Why We Love: Camira’s 100% Recycled ‘X2’ Fabric

Camira have been working away at producing their very first 100% recycled fabric and after years of development, they have succeeded with a terrific little range called ‘X2’. Read on to find out why we love it so much…

Of the raw materials that go into the X2 range, 25% comes from Camira’s own waste – specifically polyester selvedges and yarn remnants – and that is something we feel like making a noise about.

The X2 range has been awarded an EU Ecolabel for it’s significantly reduced impact on the environment, but it’s not just the eco-friendly aspect that makes this range special.

With 20 colours to choose from, this range has a distinct theme about it with it’s slate grey mottled background effect adding character to a mix of fun, bright colours and sophisticated neutrals.

The mottled effect appeals to those looking for practicality as well as style with it’s effective ability to aid appearance retention and disguise signs of wear and stains.

Head over to our website to see what products you might like to have upholstered in this smashing range.

 

Make A Positive Impression on Visitors With These 5 Reception Area Essentials

The importance of first impressions can never be underestimated, so we have a written a short 5-point list to offer our advice on how companies can make a great first impression on visitors with their reception areas alone. Enjoy…

1) A reception desk that makes a statement
The desk is the focal point for any reception. It is the first port of call for almost every visitor so should be conspicuous and make a strong statement about the company which it belongs to. A reception desk should reflect the corporate image and values of the company, so a creative agency might use bright colours with lots of quirky ornaments/ accessories on show whilst a large bank would have a much more minimal design.

2) Stylish & comfortable modular sofa(s)
After signing-in at reception, visitors usually then turn to find a seat. In order to make a great impression, guests should first be impressed by the style and design of the seating area, and then once again by the comfort factor when they take a seat. Modular seating is popular for a reason: it looks good, it’s far comfier than a chair and it’s more communal than a tub or armchair.

3) Large attention-drawing clock
While this might not be a suggestion you’d find in an interior design theory book, we’ve done enough projects in offices to say that one of the things that most impresses us in a reception area is a great big modern clock that draws the eye. A large clock doesn’t just look good, but, let’s point out the obvious here, it emphasises the importance of time and shows visitors the company is likely to value things like punctuality and organisation.

4) TV showing news channel
Another way of making a solid first impression is to have a large LED TV showing a news channel. It primarily entertains guests of course, but also create a very ‘current’ atmosphere rather than the horrible remote feeling you often get in large office buildings. It also shows the company and its employees like to keep up with current affairs which is a positive sign.

5) Coffee Machine
Need we explain this one? Office bods like coffee. Give them coffee.

And there you have it. The 5 staple things you need in your reception area to make a positive impression on visitors.

. . .

Cube Company

Why We Love: Kirkby Design’s London Underground Fabric Range

We see a lot (and I mean a lot) of new fabrics here at Cube Company. Some are good and some not so good. Some get a nod of approval and some a firm thumbs down. Some are like Marmite dividing opinion throughout and then there are some – just a special, select few – that are instant hits with absolutely everyone here AND anyone who comes in to visit. Kirkby’s Underground range is that hit and this is why we love it so much…

Kirkby Design have worked with Transport for London (TfL) to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the London Underground by recreating a handful of iconic fabric designs which were used in 1930s buses and 1970s tube carriages among others around London and the result is truly wonderful.

The classic moquette designs have been reworked in Kirkby colours to add a fresh, contemporary touch to the unforgettable originals. We’ve already had interest from all kinds of companies for their offices, so we know this range is going to become crazily popular.

Head over to our website to see what you could have upholstered in any of these fantastic fabrics.

Cube Company Official Website

The GIF That Keeps On Giving….

Just when you thought we couldn’t make it any simpler, we’ve designed this snazzy little GIF image to show you exactly how our Modular Seating can be configured to create a variety of layouts.

(click the image below to get the GIF going)

Cube Company

. . .

8 Things We All Hate When Eating Out at Restaurants

Its time for a moan, so here at Cube we’re looking at the things that really bug us about eating out. Now, eating out is great, of course,  we all love it, but that’s not to say it’s always perfect. So, in no particular order, the 8 things we all hate when eating out are…

1) “We’re out of [insert food here], I’m afraid”
It happens. We know, we know. But that doesn’t make it any easier to accept when you’ve been eyeing the options for 10 minutes and finally narrowed it down to that one special selection in amongst tens of delightful dishes only to be told you can’t have it.

2) “Sorry, we don’t take bookings”
We shouldn’t have to take a chance on getting a table at our favourite restaurants on a Friday or Saturday night after a long, hard week at work. Even worse, we don’t want to queue or sit and wait for an hour to get a table. So it’s a big thumbs down to all restaurant who enforce the policy.

3) Being ready to order, but being unable to see or attract the attention of waiting staff for what feels like an eternity
Is there anything more frustrating? We’re ready to order and have been for quite some time now, but there is not a single waiter or waitress in sight. We’ve all been close to getting up and leaving to go elsewhere, but we never do, do we? A little more vigilance from the waiting staff is all we ask.

4) Overly-friendly, overly-attentive and borderline intrusive waiting staff
Now we might just be being picky, us diners, but surely there’s a style somewhere in the between being a ghost waiter and a ‘hi-how’s-your-day-let-me-practically-join-your-party’ type of waiter. Just be ready for us when we need you and, well,  politely clear off when we’re trying to talk and enjoy each other’s company. Is that being cruel?

5) Badly positioned tables and/or a lack of common sense by the person seating you at a particular table
If we’re out for dinner with that special someone, we don’t want to be sat right by the door and definitely not next to the party of 10 rowdy jack-the-lads who have a hundred empty beer glasses on their table, do we? So why do some waiting staff or hosts fail to consider seemingly obvious things like that? We don’t know, but it’s incredibly annoying and is one of our biggest bugbears when going out to eat.

6) Having a table on borrowed time
OK, so we’ve been taken to our table, we’ve all squished into a booth and we’re ready for a nice big feast to celebrate an occasion, but then the waitress hits us with that “I’m afraid we need this table back in an hour and a half”. Now, we can understand if we’ve come out on the off-chance of getting a table, but if we’ve booked and still been told to clear off by a set time something is quite clearly wrong.

7) When a “discretionary service charge” is added automatically to the bill
The key word here is “discretionary”. It’s up to us if we want to leave a tip or not, so seeing it has already been added to our bill without our say so is just rude and something that needs flagging up.

8) Having ‘that debate’ about tipping with our friends/ family at the end of the meal.
Oh, here we go again. We’re paying up, splitting the bill and now it’s time for that contentious debate about tipping. We have it every single time we go out and it always ends up with the good Samaritans of the group pioneering the Union of Waiting Staff and the more, shall we say, frugal types criticising the entire concept of tipping and vociferously repeating that they “don’t get paid tips for doing their jobs”.  So, next time you’re out, don’t get sucked in. Just sit back, observe, remember this post and have a little laugh to yourself.

. . .

Cube Company | Restaurant Seating | Restaurant Furniture

. . .

Leave the ‘Coffice’ and Get Back to the Office

The next time you’re in a centrally-located coffee shop, take a look around. You’ll notice the majority of people inside are either working on their laptops and tablets or hosting meetings. Enter the term ‘Coffice’ – a coffee shop being used as an office.

We think it’s great to get out of the office every now and then, sure. It’s fun, it helps us break up boring routines and we feel a sense of freedom. But what ever happened to building a community within the workplace? What happened to company culture?

We believe that if companies provided their staff with stimulating environments, employees wouldn’t want to escape the office at any given opportunity.

It’s obvious why people would want to work in coffee shops rather than worn out, tired canteen areas that have had no refurbishments carried out in years. Or perhaps it’s those grim cubicles that employees like to flee by heading out to work somewhere more sociable and stimulating.

Thankfully, we are seeing a shift away from fixed, old-fashioned individual workspaces such as cubicles towards larger areas being allocated to creative group spaces that cater for casual meetings, creative collaboration and comfortable relaxation.

Industry research is showing that these spaces are boosting company performance in so many ways including increased productivity, greater creativity and improved collaboration among colleagues.

Here at Cube, we hope to help companies in that sense by offering seating solutions that can create desirable working environments and breakout areas which will have employees bringing their mochas and macchiatos straight back to the office.

Project Watch: All Hallows Catholic College, Macclesfield

Desperate to rid themselves of their tatty old furniture, All Hallows Catholic College in Macclesfield called and asked us to design them a completely new Sixth Form Centre.

We surveyed the room before designing the layout and found out that not only would it be a place to relax, but also somewhere to host assemblies. Therefore, we decided that the majority of the furniture should face the screen on the back wall of the room.

The seating configurations were designed carefully so that students could both sit inwards to form groups around tables for study, chat and playing games but also be able to turn around to face the screen for presentations and assemblies with ease.

The teachers were all thrilled with the seating and couldn’t believe what a transformation the room had undergone, and are now even pushing for a revamp of their staffroom.

Project Watch: Pretty in Pink – Modular Seating @ Blessed Hugh Faringdon School, Reading

The Sixth Form students at Blessed Hugh Faringdon School in Reading will have had a surprise this week when they turned up for the new academic year. We’ve given their hangout room a bit of a makeover with our Concept2 Modular Seating.

Amongst a seemingly infinite choice of colours, the teachers at Blessed Hugh Faringdon opted for Magenta and Purple pairings along with Blue and Teal to create a really bright and fun-feeling room for the students to enjoy.

With a combination of larger modular sofas running along the perimeters of the room and smaller cubes, drums and benches in the middle, we’re sure the Sixth Formers will love being able to arrange their own seating layouts for different tasks whether it be study, chat or playing games.

. . .

You can see our full range of Modular Seating here

.

7 Must Have Office Gadgets to Make You Happier and More Productive at Work

Work can be tiring, stressful, tedious and often unproductive, but the following gadgets can help towards making your time in the office that much happier and more productive.

1) USB Mug Warmer
You’ve just made everyone in the team a coffee and sit down to drink yours… as you grasp for the handle you can almost taste the coffee, but mid-way through the cup’s ascent to your lips the phone goes; you put your mug down and end up tied into a 30-minute phone call. After the call has ended, you reach for your coffee only to find it is stone cold and needs replacing. This scenario will never happen again with a USB Mug Warmer.

2) Desktop Fan
Never fear a hot summers day stuck in the office again with your own desktop fan. Heat and humidity is known to cause drowsiness and affect productivity levels, so keep cool and stay on the ball.

3) Stressball
We’re sure some of you might like to use your boss’ head as a stressball, but we really do advise against that kind of thing. Get yourself a little stressball to fidget with when you’re feeling anxious or restless and you’ll find yourself much calmer and focused in your performance overall at work.

4) Mobile Device Charging Station
So, you’ve had a long day at work and are looking forward to letting off a bit of steam at the gym after, but you realise your iPod has no battery, or even worse your phone has died so you can’t make plans for after. Get yourself a mobile device charging station to keep everything topped up with charge to avoid those annoying scenarios.

5) Mood Lighting
Whether it be a little lamp on your desk or some form of quirky USB led lighting gadget, mood lighting will make your desk feel more personalized and comfortable. You might even find you work better in your new atmosphere.

 

6) Desktop Vacuum Cleaner
If you’re one of those workers who barely has time to stop for lunch and has to scoff a couple of sandwiches at your desk, then a USB vacuum cleaner is the thing for you. Keeping your workspace clean and organised is one of the easiest ways to make a great impression on your colleagues and employer(s).

7) Silent Mouse
This is arguably the most expendable item from this list, but a silent mouse will rid you of that familiar, mundane clicking sound that you have to put up with second after second, minute after minute, day after day. You might even find you feel more relaxed with it gone.

. . .

Cube Company is a designer and manufacturer of soft seating and modular seating for offices and reception areas. Visit our official website to view our extensive ranges of furniture.

Office Interior Design: 5 Brilliant Ways to Give Your Office a Makeover

Is your office in desperate need of a bit of interior design? Is it worn and tired? Perhaps it’s just overly minimalistic and boring? Use these 5 simple ideas to reinvigorate your office and, with that, your workforce.

1) Give the walls a lick of paint

Most offices tend to have bland, neutral coloured walls like whites, magnolias and greys which can make the workplace feel dull, lifeless and boring. Jazz up your walls with some vivid colour to inject some life into the place and even boost creativity and productivity. Blues are said to increase productivity whilst yellows and oranges are supposed to work wonders for creativity.

2) Recover dull, worn office chairs

Add even more accents of colour to your office with reupholstered seat pads on all your office chairs. Either choose your company colours or go for a random eclectic mix of vivid tones to create a fresh and quirky look.

3) Create a cool breakout room with innovative modular seating

Give your staff somewhere to go to either relax or get creative for tasks and projects. Breakout rooms are appearing in more and more offices and modular seating is the key ingredient. Modular seating can be configured into almost any layout – some even venture to say that it is only restricted by your imagination. Anyway, it’s flexibility makes it great for team tasks and it is essential for forward-thinking companies and modern offices. We specialise in modular seating, so feel free to visit our official website.

4) Throw in a pool table, football table or ping-pong table

Let your staff have some fun when they’re away from their desks. Putting in a games table will boost office-wide morale and allow colleagues to form bonds on their breaks – this can only be good for a company. Obviously, if your office is a call center then it is best not to put a ping-pong table in the middle of the workfloor, but there’s usually always a bit of space going spare somewhere else.

5) Put up some wall art

As well as painting the walls, you can put up some canvasses and pictures to bring your office to life that little bit more. Whether it be dramatic landscapes, great sporting moments or inspirational quotes and adages, use your walls to positively affect your workforce.

. . .

Cube Company