Boss Design: 40 years in the making
Brand story by Emma Moore
West Midlands, United Kingdom
14.03.23
UK specialist in human-centred office furniture Boss Design has come a long way in its 40-year history – starting with an investment of £100 in 1983 to become a globally active employer of 260 today.
Brian Murray founded Boss Design in 1983. From the outset he committed to a human-centric approach; finely tuned furniture made by skilled people to meet the precise needs of working people
Brian Murray founded Boss Design in 1983. From the outset he committed to a human-centric approach; finely tuned furniture made by skilled people to meet the precise needs of working people
בTailored’ might be a term you flaunt when describing the suit you wear to work – but what about the seat you sit on once there? At Boss Design, specialists in finely-tuned furniture design for the office, the analogy feels apt. ‘When you sit down and rest your back, it presses into the inside back of the chair. It stretches that panel of fabric putting pressure on the seams,’ says Steve Bloomer, the company’s master upholsterer. ‘Likewise, your weight exerts a downward force on the seat. It might ruffle, pool and puddle. You’ve got to get the tension just right so that the upholstery flexes and returns to normal after sitting for two hours.’ At Boss, the same attention to detail that characterises a fitting on London’s Savile Row is applied to the ergonomics and aesthetics of the chair that will be your companion throughout your working day.
Still operating on its founding principles, 40 years on, its dedication to quality, style and comfort has never been more relevant to today’s office environment
Still operating on its founding principles, 40 years on, its dedication to quality, style and comfort has never been more relevant to today’s office environment
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Mews Collaborate
Boss Design
Boss Design has been putting humans at the centre of its design process for 40 years. In 1983 Brian Murray, an accountant previously working for a family-run furniture company in the UK’s West Midlands, had the vision to build a quality-focused furniture brand that capitalised on local manufacturing heritage and skill base. He founded Boss Design with just a £100 investment, building a team that included the designer Hilary Birkbeck and the craftsmen at WG Gallis. Together they produced the Delphi chair – still in the collection today – and their first brochure brought orders from British Airways, followed by British Telecom, the BBC and international conference centres.
The people-led company has a talented team of collaborators, including the master upholsterer, Steve Bloomer, who manipulates the furniture’s fabric coverings like a top-ranking tailor
The people-led company has a talented team of collaborators, including the master upholsterer, Steve Bloomer, who manipulates the furniture’s fabric coverings like a top-ranking tailor
×Now with 260 employees, and customers across the continents, Boss Design still prides itself on a collaborative, people-driven approach to making human-centric office furniture. ‘I never worry about whether a competitor is better than we are, because I know they’re not,’ says Murray. ‘It's whether we have the right design at the right price that will get us the contract. Quality is never the issue.’ And that is what people and the planet most need.
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