We are very pleased to say that we have just completed the first installation of our new Magna Meeting Pod. This one was a four seater (2 + 2) upholstered in Camira Fabrics Positive X2 fabric.
The pod has the highest specification possible, featuring a tapered white laminate table with a silver column base, a monitor mounting bracket with cable access, a linking panel to link the two high back sofas together along with 2 x UK power/usb smart charger sockets built into the linking panel.
In this post, we take a look at what the business is using the meeting pod for, where it is positioned in the office and what their initial thoughts are. Have a read through their experience of buying a meeting pod and it might give you some inspiration for your workspace:
Following a meeting with the client, a coloured 3D render (shown below) of the new Magna Meeting Pod was produced so the client could confirm they were happy with the fabric colour and final appearance.
An order was then placed on the factory with a delivery lead time of three weeks. The delivery date and time was agreed with the client to be convenient for them.
Delivery and installation commenced at 9.30am and finished just over an hour later at 11am, requiring only two fitters. I went along just to see how it all went together, of course!
We removed all packaging from the site and left the Magna Meeting Pod ready for the customer to use.
The Magna Meeting Pod has been situated in a wide corridor which links two departments, not your usual space for a meeting room but an area which would otherwise have been unused and populated just by a couple of artificial plants.
The client has used the Magna Meeting Pod mostly for meetings so far, but also for one-to-ones, Skype meetings, solo working on mobile devices away from the office and informal get-togethers over a coffee. That’s the main benefit of the meeting pod; they’re a multi-use, versatile workspace.
Feedback to date has all been positive with the meeting pod in regular use when meeting rooms are unavailable. I have been back on site since the installation date and it was great to see four people using it to hold a meeting.
Within one hour of the completion of installation, my contact on site had received requests for pricing and for the meeting pod to be moved to several different departments so other people could try it.
Compared to the cost of building a permanent meeting room to seat four to six people, adding power, heating, air conditioning and sprinklers, the Magna Meeting Pod is far more cost effective. Plus it can be easily taken apart and moved elsewhere in your organisation.
We are now also able to offer lease finance as an alternative way to paying upfront to purchase your meeting pods. Leasing is an increasingly popular funding option for businesses looking to purchase new office furniture. Spread the cost with monthly or quarterly payments, over 3 or 5 years.
If you are considering a meeting pod for your organisation get in touch for an informal chat or to arrange a meeting.
Mark Brown is an expert in office furniture and design and has spent over a decade offering organisations advice on setting up office spaces to enhance productivity. Mark is the owner of Lismark Office Products, a high-quality Leicester based office furniture supplier.
The office breakout area has become a phenomenon that has taken over workspaces across the UK. These areas with comfortable chairs matched with informal tables are a contemporary way to create a modern space that fulfils multiple requirements.
Although they’re becoming more popular, why should your company provide a comfortable, welcoming, breakout rest area for your staff? Here are 7 benefits worth considering:
Break the cycle of being at a desk for 8 hours a day. Standing up and walking away to a different space instantly makes you feel better before you have even taken your break. Very often, you will return to your desk with new ideas as the rest will have left you refreshed.
Brix-Up Meeting Pod
When not being used for lunches and breaks, the modern breakout furniture of today can provide valuable extra workspace for staff away from their desk utilising mobile working on tablets, laptops and smartphones. Comfortable sofas and armchairs and the latest office privacy pods are ideal for when you need a space to sit and think away from the office.
Likewise, breakout high tables are ideal for getting on with work away from the buzz of the office.
Box It Landscape
A great breakout area can become the hub of your business. Staff from different departments, who wouldn’t normally meet up, can meet, mingle, gossip, laugh, swap ideas and relax and refresh together. This improved interaction can encourage better cooperation between departments.
A breakout area can be the ideal space to meet up with visitors. The soft seating and easy access to drinks and refreshments gives a more relaxed vibe to any meeting or get together that you may have. Much more welcoming and friendly than using a meeting room.
Box-it high table
A great breakout area with comfortable seating, great looking tables and stylish soft seating can show staff that you care about their welfare, both at their desks and away from them. Going that extra mile with your breakout space can aid staff retention and help to attract new employees.
Huddle Cave
Use your breakout area for staff collaboration. Getting together over coffee and pastries for a team meeting can break the cycle of going into a meeting room. It’s also more friendly and relaxing, hopefully encouraging staff to share new ideas and insights.
Urban Sofa
This one is stating the obvious but your breakout area will be a relaxing space away from the office. After all, who wants to eat their lunch looking at a computer?
Urban Sofa
Whether you want your breakout space to be used for meetings, brainstorming, or just act as a space for staff to relax in, there is plenty of breakout furniture available to choose from. Chairs, stools, tables and even benches can be used to create a breakout space to suit the style and size of your office.
Take a look at our breakout furniture collection for offices here.
Mark Brown is an expert in office furniture and design and has spent over a decade offering organisations advice on setting up office spaces to enhance productivity. Mark is the owner of Lismark Office Products, a high-quality office furniture supplier.
We have had a brilliant summer for both weather and sales. Here are our 10 most popular office furniture products this summer:
Our Oblique bench desks have been our bestselling desk range over the past 3 months. Different clients have all opted for the all-white finish with its clean looks and simple cable management.
Getting our biggest order for Martin desks since they were launched, the client required Martin bench desk to aid collaboration between staff members. The managers had individual desks with a bespoke circular meeting end. Yet again, the client chose white matt-laminate tops but this time with Oak timber legs.
The largest desking order over the summer came for Visual desks in a special smoky grey colour with silver legs. Simple to specify and build, the Visual range desks are ideal for companies that are constantly growing and expanding.
Perfect for receptions and breakout spaces, the Nexus was a new addition to our portfolio this year. Utilising simple, clean lines, the different seating units come without arms, with a left or right hand arm or as an armchair. Suitable for any reception or breakout area where comfortable soft seating is required.
Customers looking for distinctive meeting tables went for our DNA meeting table range with its curved legs frames and wide range of sizes and shapes. Most popular were 1200 mm circular to seat 4 people and 3400 x 1400 mm boat shaped to seat up to 14 people. Again, white tops with white legs were the most popular choice.
A new trend we’ve seen is the use of occasional task chairs around meeting tables. Our Cube and Flux chairs are versatile, occasional task chairs, with a reduced footprint. This makes them very space efficient in any meeting space, allowing the maximum capacity of seating possible.
The older, bigger brother of the Nexus seating mentioned above, the Fusion is a larger, blockier, modular soft seating option. The Fusion consists of no arm units, left or right arm units, corner units and armchairs.
Buyers are opting for tambour units as opposed to two door units. What is the most popular colour? White carcass with white doors of course!
Our most popular Managers chair this summer was the Vibe Managers Chair . Buyers opted for the high back version fitted with height adjustable arms and a polished metal base. Blazer fabric was the choice of most buyers for the upholstery as it is made from 100% pure new wool for a luxurious feel.
Mark Brown is an expert in office furniture and design and has spent over a decade offering organisations advice on setting up office spaces to enhance productivity. Mark is the owner of Lismark Office Products, a high-quality office furniture supplier.
If you feel that your office needs a refresh to attract new staff and clients what’s out there to achieve your aims? I’ve come up with 10 options of modern office furniture that would improve the look of any work place. .
Our work places are changing so much. We don’t sit at a desk for 8 hours a day anymore, we have adapted a versatile, agile work practices that lead to better collaboration and communication between staff. The Martin Work Table was designed to encourage your staff to work better together across a variety of tasks. Its adaptability means that the Martin can be used as desks for solo working, as a table for collaborating with colleagues or even catching up over coffee and cake.
The thought behind the Martin is complemented by its finish. Tops in Oak or Walnut veneer or in a Matt White or Matt Black look effortlessly cool along with smart timber legs and slim chamfered edges. Cable access panels down the centre of the table may be upholstered in fabric or specified in black or white Perspex.
Our Icon mesh back task chair with a white frame stands out from the crowd. Complemented by a white base, and white accented height adjustable arms, you can choose to upholster the seat in any of our huge portfolio of fabrics to suit all tastes. With an mechanism that automatically adjusts to the user, the Icon is clever as well as smart.
The DNA meeting table is a design that will impress staff and clients alike. Sexy, curved leg frames in white, black, silver or chrome go alongside table tops in mfc, laminates and veneers. Choose from circular, rectangular and boat shaped tables to suit your meeting and conference spaces.
How can we make meetings more modern and forward-thinking, let alone more interesting? How about mixing things up with our Campus High Meeting Table? With a table top at a height of 1050 mm having a meeting is a new experience. More fun, more energy, friendlier, more and more people are opting for high meeting tables. See our blog for how delighted one of our customers is with her high meeting table.
Staff can sit on high stools or stand up. That also means that you can get more people round a table that you could if they were all sitting down. Meetings tend to be quicker at a high table because people aren’t settled in for the day.
An up and coming trend I’m sure most of you have heard about are sit-stand desks. Dynamic movements and varying posture throughout the working day are very important to our continuing health and employing a sit/stand desk can contribute to this. There no special science about it, you just go from sitting down to standing up whilst working when you feel like it. Our Oblique Adapt range has single desks and bench desks depending on your office requirements.
Instead of specifying meeting chairs around your meeting, boardroom or conference table, why not have a selection of Martin low benches and stools to give your meeting space a softer, more comfortable environment. You will soon see that staff and clients feel differently about meetings. Plus the Martin benches and stools are easy to move around your office space to provide impromptu seating when and where it is required.
The Foundry Shelving range is bang up to date with the Industrial look that more and more offices are adapting today. Cleverly designed and made from rebar, the reinforced steel bars commonly found in concrete, The Foundry Shelves can be used for storage, to display items, but also employed as room dividers whilst still letting light flood the whole room.
And to complement your Foundry Shelves how about the Foundry Giant Table? Available in the very large diameters of 1800 mm and 2100 mm, the Foundry Giant Table has an amazing concrete effect laminate top featuring a metal strip across the centre of the top housing a circular power module. The power module gives you convenient power for your laptops, tablets and other devices during meetings or even while browsing the internet nursing a coffee. Plus you can have the rebar base specified in your choice of a wide range of RAL colours.
Finally, how about a quiet workspace within your workplace? The Jensen Hut is the ultimate in acoustic meeting pods with an even greater degree of privacy. The Jensen Hut features two soft seating sofas with a high acoustic surround and the addition of an upholstered roof to create a fully upholstered seating/meeting pod booth for up to six people. Add lighting, tables and the ability to mount a monitor to the interior and you have the ultimate meeting, collaboration and presentation space. It also makes for a fantastic talking point that will catch the eye of colleagues and clients.
Mark Brown is an expert in office furniture and design and has spent over a decade offering organisations advice on setting up office spaces to enhance productivity. Mark is the owner of Lismark Office Products, a high-quality office furniture supplier.
A Worktable is more than just a glorified meeting table. It is designed to be multi-purpose, encompassing a wide variety of tasks to suit many different areas of your business. A good Worktable can become a real community hub in your workplace. Here are 10 reasons that you may find one useful:
The Verco Martin Worktable is perfect for hot desking. Park yourself anywhere around the Martin on any of the mixture of task chairs, upholstered bench seats or low stools. There is easy access to power and data which is housed in the easy to access cable tray in the middle of the Martin Worktable. Just lift up one of the cable access panels and plug in.
Of course the Martin Worktable is ideal for small or large meetings. Using low stools and benches gives you versatile seating options to get the most people around your table.
The Martin Worktable is a great place to get away from your desk when you really need to concentrate.
Working on a team project is easy on a Martin Worktable. Just get your colleagues away from their desks and all together around the Martin with plenty of space to work and lay out papers.
The Martin Worktable is great for lunch times, break times, in fact any time when you want to get away from the workplace to relax and refresh.
Put a monitor on the wall to enable to Martin Worktable to become part of your video conferencing suite.
Fancy a quick chat but no meeting rooms are free? Get around the Martin Worktable and start working out how to seize the day.
Why take a meeting room up to meet and greet visitors. Just stop by the coffee machine on the way to your Martin Worktable and sit yourselves down.
Using the variety of stools and benches gives meetings and get-togethers around the Martin Worktable a more relaxed vibe. Great for getting the best out of colleagues.
Where do you think I wrote this blog post then?
is for you to come up with your own ways to use Martin Worktable.
About the author
Mark Brown is an expert in office furniture and design and has spent over a decade offering organisations advice on setting up office spaces to enhance productivity. Mark is the owner of Lismark Office Products, a high-quality office furniture supplier.
Office privacy pods are becoming extremely popular among forward thinking workplaces. Often the main reasons for buying an office privacy pod are either for staff well-being or to use modern office furniture to freshen up the look and feel of a workplace. Whatever your great reason for looking into ordering office privacy pods, here are our top 10 ways to use make the best use of yours:
An Office Privacy Pod is a great alternative to a traditional meeting room. The comfortable upholstered seating gives the meeting a more relaxed vibe and the acoustic properties of the Office Privacy Pod mean that you and your colleagues won’t be overheard.
Use the Office Privacy Pod to catch up with colleagues over a cup of coffee and maybe a little snack? Choose an Office Privacy Pod for the ultimate convenience.
You knew when you just have to get away from your desk to concentrate on that special project, well the Office Privacy Pod is the perfect place. Its high sides mean that no-one can look over your shoulder to see what you are working on.
Gather colleagues for quick catch-up about a work project. No need to book a meeting room which are always full anyway.
Always good to spread the word about the latest office gossip. If anyone asks call it team building. Plus you won’t be overheard due to the Office Privacy Pod acoustics.
Some of our Office Privacy Pods have the option to mount a monitor on the inside. Just don’t cheer too loudly. C’mon England!!!
Rather than taking visitors on a long walk through your work place to the meeting room, which not place an Office Privacy Pod in your reception space so you can greet visitors more conveniently and chat with them in private.
Choose one of our Office Privacy Pods with the option to mount a monitor on the inside to enable video conferencing.
We often see colleagues wandering around the workplace with a phone clamped to their ear trying to find the perfect place to talk in private. Why not just pop into your Office Privacy Pod for the ultimate in comfort, privacy and convenience.
Cavern 4-seater meeting pod, beech exterior, blue interior & white table
Compiling a blog on your laptop, tablet or mobile -where do you think I wrote this blog post then?
If you are looking to update your work place with modern and contemporary office furniture give me, Mark Brown the Director of Lismark Office Furniture a call on 0116 251 7741 or email me mark@lismark.co.uk
Mark Brown, Director
Lismark Office Furniture
On Tuesday 22nd May I made my yearly visit to London for the Clerkenwell Design Week 2018. It’s the time of year when all the office furniture manufacturers open their showroom doors so that designers, architects, and office furniture sales people can see the latest designs and ideas.
First stop for me was the Verco Office Furniture showroom which is very close to the Farringdon tube station. Verco have recently revamped their showroom, painting the walls black which really makes the furniture colours ‘pop’ brightly against it.
The standout piece here was the concept Martin collaborative work/meeting table which has a new top finish of Oak veneer and Smoked Oak veneer. The smoking is a brand new process which gives the Oak a darker finish, like Walnut, but with some lighter streaks through it with plenty of character and a stylish grain feature. This was complemented by a LED light feature that lit the table beautifully and intricately engraved pink cable access panels with black relief patterning. Verco also featured Martin stools upholstered in bright Kvadrat fabrics.
Verco had also manufactured a matching meeting room Credenza using the same skills and finishes. These items are suited for the organisation who are looking to make an impact in their meeting space and ‘wow’ clients and staff alike.
The most striking feature of the furniture in the Verco showroom was the bright colours they had used on fabric and frames. Plenty of pinks, deep turquoise blues, yellows, oranges and patterns were used. As I’ve advised in a previous blog touches like these are lending more homely, welcoming, soft accents to the work place.
Next it was on to the Frovi Furniture Showroom. Frovi specialise in premium breakout furniture and their showroom was full of new designs. Their headline piece was a Relic collaborative work/meeting table (above) with an industrial style metal frame which went up and above the table top and became a frame that you could hang lighting and plants from. The table top was made of timber that had been charred black.
My favourite piece in the Frovi showroom was their Snug sofa (pictured above). A slightly retro sofa with a classic vibe and very comfortable with super pillow edged back cushions and a foam filled seat. The Snug also had an attractive piping detail on the seats and arms.
Another new product from Frovi was their Foundry range which consists of coffee and meeting tables, a coat stand, a console table and shelving units, all using ‘rebar’ as part of the structure giving a modern industrial look. I was particularly drawn to the shelving units which come in 3 different heights and are great for storing books, magazines and also for display purposes. They are for use in open plan offices to separate one area from another whilst also letting light through, keeping offices bright and airy.
Next it was off down the Clerkenwell Road to Boss Design who were also showing some great new designs.
A chair I had been looking forward to seeing was the Mango, a ‘new personal workspace solution’ made for one person to sit in a private workspace without leaving the office. The Mango chair is enclosed by a curved high upholstered screen ensuring privacy. It also has a work surface on an articulated arm allowing it to be pulled right into your lap whilst seated. It has also has a small metal arm rest pad on either side which you can also rest a coffee on. The Mango would be great for when you need to concentrate on solo work projects or a personal phone call.
Another new, very impressive product at Boss Design was their Plica folding conference table, available in lengths of 2800 mm up to 3200 mm. The Plica table folds in the middle and rises upwards enabling it to be wheeled to a different location on its large lockable castors. Several Plica tables may be stored quickly and easily in the corner of your meeting space or even in a large cupboard.
I have never known such a large conference table be able to be folded down and pushed around by one person alone. This product will be a boon to Facilities Managers who need to move large tables around quickly.
Next it was to Orn Furniture who were located in one of the pavilions. Orn had a great selection of breakout furniture upholstered in cool colours, including very high back sofas which are very popular currently.
My last stop was at Camira Fabrics who supply the majority of seating and office furniture fabrics used in the UK today. No new fabric here at the moment but lots of new colours added to existing ranges including Blazer, and a new Synergy Quilted range. I had a chat with Liam Wycherley of Camira about environmentally friendly fabrics and a promotion we will be launching in the near future.
In the office furniture showrooms that I visited as part of Clerkenwell Design week 2018 the main theme was colour. Fabric and furniture colours are brighter, softer, homely and more welcoming.
More pastel colours, patterned fabrics, colours from nature and wood finishes are everywhere and there is a definite absence now of chrome, blacks and greys which I don’t think we will see again for a long while if at all. Offices are now and will become more attractive to all.
There are several reasons why I go to these events:
It is easy to see all of the manufacturers latest designs all in one place. Each manufacturers showroom is within walking place of another and the manufacturers tend to save new product launches for Clerkenwell Design Week.
You cannot beat seeing a product for real ‘in the flesh’. Something that may seem bland in a catalogue or on a screen may really appeal to you when you sit on it if it is a chair or sofa or at it in the case of a table. Also, when clients ask me what to recommend for their project it may be something I will have seen on one of these showroom visits.
I feel part of a large community that is interested in the latest office furniture design and how it can improve employees experience in the work place. It’s always good to catch up with my contacts.
If you are looking to update your work place with modern and contemporary office furniture give me, Mark Brown the Director of Lismark Office Furniture a call on 0116 251 7741 or contact me here.
Mark Brown, Director
Lismark Office Furniture
Are you considering bright office furniture? Now that summer is finally here we are all digging in the back of our wardrobes for our bright coloured clothing. I am looking round for a Hawaiian shirt to take with me on holiday to Mexico this year, as apparently they are back in fashion again! But what if you want bright office furniture to make your office as bright as your wardrobe? What are the pros and cons?
Using brighter fabrics on office chairs and desk divider screens makes the office seem more welcoming.
We have recently had a request from a client for bright desk divider screens in their call centre as a change from their very plain palette of white desks with grey walls. Its bright touches like these that can add a bit of character to a workplace and make staff feel more valued. Bright fabrics for screens and office chairs come in hundreds of colours to suit all tastes.
The general trend today in office furniture colours is for a lighter colour palette to ‘soften’ the appearance of the office. This makes work places more welcoming and encourages staff to stay longer and feel that they belong. The softer, lighter appearance also helps to attract more female staff and younger staff as opposed to a business which has a dark, imposing décor.
Bright desk divider screens can differentiate between different departments
In larger offices, unless there is adequate signage, one department can blend into another. Adding bright, colourful desk divider screens can differentiate between departments and, in a way, encourage team spirit. If departments do move the desk screens can simply be lifted off of their brackets and slid on to the screen brackets on their new desks.
If tastes do change the desk divider screens can also be reupholstered at a low cost to a new colour more in keeping with the times.
Having bright seating fabrics needn’t be a problem as regards of staining
We now supply seating in ‘Halcyon’ fabric by Camira Fabrics, the biggest supplier of seating fabric in the UK. Halcyon fabric is stain repellent and liquids simply roll off. If you do manage to stain it Halcyon can be cleaned with solution of water and bleach. Plus Halcyon comes in 60 colours including patterns.
We can also upholster seating in Vita Vinyl which comes in some great bright shades and is easy to clean.
What you like now may be getting on your nerves in 5 years’ time. Over the past few years we have sold a lot of chairs in Madura fabric which is a bright lime green. They look great when they are new and they leave here but being a bright colour it does attract the dirt after a while no matter how well you look after it.
Also would you like to look at a lime green item day after day for years on end? If you have a regular turnover of chairs and breakout seating this isn’t a problem but if you tend to hold onto your furniture for a while then I would tend to go for more muted colours.
That isn’t a bad thing as there are some great muted colour fabrics available that won’t grate after a while. Our biggest client always has black fabric on their chairs which they have been buying from us for over 20 years and black never goes out of style.
Another way to add a bright colour is to add it as an accent colour so not on every chair but on one every now and again.
Another option, depending on the style of chair you choose, is that we can supply chairs two-tone chairs with two different fabric colours on the same chair. So you could have bright coloured seat paired with a grey or black backrest to tone it down.
As for bright desks, storage and tables the only bright colour that we sell is white which is still really fashionable and should be around for a long time still.
You can add colour to your meeting rooms as our Luna Meeting Tables have the option of Pastel Green or Powder Blue table tops.
Also, Boss Design are shortly to bring out meeting tables with a linoleum top in all sorts of colours.
If you would like to find out about how Lismark can add a bit of colour and character to your workplace, please give us a call on 0116 251 7741 or complete our contact form and we will call you at a time of your choosing.
We recently had an enquiry from a lady who had the “interesting task” (her words) of sourcing a boardroom table and chairs that were going to work in a historical Solicitors building that dated back to 1732. She had in mind a 3 metre long antique boardroom table but the tables she had found online cost over £4000.
The lady said that she could send me photographs of the room and the space available. However, I would rather go and meet a potential client to get to know them, discuss ideas they have and what they would like to achieve. I like to see the room in person so that I can get a feel for the room, measure up, check the access and the stairways if applicable.
The room was a good size, rectangular, with a lot of the original features and a large window at one end, so quite a pleasant space. The meeting room was in a ground floor location so my fitters would be happy. There were some fitted bookcases at one side and a cupboard at the end so I took them into account along with the position of the doorway.
Although the client first thought of an antique table, I felt that our latest, modern table would look and fit great. The Martin table made by Verco has only been out for one year. It has a black matt laminate top with a soft touch and feel. It features a nanotechnology finish which makes it anti-fingerprint and small scratches can be ‘healed’ by rubbing with a dry sponge. Once the client felt a small sample of the matt black top she was hooked!
Although there a wide selection of standard sizes, the client required a 3 metre x 1.2 metre Martin table which we were able to get made for them.
The Martin table comes as standard with a series of cable access panels running down the centre of the table which may be specified in black or white Perspex, fabric or veneer. These can simply be lifted and cable dropped straight through the table top to the floor below. This meant that the projector could be sited on the table top and the cables placed neatly beneath.
As the table was a special size, delivery lead time was 6 weeks. We deliver and install all of our furniture so we arranged a convenient date that suited the client and her schedule. Installation of the table along with 10 leather chairs from Dynamic Office Seating took only one hour.
The Martin table looked fantastic and the client was very happy. We saved her a lot of money over the original idea of an antique table and were able to supply a table to her exact requirements. Our personal service was appreciated to make sure the end result was perfect.
By now, hopefully, you may well be considering a new meeting table for your organisation? Our personal service may also be of interest to you? Well please get in touch and I will come out to have a chat and see how we may be of help. Email me direct mark@lismark.co.uk or call for a chat on 0116 251 7741.
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