Office Design and Office Planning for Contemporary Office Furniture

Office Design is more than just creating a floor plan and adding office furniture. It's about providing you with the right solution for your office transformation. Professional office planning consists of considering all the important factors of your project – ergonomics, workflow planning, color coordination, product selection, company image and budget. The office designer will start by creating a space plan to help you get the most out of your workspace, visually and economically.

1. Office Design Assessment

A space planner or your office furniture dealer will conduct an assessment to determine needs of each department and the overall company. This is the key input document for the office design process.

2. Measurement

A spaceplanner or your office furniture dealer will do very precise measurements of your space – not just overall dimensions but of the doors, and windows, how high are the windows, where are columns, where are electrical outlets and feeds, where are HVAC systems that need to coordinate, and other details necessary to have a functional and attractive floorplan.

3. Creating Office Workstation Typicals

Working from the office design assessment and the measurements and using a typical guide (like Maxon Inspirations) the office designer will select typicals and customize them to the needs of the particular work function and the space. These will be created with Computer Aided Design (CAD) software that allows for precise office planning and specification of parts.

4. Office Design with CAD Programs

Space planners use many different Computer Aided Design (CAD) programs including the architectural standard AutoCAD and furniture industry standard Giza. The programs are loaded with a library of the parts and pieces of a cubicle system available from each office furniture manufacturer. The program allows them to be arranged as the user wants, keeps track of all parts with the accompanying prices and includes color specifications as well. The output comes in a few formats.

• 2D Drawings – Often called a "birds eye" or "top" view, this view lets you see how the furniture will fit in the floor space. Walls, doors and windows are also shown. This can be used for a single typical or an entire office plan.
• 3D Drawings – Often called a perspective drawing, this black and white printout will show the typical or layout in 3-dimensions. It is much more realistic and a good way to get a better idea of what the furniture will really look like. Walls, columns and other architectural details can also be depicted.
• Color Renderings – In this process a 3-D drawing is enhanced with actual colors of fabrics and other finish materials to give an even more realistic rendition of the layout. Usually this involves extra expense. The rendering will also including lighting, shadows and other effects to enhance the realism.

5. Value Engineering

A skilled space planner will value engineer a project by exploring how they can change the size, shape and/or features of each component to meet all of a project's objectives at a lower cost. Basically this process involves taking out elements that do not provide value.

6. Installation Drawings

Finally, the space planner will create the drawings that the installer will use to be certain that your project is installed according to the agreed upon plan.

Maxon Furniture has professional space planners throughout the US, in our showrooms and at our dealers. All receive extensive training in computer-aided design software that enables them to create completely customized plans to meet the unique needs of your project. Our representatives and dealers are also trained to measure your office space and then work with our space planners to provide you with the perfect office design.