Steelcase Receives Good Design Awards

January 20, 2010 – Grand Rapids, MI – Steelcase Inc., a global office environments manufacturer whose products help individuals collaborate and work more effectively and organizations use space more efficiently, announced that the Chicago Athenaeum of Architecture and Design has awarded several of its products with a Good Design® award. Products awarded were Elective Elements 6 New Solutions, Campfire Big Lamp, QiVi, Denizen, Emu Ivy and Emu Heaven.

Founded in 1950, Good Design awards publicly acknowledge the world’s most prestigious industrial design firms and manufacturers. The awards recognize the best and finest new design and design innovation for products and graphics. The jury of architects, designers and authorities in the design community selected winners from thousands of entries from all over the world. For 2009, the museum received a record number of entries, representing the most important and critical mass of influential corporations worldwide in the design industry.

Elective Elements 6 New Solutions is a freestanding office system designed to address the changing workspace requirements in today’s private and open-plan environments. It offers new solutions that free users from being tethered to a wall or panel by integrating technology routing and access into components; and by allowing storage to divide space with multiple levels of privacy and slip-fit capabilities.

Campfire is information furniture borrowed from favorite indoor and outdoor places. The Campfire collection is inspired by the needs of small emerging companies. As part of the Campfire setting, the big lamp is designed to provide a sense of shelter and comfort for people working in open spaces. It also provides a unifying element to draw an informal setting together and help establish boundaries without creating barriers.

QiVi is a family of seating products that is presently exclusively sold in Europe.

Denizen, by Coalesse, is a modern collection of casegoods that fit as easily in the home as office settings. Designed by WilliamsSorel, Denizen bridges the gap between work and life by fusing insightful work process solutions with emotional aspects like beauty, comfort and culture.

The Emu Ivy collection of indoor/outdoor armchairs, sofas and tables is inspired by the ancient art of topiary to create “furniture sculpture.” Designed by Paula Navone, Ivy captivates its surroundings yet becomes a part of the landscape. Emu Ivy is available through Coalesse.

Also available through Coalesse, the EMU Heaven collection is an alluring mix of sensual and sophisticated elegance, in which steel is woven like a fabric, softening the volume of furnishings and rendering them almost weightless. Heaven’s creator, designer Jean-Marie Massaud, speaks of his design as “a manifesto of elegance, mid way between glamour and timeless sensuality.”

“The Good Design award acknowledges and elevates the finest new designs and design innovation,” said James P. Hackett, president and chief executive officer, Steelcase Inc. “At Steelcase, we strive to imbed design thinking into all of our products and brands. We are honored that Chicago Athenaeum recognized products from every brand within our company.”

The Chicago Athenaeum is an International Museum of Architecture and Design, appropriately based on the world’s first city of modern architecture and design – Chicago. The museum is dedicated to the Art of Design in all areas of discipline: architecture, industrial, and product design, graphics, and urban planning. Their mission is the advancement of public education about the value of Good Design – from the “spoon of the city” – and how design can positively impact the human environment.

About Steelcase Inc.
Steelcase Inc. helps create great experiences – wherever work happens. Our brands offer a comprehensive portfolio of workplace furnishings, products and services, inspired by nearly 100 years of insight gained serving the world’s leading organizations. We are globally accessible through a network of channels, including over 650 dealers. We design for social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Steelcase is a global, publicly traded company leading our industry with fiscal 2009 revenue of approximately $3.2 billion.

Contact:
Jeanine Holquist, Steelcase Inc.
616.698.3765
jholquis@steelcase.com