{"id":61813,"date":"2017-10-26T07:00:56","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T11:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uncommongoods.com\/?p=61813"},"modified":"2018-01-04T12:16:29","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T17:16:29","slug":"the-shape-shifting-ollie-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/2017\/the-shape-shifting-ollie-chair\/","title":{"rendered":"An Unfolding Story: The Shape-Shifting Ollie Chair"},"content":{"rendered":"

*Editor’s note: The Shape-Shifting Ollie Chair is coming soon to our assortment. Be the first to get it by pre-ordering here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Shape-Shifting Ollie Chair <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI like creating objects that move and change and don\u2019t always stay what they seem to be,\u201d says Ollie chair designer Jess Banks. Transformation is everywhere you turn at her studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It starts with the building itself. The jaw-dropping space of the New Lab,<\/a> where Jess and her team develop their kinetic designs, was once part of a shipbuilding mecca. The space is now a high-tech entrepreneurial hub. \u201cIt\u2019s really amazing to think of how we\u2019re based in a place that was running because of war, and I\u2019m allowed the freedom and luxury to create new ideas,\u201d she reflected. This is just the sort of place you\u2019d expect to find a chair that unfurls<\/a> from a two-inch-thick rectangle of aluminum and wood tambour\u2014and transforms back again with a gentle pull.<\/p>\n

We visited Jess to discuss design inspirations for her shape-shifting chair, the personalities behind it, and why she doesn\u2019t call it a \u201cfolding chair.\u201d Along the way, we learned more about tambour and discovered why the former Comedy Central employee<\/a> looks forward to buying toothpaste.<\/p>\n

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Folding chairs have been around for a long time in various incarnations\u2014seems like an interesting challenge to take on reinventing that form.<\/h5>\n

We actually never call it \u201cfolding chair\u201d because I think that pigeonholes us psychologically and for the consumer as a $39.99 thing that you might forget at the beach when it gets too windy or something.<\/p>\n

And something that nobody really wants to sit on either!<\/h5>\n

Exactly. And something that you intentionally hide, right? And that\u2019s like secondary seating. But the way we see living and working progressing is that people want versatility every day. It\u2019s not that you want to have it as a secondary option\u2014you want versatility to be a primary element of your lifestyle. So, we don\u2019t say, This is a \u201cfolding chair\u201d that you\u2019re going to store away.<\/em> This is your normal chair. We don\u2019t look at it as This is your secondary chair you\u2019re going to bring out when guests come<\/em>. This is your everyday chair that you can move when you want to do yoga.<\/p>\n