Highlights
- Locale from Herman Miller wins Gold iF Design Award, one of only 75 to be awarded from more than 5000 entries
- iF Design Award recognizes outstanding achievements in design around the world
- Locale, designed for Herman Miller by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin of Industrial Facility, helps people stay better connected to their work and each other
The iF International Forum Design has announced the winners of the iF Design Award 2016 – one of the world’s most celebrated and valued design competitions, which recognizes outstanding achievements in design around the world. Herman Miller’s Locale was recognized by the international jury with a Gold award – one of only 75 to be awarded from the more than 5000 submissions from over 50 countries. Herman Miller and other Gold award winners were honored at the iF awards ceremony at BMW Welt in Munich.
Of their selection, the iF jury commented, “Locale offers a new degree of flexibility for the workplace, combining state-of-the art technology, like highly adjustable work-surface acoustics, with a simple and clean architectural appearance. Using the line as a base module and equipping it with the features required for collaborative work, Locale offers a unique new language for the workplace. This office furniture program is honest and clever: it is an outstanding entry whose every detail has been thoroughly considered.”
Locale, designed for Herman Miller by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin of Industrial Facility, helps organizations utilize and manage open plan offices with a system that enables people to transition seamlessly between working together and alone, and in seated or standing postures.
“One could argue that collaboration is a buzzword right now - that somehow it might go away, but we think this is unimaginable,” said Sam Hecht. “People are collaborating globally, empowered by digital networks, but the most ambitious businesses still need productive, collaborative physical environments. Locale brings this and more, by way of cantilevered height adjustment that fosters collaboration right at the working desk.”
Stephen Perkins, Vice President of International Research, Design and Development at Herman Miller, added, “We are very proud that Locale has been recognized with this award. Sam and Kim drew inspiration from the high street when creating Locale, which is reflected in the way it accommodates different work styles and behaves like an energetic neighborhood, with people able to move freely from one area to another.”
This Gold iF award is the second for the British-based design firm, who were recognized in 2014 for their Formwork desk containers, also designed for Herman Miller.
Locale will also be featured in one of three subsequent shows in the iF design exhibition Hamburg, a permanent exhibition located in the centre of Hamburg’s HafenCity, a destination for people with an interest in design and architecture.
About Herman Miller, Inc.
Herman Miller is a globally recognized provider of furnishings and related technologies and services. Headquartered in West Michigan, the global company has relied on innovative design for over 100 years to solve problems for people wherever they work, live, learn, and heal. Herman Miller’s designs are part of museum collections worldwide, and the company is a past recipient of the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. Known and respected for its leadership in corporate social responsibility, Herman Miller has been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for the past 12 years, and has earned the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s top rating in its Corporate Equality Index for the past nine years. In fiscal 2014-15, the company generated $2.14 billion in revenue and employed over 7,000 people worldwide. Herman Miller trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol MLHR.