Focus: Line Work

Each year, NeoCon® World's Trade Fair marks the debut of a bevy of new contract furnishings and this year, visitors to HBF's showroom on the third floor of the Merchandise Mart were treated to a number of new offerings. Among them was Linea, a casegoods line that is decidedly different from the Hickory, N.C-based manufacturer's previous market pieces.

"We wanted to introduce a series that was aesthetically different from what was already in the marketplace; something that would be unique not only within our own products but also within competitive product lines," says Charlie Bell, president at HBF. With this objective in mind, Bell and HBF vice president of design Kevin Starck set out to find a designer who had not yet designed casegoods for the American market and possibly had never designed casegoods, period.

Traveling to the various European trade shows over the past few years, Bell and Starck found themselves inspired by and drawn to a number of products at each show, including the Nova executive program and Dis operativa executive chair from Dynamobel in 2006 and 2007, and Corner, a line of executive desks from Citterio in 2006. As it turned out, Spanish designer Mario Ruiz was the creative force behind both of these offerings. Intrigued by his style, Bell and Starck tracked Ruiz down in his Barcelona studio and proposed collaborating on a new line of casegoods. "It was the products that led us to Mario, not press or anyone's recommendation," recalls Bell. "It was purely our affinity for the products we were seeing at these shows."

For HBF, the partnership offered a fresh approach to a tried-and-true market segment. For Ruiz, it was an opportunity to design furniture specifically for the American market, as opposed to transferring a European product into the United States.

Aesthetically, Ruiz stuck to his patented style that he describes as clean, simple, elegant and essential—which also seems to be the antithesis of the majority of American casegoods that appear heavy in both weight and storage options. As a contrast, for Linea, Ruiz intentionally set each base back to inject a sense of lightness into the design and gave each piece the appearance of being cantilevered or floating. The profile on the front of the desk is also purposefully thin in profile to reinforce the overall sense of lightness.

Variety—in terms of a wide range of components and offerings—also was a key focus. Seven veneers are available as well as painted and standard finishes, while detailing options include glass or extruded aluminum shelving, anodized drawer pulls and grommets, and leather and acrylic work surfaces.

This variety was one of the biggest design challenges of the series. "It was hardest to visualize the complete range of the product considering all of the pieces that comprise it," says Ruiz. "Every time I was facing an issue, I had to consider that the solution wouldn't be applied to a single part but instead would be extensively applied to the entire casegoods range and the different parts." This attention to detail across the line was just one of many factors that won over NeoCon® attendees, including the Best of NeoCon® competition jury, which awarded the collection a Silver award. Circle No. 200