It’s important to consider products in relation to their environment and how they interact with other objects and people. Brian Graham applied his extensive experience to the healthcare industry through the creation of the Avila series. Avila is versatile, adaptable, and designed to provide comfortable seating for a wide range of people, with the ability to be customized with a wide variety of textiles and finishes.
TRANSCRIPT
I really think about products, not just as objects, which is important, but I think about those objects working in a total environment. How they have to work with other objects, with people, in the greater planning scheme of things. For me, I’ve done so many of certain things, that where I feel like healthcare’s a really fresh new area for me to practice. It’s not a complete change, it’s like a subtle little shift into a new mindset, but it leverages all that experience that I have. There’s so much cross-over and blurring of what used to be very discreet vertical markets. You know, something looked like healthcare, something looked like hospitality. Now because we want aspects of performance and functionality from both of those markets to exist in all of our markets, who doesn’t want something that’s relatively easy to clean, that can wear well. Then I think to me, it’s just a matter of then providing really simple, hopefully timeless, platform, by which then the interior designer, by the use of their selection of textiles, they imbue the personality and the performance aspect of the piece.
So the new product, I feel, has the ability to be a background piece. I could see that in mohair, in a really beautiful upscale breakout or ancillary space in a law firm, just as easily as I could see it in a hard-working, durable vinyl inside a critical care emergency room setting. So, I think its very human in its relation to people even though it’s the simplest possible forms, to provide the most comfortable seating to the widest range of people. It’s tailored enough that it doesn’t seem overwhelming to somebody as a kit of parts. But I think every one of those parts can do lots and lots of different things to make these different configurations. And the forms are simple enough that they’re going to be able to accept a huge array of textile choices. There’s a simplicity in the expression that hopefully invites people to feel like, oh yeah, this is going to be easy to clean, easy to maintain, this ought to be able to last a good long time.