Named after the O-shaped backrest that gives the chair its distinct lightweight design, the O6 is the result of a 2-year collaboration between Benjamin Hubert’s LAYER Design and Allsteel.
The chair’s name also pays a hat-tip to the six key interactions that enable the user to configure the O6 for ultimate comfort. These
adjustability controls include the vertical movement of its armrests; multi-directional movement of the arm pads;
the vertical and horizontal movement of the seat; the tilting backrest; and the adjustable lumbar support. “The controls
are streamlined and intuitive, enabling ergonomic comfort without visual complication”, says LAYER Design in their press release.
Designer: LAYER Design for Allsteel
The O6, like a lot of LAYER’s past work, relies on balanced forms, curved edges, and soft forms that create a visually comforting experience that in the case of the O6 also extends to the actual experience of sitting on the chair too. Designed to blend into your muted office setup (rather than act as a vibrant statement piece), the chair sports a greyscale color palette and comes in 4 color options for the frame going from a light neutral grey all the way to black. Users can further customize the chair’s design by choosing from as many as 22 different colors of Spectrum mesh for the back and seat and six 4-Way Stretch mesh back colors.
“Task chairs typically have a highly technical expression that reflects their focus on functionality,” says Benjamin Hubert, Founder of LAYER. “Our collaboration with Allsteel was about finding a way to reduce that technical expression to enhance the sense of visual comfort and create a simple appearance.” This simplicity also elegantly conceals the chair’s 6 functions that elevate the user’s comfort. The idea for the O6 was to create a design that embodies the aspect of easy and comfortable productivity, rather than taking on a highly technical design that looks like an engineer’s sketch with hardly any ergonomic considerations.
The O6 Task Chair was launched this week at NeoCon 2022, and is now available on the Allsteel website, starting at $1039 for the high-back task chair with 4D adjustable arms.
