Tag : privacy screens

Walls are the most traditional form of office dividers. But they’re expensive and difficult to move without a full remodel. These days, businesses are looking for simpler, faster, and cheaper ways to create divisions between work areas. Here are a number of unusual ways they can do just that.

#1 Accordion Walls

One of the most flexible and unique ways to divide space is with freestanding accordion partitions. Molo, a NeoCon 2014 Gold winner, is a well-known provider of this type of solution. Their Tyvek honeycomb architectural products are designed to dampen sound and visually separate space. Because this type of privacy screen can be easily reconfigured by one or two people, it’s an attractive option for employees who like to take control of their work environment.

#2 Modular Floor Tiles

Sometimes, space separation is more about visual delineation than physical barriers. It’s possible to use color, texture, and light to divide one space from the next. For example, colored floor tiles laid down in geometric or curving patterns can carve pathways through the workspace and create diverse environments for each department or “zone”.

#3 Decorative Lighting

Extravagant architectural lighting installations from companies like Seeyond can make walls or ceilings completely unique in each work area. Some of these solutions even create alcoves within the workspace by arcing in curving lines from floor to ceiling. These internally lit structures feature different levels of brightness or even different colors to impact mood.

#4 Glass and Acrylic Panels

Installations from companies like 3Form and LOFTWalls take a semi-transparent and entirely artistic approach to office space division. These pieces of a glass or acrylic can be curved or flat, colored or clear, textured or smooth. Many designs contain inclusions of natural or manmade materials to add visual interest. They may be specified as free-standing panels, but many are used as inset decoration in other structural components.

#5 Desktop Dividers

At the individual workstation level, cubicle walls have long been the standard for office dividers. However, the advent of the open office has created demand for a more customizable solution. Our OBEX desktop mounted privacy panels achieve that objective. With a wide variety of textiles, polycarbonate tiles, and even custom-printed panels, these products are another example of how space division has gone beyond the boring, blank wall.

In case you’ve been looking at your current office space and trying to decide about your newest layout, panel extenders may be on your list of options. Will they work for your space? Let’s look at a few kinds of offices and how the work station walls affect productivity.

For many offices, the work process has become much more collaborative which has translated into more low-wall cubicles and even benching systems in the workplace. Many industry experts believe the taller wall cubicles or “Dilbert cubes” are on their way out. However, low walls or no walls isn’t feasible for all workers.

Benching systems are popular in Europe;  the absence of panels allows you to cram more people into one area, which can foster creativity and collaboration but be bad for employee comfort and productivity in some cases.

Cubicles with low walls (42″ high)  allow employees to see and talk to each other while seated or standing, allowing for a lot of collaboration, team work and creativity. However, they still don’t give workers privacy (although workers do have a more clearly defined “owned” space) and acoustically offer no help at all.

Medium height cubicle walls (53″ high) is the fall back option for many offices. Employees have more privacy and can be more productive. All they have to do to reach out to a co-worker is stand up. here is still not very much acoustical privacy, however.

This brings us back to high walls, with panels 65” tall and greater. This offers the most acoustical and visual privacy. This is ideal for some workers and jobs that require some privacy, and extreme focus, but is no longer considered ideal. They can make many employees feel isolated and cut off.

A blended solution is usually the best option. Panel extenders can help you customize each cubicle or group of cubicles to provide just the right amount of privacy while still fostering teamwork and collaborative creativity.

You can even create pods of sorts, with each team having higher walls around the perimeter of their section to provide them with a sense of privacy, and lower walls between team members for ease of communication.

Panel extenders can be the answer to your new work layout. Call us and ask for advice!

It’s Friday again, and that means it’s time to talk about workstation privacy.

When workspace is shared, how do you keep your private life private? Do you simply refrain from having items like personal photos of family vacations displayed? Do you lose the freedom to express your individuality? Or do you find yourself in a battle for dominance with a co-worker whose personality spills over and stamps the rest of the office?

Managers, how do you deal with disputes over decorating workstations? Is it anything goes, or work related stuff only? Have you discussed with your onsite employees how their workstations could be made more inviting? You can use a variety of tools, including panel extenders and privacy screens, to divide areas in the office and create a unique user-space for each employee.

Have you ever had an unhappy incident at work that hinged on your personal life being ion display at your workstation? Tell us about it in the comments.

It’s Friday, which means we are open for discussion once again on the topic of workstation privacy. Today, let’s talk about the infamous at work personal phone call.

Short of banning personal phones from the workplace (difficult when so many employees use their phones for work AND play), keeping a lid on the abuse of workplace phone privileges can be tough. In the cubicle environment, it can be even harder to maintain professionalism and privacy, even with cubicle wall extenders and privacy screens.

Allowing a quiet space for workers to make personal calls (a cubicle with extra privacy panels set up in the corner away from the main grouping) can help. It makes it fairly obvious to the manager who is spending too much time on non-work-related phone calls, but gives workers better privacy when they do have to deal with sensitive situations while at work.

Have you ever had an issue with a co-worker intruding into your life as the result of an overheard phone call? Tell us about it!

In April, Knoll introduced a new set of office furniture by OMA. The collection debuted in Milan, Italy, and features the provocative designs of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. This assortment of office “Tools for Life” features items that support both work and socialization. The underlying ethos of the project is unpredictable functionality. The pieces have obvious purpose yet can also be configured in unexpected ways to deliver surprising results. It’s the interface between people and object that makes the furniture come alive – like kinetic sculpture.

Spinnable Stack

The 04 Counter is an example of this animated furniture style. It starts as a solid stack of three horizontal beams. With a few quick movements, the stack can be twisted and separated to turn this monolithic wall into a space divider with all manner of angles. Each piece can rotate smoothly through 360 degrees to create a communal architecture for people to sit on, lean against, or gather around. We imagine the exposed beam surfaces would make a great place to set a file folder or a cup of coffee – until someone moves the beams again and knocks everything to the floor!

Sleek Styling

Additional items in the collection include height adjustable work/meeting tables, stacked swiveling coffee tables, bench and work/lounge seating. The materials featured throughout the set are simple yet diverse, ranging from natural elements like wood, leather and travertine to more sterile substances such as acrylic, aluminum and even concrete. You won’t find a lot of vibrant color (other than red) or 100 textile options, but the collection makes up for not being totally fashionable by being very capable. It’s all designed for a fairly mobile workforce that flits from spot to spot depending on the task at hand.

Sweet Silence

Naturally, there’s also an “ancillary” tool that serves as a privacy and acoustic screen. Here’s the product description: “A base of clear acrylic supports panels of foamed aluminum, travertine or wood grain laminate that can be cantilevered off-center.” No office toolbox is complete without some way to cut down on distractions and increase productivity.  These are floor-based models, so if you want something that’s desk-mounted, you can check out our OBEX privacy panels. The aluminum and clear polycarbonate would be a seamless match for the OMA collection.

Are you an office furniture or office supply dealer? Have you considered adding panel extenders and desk-mounted privacy panels to your catalogue? Here are the top 4 reasons to contact your regional distributor today and become an OBEX dealer:

Everyone Can Use Our Products

Whether your customers have traditional cubicles or a benching system with no panels at all, we have a solution that will suit their workplace. Our universal mounting brackets fit all standard panel widths and desk thicknesses. The range of sizes and materials gives them plenty of choices for an off-the-shelf solution that we can get to them with a short delivery time of just three weeks.

Businesses Know They Need Privacy Panels

There’s a wealth of information available about how distractions, noise, and lack of privacy reduce productivity. The move toward low or no cubicle walls and a completely open office has started to look like less than a brilliant idea. Employers know they need to do something about this problem. If you ask any of your customers if their employees would appreciate a work environment that increases focus and reduces stress, what do you think they will say?

We Make It Easy For You to Say “Yes!”

Does your client want custom sizes? We can do that. How about custom fabrics or paints? We can do that. Maybe the client would like some graphics that create a vibrant work environment or highlight their corporate brand? We do that too. Because we have the facilities and equipment right here to make each OBEX panel, we can help you say ‘yes’ to almost any customer request.

You Get More Satisfied Customers

If you need just a little more incentive to start offering our products, here’s a typical response we get for our products:

“I would like to take a moment to thank the staff of OBEX and let you know what a great product the OBEX panel extenders are. We are very pleased with the product and with the customer focus we received from OBEX. The entire process of order to installation was seamless. The OBEX panel extenders are versatile and extremely cost effective and will be used for a multitude of applications in our work environment. I would highly recommend this product to anyone that needs a quick and affordable means of adding privacy, sound reduction or even aesthetics to existing panel systems furniture without the hassle of having to purchase and install new panels. Thanks again OBEX!” Howard O’Kelly – LPL Financial, AVP Real Estate & Facilities

When you become an OBEX dealer, these satisfied clients could be yours…

Over the past few weeks, we’ve taken a look at several types of space dividers that were featured at NeoCon 2013. There are also a couple of award winning designs in the seating categories that incorporate privacy screens. It seems that the office environment (and the individual workstation) isn’t the only place where more privacy is desirable.

Even in reception and casual gathering areas, people are drawn to furniture that makes them feel more secluded. In these spaces, there isn’t necessarily a table, desk or bench to hold a privacy screen. A full-height mobile divider might seem like too much separation. So, office furniture manufacturers are mounting panels and screens on the back of lounge and bench seating. Steelcase is leading the way in this area with two designs that won gold at NeoCon.

Holding Privacy in High Regard

The Regard lounge seating from the Nurture collection is designed for use in healthcare settings. This is where patients may be sitting full of the jitters in anticipation of their turn in the doctor’s office. Or, family members may spend time here waiting anxiously for good or bad news. This isn’t necessarily a time or place where people want to chat with others. So, the Regard sofas can be equipped with dividers to give visitors some personal space.

Little Lakes of Privacy

The “Lagunitas” in Steelcase’s Coalesse collection is a new kind of workspace. Much like the “Gesture” chair, this seating is intended to support the way the younger generation likes to work. These benches provide a place for employees to lounge as they operate a tablet or other mobile device. The pillows on each bench can be configured for alert or relaxed work postures. The benches can be grouped together to create a collaboration area. Or, they can be spread further apart and equipped with privacy screens for solitary enclaves that provide solitude for concentration.

What other non-traditional ways can you think of to mix office furniture with privacy screens? Let us know your ideas in the comments.

This week, we’ll be looking at a big name in the NeoCon 2013 competition hosted by Contract Magazine. Herman Miller earned an innovation award for its Metaform Portfolio. The recognition is for the lightweight polypropelene that makes up the modular blocks in this systems furniture. Because each “block” weighs less than 20 pounds, employees can actually reconfigure their workspace on the fly. That’s a massive shift in thinking about office design. Instead of providing different spaces for head down and collaborative activities and having workers move from one spot to the next, employees can move the furniture around them. Facility managers may not think this “no tools, no rules” approach is necessarily a good thing, but it will certainly open up new possibilities.

One of the configurable features of Metaform is the addition of privacy screens that can be slotted into the top of each block. It’s a pretty sweet furniture system. Of course, you’re looking at a price of several thousand dollars per unit. So just adding OBEX privacy panels is going to be a lot more cost effective unless you plan to replace all your current workstations.

Contract Magazine now has the lineup for this year’s Best of NeoCon (BON) competition live online! As always, it is chock full of brilliant ideas and beautiful designs. We’re paying particular attention to the architectural products category because this is where we get to see products that complement our own. This year, there are quite a few privacy screens of various shapes, dimensions, and materials. It appears that contract furniture designers and manufacturers are coming to the realization that enclosure, noise control and privacy will be key characteristics of the evolving open office space. We’ll be taking a look at one NeoCon showcase product per week for the next month and giving you our opinion.

Get In the Zone with KI Privacy Screens

First up are the Connection Zone Screens™ from KI. These freestanding panels have a writable surface, making them function as a giant white board. However, a traditional white board on a movable stand or tripod easel doesn’t serve to really create any privacy for a quick meeting in an open plan office. In contrast, KI says their screens are “mobile marker boards for information capture and impromptu space division”. It’s their attempt to bring actual, practical collaboration to the open office by making it temporarily cozier for small groups.

Here’s What We Like About the Connection Zone Screens

• They are quite tall to offer more than just token visual privacy for dynamic teaming
• They are wider at the base than the top to resist tipping
• The color will reflect light and keep the workspace from feeling dark or closed in
• They feature casters so they can be wheeled from place to place
• Multiple screens could be used to divide up even large spaces
• They have a narrow profile that doesn’t take up too much space
• It looks like you can store materials such as markers and erasers inside the base
• The white hue and curved shape make them look like sails on a ship (very romantic!)

If you get a chance to see these in person at NeoCon, try them out and let us know what you think.