17 September: Steel furniture manufacturer Bisley is to preview its latest personal and mobile storage solution at Designers Saturday on 26th and 27th September at the London showroom, Great Portland Street. The formal launch of the production model of its innovative 'Bite' mobile storage unit will take place at Orgatec 2008.
Shown earlier this year, as a prototype at Milan's SaloneUfficio, Bite's development has been fuelled by a collaboration with design students at the University of the West of England.
Bite brings a new perspective to personal and team storage for bench-style working. "Office workers who discontinously gather in project-based teams have hitherto been poorly served by the furniture solutions on offer," explains Bisley Director of Design, John Fogarty.
While worksurface needs have been met by a proliferation in 'bench' products, personal storage has been generally limited to mobile pedestals. Fogarty adds, "Where attempts have been made to bolster this using taller conventional trolley-type solutions, these have occupied too much collaboration and circulation space around the workspace."
Bite is a 1.2m tall mobile storage unit which wraps around the bench, not only providing multi-functional storage space but also helping to create a sense of personal space within the open working environment.
A multitude of features include an upper cantilievering secure compartment, for storing valuables such as laptops. It features a letter box for delivering mail and a lid which opens up to create a mini-screen that can be used as a pin board or wipe-clean surface. "In use, the upper and lower elements bridge the worksurface, providing space-efficient and ergonomically-sound storage immediately to hand," explains Fogarty. When not in use, the unit can be stored away.
The development of Bite is the result of a briefing of the University of the West of England students by John Fogarty, who set a tightly-structured brief for second year BA Creative Product Design students. They were charged with coming up with new concepts for personal/team storage supporting new ways of working.
The unit needed to work with a variety of bench desking systems and store a range of work and personal objects, as well as being constructed from sheet metal.
The best design was produced by Alex Forsyth and then worked on by Bisley Design Studio. His design was chosen as it was conducive to Bisley's manufacturing methods.
"Having the chance to work with Bisley, in producing design solutions to everyday problems, has been a fantastic experience," he adds.
Bisley has since further developed and refined the design, which has gone into production following a fantastic response at SaloneUfficio.
For further information please contact:
Anna King
Email: anna@informare.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 7780 956 291