comprise each solution, and details about the overall showroom design.  While touring through the showroom, our local Tangram and Steelcase team had access to an iPad loaded with Roam that enabled them to enhance our guests' experience and provide further insight to the newest office interiors solutions.

   

If you were unable to visit us at NeoCon in Chicago this year, feel free to connect with us so we can share our recap presentation of all of the newest products and solutions and give you the virtual tour on the iPad!

I recently attended NeoCon with twelve other Tangram managers, designers and salespeople, in addition to hosting four Southern California independent designers at the show.

I LOVE Chicago!! The city is alive, the restaurants have fabulous food, and the people are as welcoming as in any city in the country. Of course, I am not sure I would want to brave the downtown Windy City streets during the winter weather, but I will take late spring/early summer there anytime.

This trip marks my tenth or eleventh NeoCon. I always value the opportunity to see colleagues and friends in the office furnishings industry, and our annual catch-up is always enjoyable.

My goals at NeoCon are usually the same. What products, services, and concepts can I discover to bring back to Tangram healthcare customers in California  While business is slow, and capital budgets are strained to the breaking point, my end-users, my partners in success, will gladly spend when they see an immediate return for their operations. My job is find healthcare design solutions which will be cost-effective, and increase the Tangram "value-proposition" to our customers.

This year at NeoCon, I saw some very interesting new products at Steelcase Nurture. One, is the Pocket mobile laptop cart, and another was the line of Tava seating. Pocket brings flexibility to healthcare environments by offering a mobile, attractive, technology support cart with multiple storage options. Tava is a sophisticated collection of lounge seating meeting a range of functional requirements while providing a beautiful transitional aesthetic with a hospitality feel. I always appreciate the critical research and functional understanding that Nurture brings with every new product, which I can consequently bring the California healthcare community. I have included links for both of these new Nurture products for you to review, as well as view the Chicago Nurture showroom. Let me know what you think.


In addition to seeing these new products, I also attended a workshop on hospital-acquired infection (HAI) control. Many companies are approaching this costly, challenging, acute care facility concern, in numerous ways. None of the solutions seem to be the silver-bullet, but I believe that a combination of tactics and strategies will minimize the HAI rate, which leads to better hospital selection choices, and reduced remediation costs. I am curious to know what HAI reducing protocols you advise and recommend.

On my recent trip to Neocon I was introduced to Sensitile - a Detroit, Michigan based manufacturer of innovative surface materials that dynamically respond to light.

They had this really cool material call “Jali” - which was "inspired by traditional Indian stone screens" that I brought back to Charlotte to inspire her and our team on upcoming projects! It uses the daylight and ambient light to power movement around it to create this dazzling rippled affect!

I can't wait to apply this to one of our custom office furniture solutions!

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. 

I was anxious and excited to start my fist day at NeoCon in Chicago.  I didn’t know what to expect as about 100 DIRTTBags gathered at the Hotel 71 on Wacker Street for the annual DIRTT training and meeting session.

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.

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.

All right, so I might be unusually philosophical late on a Friday afternoon. So my blood pressure might be too high, like the cardiologist with zero personality who barely knows me suggested the other day. Or I might be too toxic in how I react to every minor annoyance that comes my way. The traffic in Southern California. The choices people around me make. Assumptions I make. The traffic.

As I left his office I was focusing on his obviously circumstantial, mis-diagnosis. I strode to the elevator. The lady in the elevator with the timeless black shift and the clipboard just had this radiance. We were discussing the weather, which has been lovely, but she spoke of it as if she were savoring a glorious meal. There was a contagious delight that passed to me, as she genuinely enjoyed recounting the bliss of cloudy mornings, sunny afternoons and cloudy evenings, a heavenly variety of beauty. I noticed the iconic 60’s Brazilian Modern décor of the lobby. Timeless, with that dark orange, espresso brown and white palette. I don’t think we provided their office furnishings, though. We parted into the sunny parking lot shaded by the purple trees with sincere wishes to enjoy the day.

It hit me. When I put positive stuff out there, it radiates into the world. When I do negative stuff, the same thing happens. So, although the picture above is by Chapman University around the corner from my house, miles away from the beach, there is this drain that reminds us that what goes in there drains to the ocean.

So, the butterfly wing that creates the tsunami. What I do affects the universe. Dumping drains to ocean. I know it is totally Captain Obvious, but there it was. I was seized by the obvious.

Don Miguel Ruiz, the author of The Four Agreements cites the first as being impeccable with your word. Make sure that what you put out there is positive, benevolent, inspirational, a blessing to others. It affects others, and radiates back to you, so make it positive, impeccable.

While writing, Tim McDonald forwarded me the video below by Professor Philip Zimbardo in which he talks about how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.

I am still processing this.