Pursuing maximum simplicity. A minimal design committed to simple functionality and attention to detail. The unicolored office chair “ena” can add color to a space or blend into its surroundings.
The name “ena” is an acronym for Elegant Neat Appearance.

As the workplace evolves, communication spaces in the office must meet various needs. While there are a variety of approaches, such as casual, luxurious, or traditional, what they all have in common is that design is viewed as the priority. There is a need for a meeting chair that harmonizes with the interior design of the office that can be comfortably used.

We sought to make the design as simple as possible, while paying the utmost attention to environmental concerns. As with all of our chairs, the ability to offer a comfortable seating experience was, of course, a must. Once we settled on our concept, we decided to entrust our vision to ITO Design, which has a long, proven track record of designing office seating.

Creating a maximally simple design. Creating a more environmentally friendly product. You might think these things go without saying, but simplifying an already pared back design, or making a simple product more environmentally friendly, is no easy task. When tackling a difficult problem, fresh opinions and ideas is an absolute must. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, all of our meetings with the two designers from ITO Design (Mr. Velasquez and Mr. Morita) had to be conducted online, but our discussions, which drew on each other’s accumulated know-how, were highly productive.

In pursuing simplicity, we came up with a structure where the pipe frame is combined with a resin shell, but the back and seat are fixed on top of the leg frame as one piece, instead of being attached to the frame as separate parts. This allowed us to simultaneously decrease the number of parts, simplify the manufacturing process of the parts, and reduce the number of steps required for assembly.

Initially, we had considered developing an all-plastic chair, but since we wanted to create a product that could be sold globally, we settled on a structure composed of a resin shell and pipe frame with the back and seat made of one piece, so that the seat height can be easily adjusted to suit the requirements of various markets. While separate materials were used, we took great care to make sure there was a natural transition between the rear legs and the back of the chair, in order to maintain a sense of unity.

We had decided on a rough structure, had come up with a plan to ensure durability, while pursuing maximum simplicity and idea for a unicolor lineup was taking shape as well. But we ran into a problem right as we were preparing for mass production. As we were finalizing the details of the mold design, we discovered that there was a chance that the mold for forming the back-and-seat shell could not be accommodated by our domestic facilities.

After countless meetings, we readjusted the structure of the mold to come up with a mold design that makes the parting line (the line where two halves of a mold meet) almost unnoticeable. Of course, we also made sure the chair was comfortable to sit in.

The professionalism of ITO Design, which has been developing ergonomic office seating for almost 20 years, and Okamura, which has been conducting research into comfortable seating since the 1960s, meant that compromise was out of the question.