Office Furniture Designers

Designer's

Zooey Chu

One of North America's most exciting and celebrated chair designers. For more than 20 years Zooey has been designing award winning chairs, such as the Amicus (Teknion), the Zooey Chu Stacker (Haworth), the Intuition (Harter), the Rascal (Fixtures Furniture), and the Sensor and Criterion (Steelcase).

He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Brigham Young University and an Associates Degree from the National Taiwan Academy of Art in Taipei, China.

Zooey brought his inspirational spark to the office environment in 1984 when he joined Steelcase. He continues to develop new and exciting office furniture products today for many companies in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan and Europe. Awarded 37 U.S. Patents, with another 12 pending, Zooey has earned numerous industry honors for his innovative designs.

Timothy deFiebre

Timothy deFiebre chair and table designs focus on elegance, proportion and the use of wood to create different surface textures. A design assistant and model maker for Ward Bennett before becoming the Director of Design at Brickel Associates. Later Mr. deFiebre became the Vice President of Design at Geiger. His designs have been very successful in the United States, Europe and Japan.

John Kaloustian

John Kaloustian prefers a three dimensional approach to design. Having a fully equipped prototype studio allows him to sculpt and explore the components of a design to work best with its intended use. "Successful design can add better function and a sense of art to every day objects."

Kaloustian earned his BFA degree from the College for Creative Studies College of Art and Design in Detroit, Michigan, in 1979. After graduating and receiving the Industrial Design Society of America Merit Award, he joined Steelcase. Just over a year later he established his independent design consulting practice, designing contract furnishings for Haworth and other numerous seating/systems design projects for companies which include KI, Herman Miller, Steelcase and Harter.

Kaloustian’s involvement with Bernhardt Design has led him to design the Verona seating line, which won a Best of Neocon silver award in 1994, and the Visions Casegoods Collection which won a Best of NeoCon gold award in 1998. He has also designed numerous other seating lines for Bernhardt Design.

Jan Kuypers and Dr. Aage Christian Mandal.

The modern and minimalist Anthro Accord was jointly designed by Jan Kuypers and Dr. Aage Christian Mandal. With forward-tilt seating and a unique touch control feature that allows back and seat to respond interdependently, Anthro Accord is the hardworking chair for hardworking people.

Jonas Damon

Jonas Damon founded Office for Design in 2001 to create objects rooted in the exploration of new ways to engage existing materials. His process results in accessible and contextually relevant products for both client and consumer.

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Jonas Damon worked in Paris and London before establishing Office for Design in New York City.

Office for Design's collaboration with clients ranges from the design of specific products and product lines to shaping the design process as a whole, the latter most recently for noted manufacturers Dune (USA), Vitra (Switzerland) and Wedgwood (Great Britain).

The work of Jonas Damon and Office for Design has been published extensively and exhibited internationally.

Buddy Nightingale

Nightingale began in 1928 as a designer and manufacturer of contemporary office seating. Mr. Nightingale’s first patented design and his most successful model, the XL 101, was lauded by architects and designers of the time as a remarkable feat of engineering, purpose and design. This high density stacker chair has been one of the most copied and high volume produced office stacking chairs in the world. It can still be found in Nightingale’s product line today.

From the very first patented chair in 1928 through to today, Nightingale has remained true to its founder’s core beliefs that all chairs be designed and manufactured with the clients comfort in mind while exceeding the highest quality standards. Today, Nightingale’s product line of office seating consists of over 60 product series including task, stackable, management, executive, conference, lounge, children’s, healthcare and educational applications.

Otto Zapf

Otto Zapf arrived at Knoll in 1973, having designed numerous products in the European market, but chose to work for Knoll because “they are still an island of humanitarianism.” Seeking to design office products that improve the feel of workplaces, Zapf designed furniture that is user-friendly, comfortable and welcoming. The Zapf System represented the major Knoll foray into the systems business. Otto Zapf resides in Konigstein, Germany.

Peter Haas

Peter Haas was born In New York City. Always interested in working with materials and responding to the intrinsic interest in art and design, Peter went to the University of Connecticut and received a BFA in sculpture with a focus on steel fabrication & bronze casting. Peter then worked for the sculptor Charles Perry. The Perry Studio developed stacking chairs for the contract industry.

In 1991 Peter left the Perry Studio to start Design In Metal Plus. The company provided the design, engineering and fabrication of high end, one of a kind architectural components and furniture. Items were produced for clients such as Steven Holl & Mercedes-Benz.

Wanting to focus on the licensing of contract furniture as well as other products, Peter closed Design In Metal Plus in 1996. Since then he has patented and marketed his designs as well as providing consulting services related to product & business development.