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Intent Furniture

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Making of Intent Furniture

Making of Intent Furniture

Designer Joey Ruiter tells you how Intent Furniture came to be.

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Designers

Joey Ruiter Joey Ruiter

Related Product

Vivo Interiors

Environment

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LEED Credit Summaries

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Cradle to Cradle

Cradle to Cradle

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What's In It For You

  • Product Story

    It's no accident that our new Intent furniture extends from private offices to open plan workstations. Its design features and materials choices complement those of Vivo interiors, as well as other Herman Miller systems. Its concise set of parts combines in many ways for choices in matching furniture layouts to the ways people work. And, lots of choices mean you can make Intent as affordable as you need.

  • Unified Aesthetics

    A mix of private offices and open plan workstations? Intent furniture and Vivo interiors integrate to give your space a unified look.

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  • Simple Vocabulary

    Intent has a concise set of parts. Combine them into everything from a single- or double-pedestal desk to returns, credenzas, and storage.

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  • Affordable Choices

    With Intent, you can scale price, application, and aesthetics based on what you choose. Laminate surfaces and closed legs are your most economical option.

  • Adding post legs to laminate surfaces gives you another look. Yet the price remains surprisingly low.

  • Veneer surfaces and open legs scale the appearance upward, but not the price; it stays in the mid range.

  • Going all veneer on surfaces and closed legs raises the price just as it increases the aesthetic appeal.

  • Earth-Friendly

    Intent furniture meets Herman Miller's Design for the Environment (DfE) protocol. This ensures that it is made of safe materials and recycled content, and recycles easily at the end of its useful life.

    Intent components contain 67% recycled content, both post-industrial and post-consumer. They're under evaluation for MBDC and GREENGUARD certification, which may contribute to LEED credits. And Intent furniture products carry a 12-year, 3-shift warranty.

Design Story

  • Industrial designer Joey Ruiter thrives on constraints. "Without constraints, you can't be creative. You have to ask how good can I make it despite the constraints." That has been Ruiter's defining challenge as founder and principal designer of JRuiter + Studio in Grand Rapids, MI.

    At the same time, he strives for simplicity. "I take complex problems and make the solution as simple as possible. I like the people to stand out more than the furniture." That made Ruiter the perfect choice to partner with us in developing Intent furniture.

  • We presented Ruiter with several constraints. Achieve a unifying aesthetic, so whether the furniture is in a private office or a workstation in open plan it goes together. Do it simply, so people find it easy to work with, whether they're deciding on what to buy or managing their furniture assets. Make it affordable, so owning it makes sense now and in the future.

    The constraints spurred Ruiter's creativity. He applied his expertise in manufacturing and tooling to design clean, simple legs with minimal investment - while still offering a variety of styles and sizes.

  • He developed new concepts in versatile storage, with storage elements that reside on a low, footed deck. A single track accepts a variety of bookcases, cabinets, and cubes. They can be located anywhere along the track and secured in place, and be moved or added to easily. The feet on the deck give storage elements a lighter appearance and a subtle residential reference.

  • Overhead storage adds more residential appeal. Ruiter designed primary doors that don't require pulls, giving them a clean aesthetic. Secondary doors on overheads can be easily switched out using different colors or materials, providing a quick and inexpensive way to refresh the look of a space with new accent colors.

    While Ruiter's design helps minimize costs, Intent furniture has a clean appearance and rich details. "They add beauty and trigger a feeling of comfort," he says. "You can imagine yourself in it."

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