The Difference a Chair Makes
April 1st, 2008For most people their desk chair is an after thought. They sit in their chairs for 2-3 hours at a time, they get up for lunch, come back and sit for another couple of hours then head home. Most office chairs are rated on average for 2-3 hours of sitting time. Here at Crucé we tend to work some crazy hours. A big website launch could mean a 12-20 hour day testing and finalizing work or a long photo shoot with a quick turnaround means many a hour spent in front of the monitor in Aperture and Photoshop. Regardless the project their are usually some long hours spent in front of our computers. It started to become an issue when we realized we felt like senior citizens with back and neck problems after a long days work. We realized it was time for a chair upgrade.
The search included a few hefty requirements.
- It had to look sexy (come on what do you expect from young fresh hip designers such as ourselves :-)
- It had to be comfortable for long periods.
- It needed to be worth the money for the comfort
- We had to find chairs that we both liked. (I being on the rather larger butt size made this a bit difficult)
- We had to basically just freaking love the thing and be available to afford it!
We began our search with of course what most designers see as the best of the best, the Herman Miller Aeron. These chairs are not only stylish but rated for 24 hours. Our good friend Jason Cohen shares space with us and we have tested his, meaning jacked his chair when he is gone for a late night design festival, and we where not completely sold on the comfort of the chair for the price. The Aerons are generally great, but I found that the bars that hold the mesh in oddly poked me in the leg and didn’t make for a comfortable sit. Jamie on the other hand tended to slip off of the mesh seats.
We continued our search and really stumbled upon our perfect solution. There is a company known as Human Scale that make a chair that fit all of our requirements (they also make some really cool office essentials as well). The chair we finally fell in love with is known as the Freedom chair. Our chairs are a bit different than the picture below but you get the idea. The great thing about the Freedom chair is that is doesn’t require a complicated set of knobs, bells, and whistles to get the thing to feel comfortable. The chair really molds itself to your body when you sit down. It also automatically leans back with you while providing enough support for your back. They also look pretty freaking sweet if we do say so ourselves.
I know this is a long post but I felt it was worth the detail. Hope this helps anyone searching for the perfect graphic designers chair. Good luck.
