How Brunner is reinventing collaboration in the office

The last two years have turned society and its habits upside down. The working world, too, where basically hardly anything is the way it used to be. But this new start is proving to be a wonderful opportunity to rethink content and work processes and to reinvent oneself. Since last fall at the latest, it has been clear where this journey is headed. In October, the internationally active contract furniture manufacturer Brunner presented innovative design news that offers a solution to the issues and the changed situation.

The Berlin-based designer duo osko+deichmann soon understood that you should never lose sight of things, even if you supposedly believe you always see the same processes. For 25 years now, Blasius Osko and Oliver Deichmann, who met each other while studying at the Hochschule der Künste, have been working together as a well-coordinated team. This team spirit, in which ideas bubble out from the most diverse corners like a kind of creative "ping-pong" – as they call it themselves – was also the impetus for thinking about a new meeting culture and thus about something that has far-reaching and, above all, positive consequences for companies. 

'You have to define the culture in a company in a way, after all,' says Oliver Deichmann. 'In such a way that everyone knows: How do we do things here? How do we talk about our issues?' And he adds: 'In the end, the physical reality that we already have is still a great interface. It's unbeatable right now to stand together in front of an idea.'

In order to provide an adequate stage for precisely these special moments together, the designers worked with Brunner to develop the boards collection, which makes it possible to get up close and personal with creative development processes in the form of brainstorming, quick sketches and notes. Constructed as a modular toolbox, the various elements can be used to spontaneously design different furnishing scenarios each time, with the option of always being able to expand at will. 

At the center of this is the classic whiteboard, which actually functions as the linchpin of a lively round of talks, and with boards completely gets rid of its inflexible location-bound nature: it can be picked up vertically or horizontally by all the furniture in the collection and repositioned with just a few flicks of the wrist. In this way, ideas travel with them and do not disappear.

'To develop boards, we studied how innovative startups work and what everyday agile office life looks like in modern, international companies. The brainstorming in the creative workshop was a common intersection,' Oliver Deichmann and Blasius Osko tell us. 'Everywhere there was the same problem: After the meeting, there was a need to clean up and wipe away. So we asked ourselves how ideas could be secured in this desired flexible scenery. That's how we came up with ultra-light whiteboards to take away and share.' 

The basic idea behind the boards collection is of interest to all companies that are open to innovative approaches to office design. Contemporary office environments need to pick up employees where they are at in the moment, take them along and involve them in thought processes in which they can also remain physically active. This is motivation in the true sense of the word: boards are an invitation to teamwork. The starter kit already contains all the important building blocks for setting up and rearranging the setting as the situation demands: a mobile high table, eight whiteboards, four boards stools and four nate s bar stools as well as matching accessories, including six whiteboard connectors and a pen tray.

The flexible system – with whiteboards that can be written on from both sides, rolling stools, standing and working tables, a mobile shelf, and matching storage cart and wall rails for using the boards - creates an intuitive ease in the middle of the collaborative, creative work process. With just a few elements, customized team and individual workstations are created alongside individual zoning and storage areas, which can also be optionally electrified and feature other practical tools for the whiteboards such as extendable edges with black or orange loops, hooks, hook-in trays and toolboxes. 

Even the stools can be called upon to place the whiteboards. Managing Director Philip Brunner is particularly enthusiastic about the high multifunctionality of boards and the mobility of the collective that goes with it: 'Either the elements can be rolled and locked in place or they are so light that you can simply take them with you. This means that an open space can always be adapted anew to the needs of one or more groups at the same time. This creates an ideal working environment for temporary workshops and projects – and is a good reason for employees to come to the office.' 

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