Insights

There once was a time when reception desks were not yet modern, and were only accessible in retail stores. You had to spend time shopping at many different places, looking at one reception desk after another—and whether or not you found the perfect fit for your reception area and business profile, you had to settle for one. Often, you’d have to pay insane prices just to get one you really weren’t that excited about. Add a conference table, a few desks, and seating, and you were looking at a chunk of change.

What if there were a safe way to get t...

View our full collection of modern conference room tables and credenzas we think will inspire you!

As you scroll through these design examples, you will find that each has its own design specialty. One design may have outstanding visuals; another may have other features that inspire you. This does not mean that all of these designs will be perfect for your conference room, or have elements you can copy. Rather, they will provide exceptional inspiration to motivate you to get on board the design train with your office meeting space.

Six Great ...

The familiar workplace that we all know is in for some incredible changes over the next few years. How do we know? Technology is leading the charge together with the fact that the Boomers are leaving the workplace and the younger generation’s numbers are getting larger. The millennials have grown up in a different age, with a new set of rules that create different demands.

From my perspective alone, as a modern office furniture provider, I can see the contemporary office design demand increasing. Businesses want to look and feel more in the ...

Why is a design theme a challenge?

Targeting a design theme for your reception area is pretty much like beginning to design a marketing strategy for your business. For an office reception area (like marketing copy) to be more than just beautiful design content, targeting the design theme to the audience is an important first step. While we all think of marketing to get customers attracted to our business, few consider continuing the attraction process once we have them at our workplace.

A targeted design theme helps to internally market you...

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

I’ve heard it said: the average person lies three times per ten minute conversation. It doesn’t matter if you are a housewife from Duluth, a school teacher from Vermont or a little old lady from Kansas. Find that staggering? Don’t!  It’s true.

Studies show we lie to everyone, 86% to parents, 75% to friends, 69% to spouses and 40% on resumes. Now when it comes to online dating, estimates say an unimaginable 90% of people lie on their profiles. Does that dilute your faith in humanity?

Workplace designs tell the tru...

Tell me if this is something that sounds vaguely familiar…

You want to buy a nice modern reception desk for your business lobby.

You don’t have an exact fix on what it is you want to buy, but you tell yourself, “I’ll know it when I see it.”

You then go from one website to another looking for that perfect reception desk, one that will jump off the screen and say “I’m it, buy me now.”

Unfortunately, the task is more labor intensive than you had ever imagined. You stick with it.

Hooray, you find one that’s really nice, but the price is twic...

ODO is a workplace design discipline dedicated to organizing your business for growth by streamlining processes, employing proper tools and utilizing visual mental aids to formulate internal results. ODO incorporates both technical and creative elements required to improve process, drive performance, and increase a unified awareness for production. There are many aspects to ODO, from the words on your wall to the way office furniture links to the overall process. Sometimes ODO is simply a matter of making sure your workplace is structured in a ...

Have you ever tried using a shoe to hammer a nail into a wall? While on one hand you may get the nail into the wall, on the other hand, you may smash your fingers, damage the wall or possibly mess up your shoe.

Laying out the best plan and tools for the job will certainly yield better results most of the time. 

The Importance of Using the Right Tools

Use the best tools and configuration

When laying out the best tools and configuration for your office reception area, arrange furniture in a manner that best serves the visitor and usage of t...

Juliet: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

In Shakespeare's passionate fictional account of non-typical lovers, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall in love with each other. They are disaster-prone from the start as affiliates of two combatant families. Here Juliet states to Romeo that a name is an artificial and meaningless convention, and that she loves the person who is called "Montague", not the Montague name and not the Montague family. Romeo, out of his...

In many business environments, thought, design, color and visual amenities are as far removed from each other as Mercury is from Pluto.

Business owners think office environment a waste

I have heard it said many times by decision-makers: “I would rather direct my time and resources in areas that are going to be profitable as opposed to wasting money in office design.”

From interviews, many CEO’s think in similar ways. At first glance, it certainly seems practical to use company resources in ways that will obviously go directly to bottom lin...