The Elea Chair is the latest in office chair innovation from Fellowes. Utilizing patent-pending technology, it allows the chair to move naturally with your body. Through the design, they approached ergonomics and functionality unlike anything before it, fine-tuning the appearance, finish, and motion using KeyShot. Taiwon Choi, Industrial Design Manager at Fellowes Brands, shares more about how the project came together.

Fellowes Elea Chair
Modeling software used: SOLIDWORKS
Website: fellowes.com

Fellowes Elea ChairHow did the concept for the Elea chair come together?
At Fellowes, we pride ourselves to come up with solutions for the problems people face daily in the office environment. Statistically, people sit over 10 hours a day in their office chair—so we studied seating that enabled more movement and found them unstable, nor did they really didn’t fit in an office environment. We worked to design a chair that moves with the end-user and ends seating stagnation.

Where in your process was KeyShot used?
Designing something that had never been done before had its challenges because we need to sell the sexiness of the idea. At Fellowes we design with foam core and plastic models – from there we need to fine-tune the aesthetics, finishes, and movement. This is where KeyShot comes in. It is hard to sell an idea when the concept is only a sketch or a model. Then it is paired with high-end, photo-realistic images we are much more quickly able to get the idea across.

KeyShot enabled us to show the synchronized stability of the structure, pull away the finishing to show people how the frame is constructed and take away the mystery of the design.”

The Elea chair has some very unique features. Did KeyShot help in any way with these features?
Elea has a patent-pending Omni-Kinetic Suspension Technology™, this enables the typically stagnant seat pan of a chair to move with its user. KeyShot enabled us to show the synchronized stability of the structure, pull away the finishing to show people how the frame is constructed and take away the mystery of the design.

Were there any visualization challenges that KeyShot helped overcome?
Keyshot enabled us to see in detail how the structure works together. It was hard to imagine suspend seat pan and KeyShot showed exactly how that design would work.

How is KeyShot being used to communicate the new product to the user/consumer?
Our KeyShot photo-realistic renders have been the hero of launching Elea, from website imagery and animation to packaging you see how we are using our assets from KeyShot.

Fellowes Elea Chair
Fellowes Elea Chair

Fellowes Elea Chair