The story of furnishing the variable Framery Q booth continues, as we offer another glimpse into a range of furniture options that we’re featuring. Let’s get to know Meeting Maggie, from the perspective of our three creative and visionary designers, Janne Haveri, Pekka Toivola and Mikko Tamminen.
Meeting Maggie is undeniably one of our most popular furniture options for the Framery Q booth. But how was it brought to life? What was unique and special about the design? Let’s start from the very beginning.
A beautifully-designed meeting space for brainstorming and longer periods of working
Meeting Maggie was designed answering the call for the needs longer period office meetings in mind.
“We needed a comfortable place for longer periods of working where a person could hold meetings, generate ideas together with others or have longer video conferences,” explains Janne.
Considering the requirements of the working space, the designers were looking to come up with a suitable furniture option and that was the beginning of bringing Maggie to life.
“We were looking for a sofa furniture option that would be pleasant to sit in, in addition to allowing up to four people to have a meeting in a way that they would still have space to put down at least a couple of laptops on the table,” Mikko adds when speaking about the requirements of the furniture.
From challenging to perfection in designing the Maggie sofa
The design of Meeting Maggie started from sketching out various potential concepts and sofa types that would be feasible inside the pod.
“We sketched dozens of different drawings of the potential scenarios and sofa concepts for the space,” says Mikko. “We tried out a variety of different shapes before it formed to be the Maggie sofa that we have today.”
The planning of the sofa was clearly one of the biggest challenges in the design process of the Meeting Maggie, as Janne explains.
“It was a real challenge, considering the dimensions of the Framery Q booth. After all, the booth is an unusually small ‘room’ and therefore the furniture that we built for it is something that can be fitted only inside this particular booth.”
“After all, the pod is an unusually small ‘room’ and therefore the furniture that we built for it is
something that can be fitted only inside this particular booth.”
Although the sofa created some challenges during the design process, everything was carried out swiftly, which can be attributed to the extensive, professional furniture design experience of Pekka.
“When you’ve worked in furniture design over 30 years as I have, you develop certain habits for prototyping and concepting. It was important to try out the different concepts with all the possible materials we could find from the factory, just to see how they work in action before setting our minds on a particular solution.”
Mikko and Janne both recall the enjoyment and amusement of the various concepts and materials.
“We took some boxes and tried out different concepts inside the prototype booth. You can imagine how funny it must have looked with each of us sitting in there on top of random plastic boxes,” Mikko recalls.
“You can imagine how funny it must have looked with each of us sitting in there on top of random plastic boxes”
Further elaborating on the design process, Janne says it was all about stepping into the shoes of the user. “For example, even though these plastic boxes were only placeholders or props, it was important for us to experience what it would be like to use the furniture and the space in real life.”
A deliberately-designed and effective use of the meeting space
In designing Meeting Maggie, all three designers agreed that it was vital to take full advantage of the Framery Q booth’s space.
“We ensured the most effective use of space out of all of our concepts and furniture options,” Janne explains. “And we wanted to utilize all of the surfaces when designing the furniture, even deciding to use the wall as a part of the Maggie sofa in creating a perfect position for the back and the neck when seated inside the acoustic booth.”
In fact, even the most intricate details had to be considered when designing the furniture. Things from distances between the door and users, the sofa and the various table options.
“The depth of the Framery Q booth wasn’t obvious at all,” Mikko recalls from the dimensional design of the space. “We had to try different options before we came to the conclusion that simply adding a couple of inches was the perfect solution so that the booth would be able to fit up to four people for a meeting.”
On some of the more entertaining details and backstories behind the design of the furniture, Janne recalls a couple of the sofa elements, in particular.
“The backrest of the Maggie sofa curves into an armrest so that the user doesn’t lean on the glass wall. And the other side of the sofa was purposely left free to place a handbag or any other items that people entering the booth might have carried in with them.”
“The other side of the sofa was purposely left free to place a handbag or any other items that people entering the booth might have carried in with them.”
While the sofa is the focal point of Meeting Maggie, some of the smaller details also helped to bring the design of the Framery Q full circle.
“There are coat hooks inside the Framery Q for hanging up coats and other items,” Pekka continues about the finer details. “Since they’ve been deliberately designed to blend into the wall so well, this is something people may not even realize right away.”
The heart of the Meeting Maggie creative design process comes to life as a prideful Janne recalls one particular highlight of the project, with a smile on his face.
“The best feeling was when I saw people using Meeting Maggie at the 2016 Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair for the first time:
There were four people sitting inside the Framery Q booth and when the woman closed the door of the booth, you could see her face changing completely.
She was so amazed.
They were the first people using the booth. They stayed there for nearly an hour and you could just see how much they enjoyed being in there.
It was a moment of joy and I felt proud of how we had accomplished something so beautiful in such a short time.”
Next in our Furnishing the Framery Q series, we’ll be turning our focus to the design process of the Framery NapQ.
