Origen Air Founders Susan Blanchet and Andrew Crawford recently attended their first NeoCon, the world’s most important event of the year for the commercial interior design industry. This annual event took place in Chicago and was a valuable opportunity to meet innovative manufacturers, dealers, designers, architects, influencers, editors and publishers in the sustainable design space.
Our founders were greeted with high-energy, optimism and forward-thinking companies keen to welcome back the corporate workforce with fresh new designs and concepts from the brightest minds in the industry. The creative and visually stunning displays were a treat for the senses.
The hot product of the show was clearly the freestanding privacy pods that were featured as prominent showpieces by many of Neocon’s top brands and distributors. These soundproof “think tanks” provide an optimal oasis of comfort and privacy in today’s busiest offices and workspaces.
Pioneering this silent evolution within the corporate office furnishings industry was the Scandinavian company, Framery. Founded in 2010, the Finnish start-up had reached their first million euros in sales revenue by 2013. In 2018, Framery held a 58% market share in a niche industry that they had invented. As of today, Framery employs 340 people with more than 15,000 pods delivered to productivity-focused offices around the world.
Taking stock of this corporate furniture history lesson allows us to examine that critical space in time where an invention is both non-consensus, yet correct in its inherent solution. Products that evolve to this status are left to those determined and tenacious founders to dig deep and lift their product to market….no matter what!!
At Origen Air, we admire the trajectory of Framery and are grateful for their pioneering spirit. We love their products and the benefits they provide. We find inspiration in their ability to create niche markets where one simply did not exist. As healthy building technologies and more productive work environments become a focal point of corporate office environments, Origen Air aims to create an ultra-green niche market of their own, one breath at a time.
