With all the talk of how technology evolves, it’s easy to forget that furniture needs to evolve with it.
Marshall Furniture, with 30 years of AV-centric furniture manufacturing under its belt, has adapted from its early days of building high-end cases for up to 8-foot, several-hundred-pound data monitors to creating furniture intended to be rooms’ focal points.
Smaller footprints thanks to more discreet technology is a good thing, according to VP of sales and marketing Michelle Wille. She chats with CI editor Tom LeBlanc about how far office furniture has come.
How have recent shifts from traditional office layouts to open spaces and huddle areas impacted adoption of furniture?
We’ve always been collaborating in our own way; we’re just now becoming more aware of it. The entire industry is seeing a trend with the integration of technology and interior aesthetics. Integrators need to know that they should start out talking to their clients the same way that we have for 30 years, letting their clients know that they’re going to be able to personalize their space.
After all, integrators are the first responders on a project; they’re the ones making the technology recommendations.
Hear more of what Michelle Wille has to say about the evolution of office spaces and how it’s impacted furniture adoption.
They need to speak to their clients from the very beginning to understand what the use of the space is in terms of furniture and the technology. All of this can be accomplished by knowing what the use of the space is, knowing what the budget is, asking about those AV requirements — they’re already there doing that but now they need to ask about the aesthetic preferences.
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