London Build 2024 Expo,
London
20 November 2024
More information
How can the UK leverage RE, Facilities & Placemaking to accelerate Life Science & Tech Industries,
London
21 November 2024
More information
In with the Old: London Offices in the 21st Century,
London
25 November 2024
More information
CoreNet Global India Conference,
Bangalore
27 November 2024
More information
The 7 habits of AI-powered workplace leaders: ENGAGE,
Online
27 November 2024
More information
Exclusive Roundtable from Narus - State of GenAI in the Enterprise 2 Years On,
London
28 November 2024
More information
Anticipate London- BRINGING TOGETHER GLOBAL LEADERS IN PROPERTY & PEOPLE FOR A SAFER, SMARTER FUTURE,
London
02 December 2024
More information
WORKTECH24 Tokyo,
Online
09 December 2024
More information
September 22, 2015
John Fogarty reflects on a career in office furniture spanning five decades 0
by John Fogarty • Comment, Furniture, Workplace design
I was lucky to enter the office furniture industry in 1971, at the beginning of a decade shaped by the explosive advent of new office technology. What had gone before would not have looked that different to anyone who’d worked a corporate office in the 1890s: serried ranks of desks occupied by clerical staff bashing away on manual typewriters and comptometers (calculating machines). Although electric typewriters had been around for most of the century, decades of global conflict had constrained their development. The first major advance came with the launch of the IBM Selectric golf-ball in 1961. Although a beautiful object – I recall this being the first item associated in my mind with the term ‘product design’ by a named designer (Eliot Noyes) – it remained expensive and rare until the price reductions driven by the multi-licensing in 1972 of the Diablo daisy-wheel print head.
More →