For their client Vera Whole Health, Ankrom Moisan Architects searched for well-designed furnishings to deliver on the practical needs of public spaces in Healthcare applications.

The solutions needed to be contemporary, a strong value, scalable as Vera grew and provide a range of options for different settings. Memo Furniture, a design-minded start-up with significant experience in Healthcare, was looking for a customer with whom they could collaborate to solve unmet needs and to inform new product development.

Some relationships were meant to be.

Vera created an innovative health model to address the whole person and the environment in which that person lives and works – biologically, psychologically and socially. This is made possible through time-rich provider visits, dedicated clinical teams, and integrated health coaches all working together to implement personalized care plans for each patient. Their model is delivered via employer-based onsite primary care with embedded health coaching. Vera’s customers include Virginia Mason Hospital System, the City of Kirkland, Hoffman Construction, Seattle Children’s Hospital and other mid and large-size employers across a range of industries.

Our work together is a case study of design-led co-development that blends customer needs with design thinking in a collaborative and productive process.

Memo Studio was briefed on the objectives, priorities, preferences, and constraints of Vera Whole Health and Ankrom Moisan’s vision for their space. We generated drawings, imagery, and renderings that best addressed these objectives and provided our point of view on design for manufacturing and the practical realities of creating quality furnishings for public spaces. Memo Studio then built full scale plywood and foam core mock-ups in our Seattle prototype studio for the architect and client to explore, test and provide feedback. The mock-ups set the stage for engagement and provided us learning, insight, and fresh ideas from a broad range of stakeholder including clinicians, administrators and designers.

After a period of make-do-build iterative cycles, the team closed on design with confidence and a tremendous sense of partnership. The full-scale testing proved invaluable. It resulted in design changes that improved functional performance, increased operational efficiency, and delivered on the look, feel, and message envisioned for the project.

“It’s essential that our clinic design provides an environment and patient experience to embody the Vera Whole Health approach that empowers patients to improve their health. The design from Memo reflects our unique point of view. The tone is modern, streamlined and scalable to help us grow. The Prose and Array collections provide warmth, beauty, and comfort in our onsite clinics.”

– Erin Usher, Director of Facilities and Supply Chain, Vera Whole Health

“The main draw for AMA to introduce Vera to Memo was that we were looking for a modular casework solution that could be customized to meet Vera’s unique needs. Most other modular casework companies do not allow for customization like Memo does. Many of the other modular casework options have a very clinical look to them. AMA and Vera were both excited about the opportunity to customize the modular casework to create their own unique standards. In addition, the ability to offer a more refined and hospitality-like aesthetic to the casework made Memo stand out from other manufacturers. Initially, AMA and Vera were only considering Memo for the modular casework, but when offered the opportunity to custom design other ancillary furnishings, Memo became the standard for all Vera furnishings (except task chairs and provider desks).”

– Marcy Naismith, Principal, Ankrom Moisan Architects, Inc.

Shortly after the prototypes were explored and revised the work became an order, the order became a production run, and the production product was deployed to its first installation. In-situ, Moisan and Memo’s work came to life first in a Vera clinic in Portland, Oregon. Other sites have followed, and the hard work of design and production synthesis was rewarded when the design vision was realized and in use with a range of satisfied Vera customers. We’re grateful for the partnership with Vera.

Bill Stumpf, the co-creator of Herman Miller’s Aeron chair (along with Don Chadwick), said, “True comfort is the absence of awareness.” Bill’s anecdote inspires us, and we think that the converse applies when seeking to achieve this vision: awareness allows the achievement of true comfort.

At Memo, seated comfort is a key factor in achieving our version of good design, and both awareness and composition of seating suspension is a primary piece of the solution. It is also a topic rich with technical advancement, polarized views, and strong opinions.

There are a few key methods used today to achieve seating suspension: springs, webbing, and molded elastomeric. There is also a host of curious alternates inspired or borrowed from adjacent industries such as aviation, automotive, and sleep/mattress.

In the furniture industry, there’s often an assertion as to which is best, but it really depends on the constraints of the project and context of the application. For instance, the suspension on seating in a waiting area might differ than that on a task chair, and both may differ than that on a lounge collection. Opinions aside, the good news is that when produced and applied well, they all can achieve healthy and long lasting seated comfort.

Springs are a traditional approach still used today by companies old and new. They go back to the late 1850s. Often found in three forms; sinuous, coil, or flat, sprung seats tend to produce noticeable support and loft. The differentiator of spring technology is that they are installed under tension in a preloaded fashion. This provides for stored energy within a seat and helps keep constant the forces applied once humans take a seat. Further, springs can also hold a form, and when deployed, allow for thinner, more efficient use of polyurethane foams.

Setting springs is an art, requiring honed spring-tying skills, unique tools, and a gut sense for getting force, tension, and spacing just right.

Webbing is another method. Traditionally achieved with interwoven jute or cotton herringbone strap material, webbing has lineage back to chair caning, which is a classic form of suspension.

Thonet’s 214 bentwood or coffee house chair (also designed in the 1850’s) is one of the most well know examples and is still sold and found in use today across the world.

While caning is still a craft in practice today, more common in contract furniture manufacturing is the production of webbing made with 1.5” to 3” wide elastic plastic or rubber materials cross woven into a “web” surface. This web is effectively webbing – and is very low profile, easy to install (with the right tools) and plays well with secondary layers of foams and upholstery materials. Further, years of evolution and refinement of webbing has resulted in webbing sheet goods that are production savvy and efficient. Provided on wider rolls than typical strap goods, this industrialized webbing can cover broad areas easily and quickly using handheld or automated equipment.

Notable with both springs and webbing is how each attaches to chair frames. Clips, clasps, hooks, and/or staples are requirements for these methods, and each requires parts, labor, and more often than not - special fixtures or tensioning tools. In an effort to compound this craft into a faster and more cost-effective industrial process, and to potentially increase quality and performance, Molded Elastomeric seating was developed.

Molded Elastomeric seating is a modernized and advanced form of webbing. Stumpf and Chadwicks’s Aeron Chair “pellicle” is widely known as the pioneering form, and many have followed since with similar efforts. This method is similar to webbing from sheet goods but is achieved with much more sophistication in the specification of yarns and weave. Additionally, it often combines with proprietary methods for tensioning and capturing the material into a seat frame to achieve remarkable support, air circulation, and distribution of pressure, within one cohesive part. The fusion of these attributes typically requires an operational environment that includes molding, tensioning, and trimming equipment.

Selecting the right suspension and achieving seated comfort is both an art and science………with a bit of personal taste woven in. At Memo, we combine various methods to produce the right seating experience and remain attentive to comfort from start to finish. Our toolbox includes foam, springs, and webbing, and we deploy each in a tailored fashion depending on the product type and application. In simple terms, our goal is to produce the best comfort possible given the constraints of the product, and along the way strive for Bill Stumpf’s idea of “true comfort”.

Memo offers powder coat finishes on its metal components. The powder coat process is a reliable, cost-effective, and eco-friendly method for protecting metalwork from corrosion and damage. The benefits are also decorative. Powders can be selected from a wide range of vivid colors, and customized to achieve unique combinations of texture, sheen, and saturation.

Powder coating is a dry finishing process that uses electrostatic forces to adhere a powder to a part, and heat to cure the powder. Operations typically use either conveyer-belt or cart-based systems to move parts through a series of stages. Parts first pass through a loading station and then onto a spray booth, where a powder gets applied to them. They then move to a curing oven of approximately 392°F (200°C), where they sit for about 30 minutes. The parts terminate in a holding area for cooling, offloading, and inspection.

The material used for powder coating is made by mixing and grinding resin, pigment, filler, and binder. In a spray booth, the mixture is fed to a charged nozzle spray gun. which applies a high-voltage negative charge to the powder. The part receiving the powder mixture is electrically grounded, so an electrical potential difference is created between the particle and the powder –attracting the powder to the workpiece in an even fashion.

Powder coating has a low environmental impact, due to powder utilization levels over 95%. (These levels are also much higher than wet spray-painting methods. which are less efficient and produce more waste). Additionally, since all necessary materials for the coating are contained in the powder, there is no need to suspend the powder in a solvent or water, which can be harmful to the operator and the environment.

Memo’s palette of powder coats has been curated by the colorist, Laura Guido-Clark specifically for Memo. The palette consists of a range of base neutrals and select bold colors. To see our offer, browse our finishes overview here.

See how Memo uses powder coating for The Prose Seating Collection & The Tenet Daybed.

Memo’s headquarters is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle.

With a character reflecting its autonomous roots, its historic focus on work and industry, and a thriving creative community, we couldn’t have found a more appropriate home.

Located about three miles south of downtown Seattle, Georgetown sits adjacent to the Duwamish River, which is named for the Native American tribe that originally lived on the land. In 1871, Julius Horton platted the land and named the community Georgetown to honor his son George who graduated from Georgetown medical school in Washington DC.

One of the earliest industries in the area was beer making. The soil and climate of the area were well suited for growing hops. Capitalizing on that, John Clausen and Edward Sweeny built a brewery in the late 1880s, which grew to become the sixth largest brewery in the world. Today beer making continues to thrive here. The breweries of Georgetown Brewing, Elysian, Two Beers, Counterbalance, Lower Case, Machine House, and Schooner Exact are all located here, and Seattle’s infamous Rainier Brewery facilities, now occupied by local businesses, dot the neighborhood.

Georgetown is well served by airports, rail yards, highways, and seaports. This perhaps all began in the early 1900s. Pilots made use of Georgetown’s local racetrack, as a space to fly airplanes. This presaged the development of the property into the well-known, Boeing Field, in 1928.

In the 70s, design and manufacturing entered the neighborhood. Jack Benaroya opened the Seattle Design and Gift Center in 1973, which has showrooms focused on the interior design industry. At the same time, small manufacturers, from metal casters to candle makers, established in Georgetown to cater to architects, designers, and builders.

Industry and the gritty nature of the area helped cultivate a density of artist work-spaces, funky bars, shops, and restaurants, that give modern-day Georgetown its character. Unique festivals, such as Art Attack, Honk Fest West, and The Georgetown Carnival, which host Hazard Factory’s Power Tool Races, fill the streets on weekends throughout the year.

For Memo, Georgetown is equal parts; creative inspiration, a crossroads of industry and the arts, and a gritty edge condition that breeds authenticity. We love it here and would enjoy showing you around the neighborhood.

Corian is a foundational material in our product offer. It looks great, is easy to work with, and holds up extremely well to the rigors of public space. With this in mind, our research-minded team set out to learn more about this magic material.

Composed of approximately one-third PMMA – a plastic of 100% acrylic resin, and two-thirds aluminum hydroxide (ATH) – a material derived from Bauxite (an aluminum ore), Corian is a solid surface material invented and patented by Du Pont in 1967. The man behind the invention was Dr. Donald Slocum, a Du Pont chemist.

Bauxite interestingly dates way back to the early 19th century; It was discovered in 1821 by the French geologist Pierre Berthier near the village of Les Baux in Provence, France.

Upon a quick look at DuPont’s Corian palette, the material seems like a chameleon in both its style and performance. It can mimic granite, marble, stone and other natural materials. And, it is nonporous, impermeable, durable, low maintenance and can be joined “seamlessly” with a color-matched adhesive. Interesting though, is that Corian’s seams aren’t literally “seamless”; they just appear that way due to the use of a color-matched adhesive that bonds the pieces chemically and blends them visually. After the adhesive dries and cures, the surface is sanded and polished to remove any evidence of the seam, resulting in smooth, unblemished, finish perfection.

Corian is environmentally sound (low VOC and Greenguard certified) and its non-porous, smooth composition achieves a compelling cleanliness factor, which is key in public spaces where germs tend to meet and mingle. Liquids cannot penetrate the material and bacteria and mold have nowhere to hide.

Corian’s durability is also compelling – it won’t fade or change, even in direct sunlight and scratches and stains can easily be removed. More serious damage is also often repairable in the field with the right tools and skills.

As we look to beautiful materials that perform well, last, and consider the environment, Corian is on solid footing. It is an ideal pairing for products bound for public spaces, and will certainly find its way into future Memo product introductions.

In the textile world, these are household names.

There are a number of ways to ensure that textiles are right for an application and will last, but the most well-known performance tests for textiles are for abrasion and measure the surface wear of a textile. Surface wear is a result of something repeatedly rubbing against the textile — typically the clothing that someone is wearing as they get up and down, and move around.

Named after their inventors, Andrew Wyzenbeek and J.G. Martindale, there are two basic tests used to measure abrasion for textiles. They use two different methods, and the results don’t correlate, but both provide important information regarding how a textile will wear.

Wyzenbeek is regularly used for synthetic fibers, while Martindale is typically used on wool and natural fibers. Respectively, furniture manufacturers in the United States apply the Wyzenbeek test more commonly and European companies more frequently use Martindale. (Synthetics are used more in the US and wool is used more in Europe.)

The Wyzenbeek test uses a machine with cotton duck fabric as the abrading material and rubs it back and forth across the test fabric. Each pass back and forth is called a “double rub”. Operators run the test until there is noticeable wear in the area being rubbed or until two yarns break. A score of 15,000 double rubs is qualified for low traffic contract use and a score of 30,000 double rubs is approved for heavy traffic contract use.

The Martindale test uses a machine that rubs the test fabric against an abrasive fabric, which is typically wool. The test fabric is rubbed in an elliptical motion (each one comprising a cycle). The test continues until two yarns break or there is a noticeable change in appearance on the test fabric. For Martindale, a score of 20,000 cycles is qualified for low traffic contract use and a score of 40,000 cycles correlates to heavy traffic use.

It would seem that the higher the number the better, but that’s not always true. Results above 100,000 double rubs or cycles do not necessarily mean that the textile will last forever. There are a lot of factors that affect the textile’s overall durability, including where the furniture is being used and how it is maintained. And just because a textile is labeled as having 300,000 double rubs, it does not mean it will last 10 times longer than textiles with 30,000 double rubs.

Last, and truth be told, there is actually one more test method that measures abrasion on textiles – the Taber Tester method. This test is typically used on printed coated textiles and measures print retention. The Association for Contract Textiles guidelines require a 3 or higher result on the Taber Tester method.

Guidelines for public space textiles are not cut and dry, but we (and our partners Maharam) can help. Upon review of textiles samples and the needs of your project, give us a ring. We can pay tribute to Wyzenbeek and Martindale together, talk double rubs, and find the best solution.