Leading Colombian furniture company, MUMA, approached us with a brief that was both wide open and challenging: ‘Design a task chair to bolster market share in South America, whilst considering international expansion’. Our response needed to be ultra sensitive to the local market and manufacturing opportunities, yet also create interest in a crowded sector overseas.
The brief provided scope for all of our team’s talents to shine, allowing us to draw on our experience with international clients; to use our anthropological approach to research; to demonstrate our materials and manufacturing expertise; and showcase how we help analyze and create market categories.
In order to strengthen MUMA’s domestic success, we needed to develop the chair with true, local, South American input. From the initial user research through to investigation of the manufacturing facilities, everything took place on-site in South America.
One bonus of having access to local manufacturing facilities early in the process was the ability to incorporate efficient manufacturing techniques. A simplified one-piece seat back was developed knowing it could be properly molded in the local facility. This direct factory correspondence also helped immensely with the development of the chair’s support skeleton, which was particularly crucial when using a complex resin such as Hytrel RS by DuPont™.
The result? “Ingo” – a stylish, multi-functional, ergonomically superior task chair, featuring a thermo-resistant elastomeric backrest, which molds to the users specific body size and contour. Ingo is already gaining huge sales interest in its home market, but is also proving to have universal appeal.
