We all had a ball at Paddo Bowls Club for our 2012 Christmas Party. The evening kicked off with a fun-filled lawn bowls tournament. Most of us had never been near a bowling green before so it was filled with laughs and good times. It was the perfect way to celebrate a fantastic year!
Our 2012 Ads
Have you seen the advertisements we’ve been running this year? It was a totally fresh approach for us and we think they’re awesome.
You might have seen them in a few design mags or across the web.
Click the picture above and the image gallery on the right to see some full size versions.
Our World Class Showroom
We’ve just updated our showroom, with a host of exciting new products and finishes which will form part of our 2013 product range.
Have a look at some new photos by clicking on the one above, and if you’ve been before, it’s definitely worth swinging by and checking out what changes we’ve made. If you’ve never been, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!?!
Our multilevel showroom is over 2500m2 and showcases all our products from seating to workstations, desking, storage, training and everything in between all here for you to see and try.
You don’t need to make an appointment to come past, one of our sales consultants will be more than happy to show you around. We’re also known to offer the best coffee this end of King St.
We’re at 645 King St, St Peters. Just 10 minutes from the CBD.
A Brief Look at Ergonomics
What is ergonomics?
Ergonomics is the study of the interactions between people and their environment. Ergonomics is neither a positive or negative term but rather it describes the relationship between employees and their workspace.
Why is ergonomics important in the office?
When you can spend up to 12 hours a day at your desk, making sure that you have positive and healthy ergonomic relationship is crucial. Providing the right office setup will be the best investment in yourself or your staff you can make. Recent scientific studies indicate that not only will employees be more comfortable and have increased morale, but they will also work more effectively.
Additionally, designing more suitable work environments is extremely important in safeguarding ourselves against the development of painful musculoskeletal injuries and other physical discomforts associated with prolonged work periods.
What can you to do improve the ergonomic situation in your office?
To make sure you have the most positive relationship with your surroundings, it’s important you carefully consider your office furniture. It’s essential that your office chair offers proper alignment and support to the upper body, shoulders and back. Back support is a crucial ergonomic element as it aids breathing, provides comfort and promotes the ‘ideal’ posture.
Important things to keep a look out for when making chair purchases include; chairs that allow for natural body movement and offer custom fit support to the lower and upper back. Tension adjustable controls and height adjustable lumbers are also important. Chairs with these characteristics will offer you the most benefits.
It’s also important to remember that different body shapes will be suited to different chairs. Krost offers a full selection of high quality office seating, that is designed to offer support for extended periods of office work.
What else?
In addition to choosing the right office furniture, users must know how to use and configure their workspace appropriately. There are a number of handy tricks that can instantly make your workspace more user friendly. For a quick and general guideline of these ‘rules’ please refer to the ergonomics section of our website.
It’s also important to remember that even though you should aim to be in the most ergonomically correct position for the majority of the time seated, it is not healthy to maintain the same position for too long. You should temporarily change positions, stretch or allow the chair to be in free-recline to relieve some muscles and activate others.
More detailed tips on workplace ergonomics can be found here.
Product Spotlight – Time Executive Desking
Time executive desking is our modern take of a timeless classic desk design. We introduced Time in 2010 and since then it has become one of our top selling ranges.
Time is available with either veneer or melamine construction or in 2 variations:
- Pole Legs: four 125mm thick rectangular legs or
- Panel Legs: two 33mm panel end legs.
Both styles have the option of including a 6mm glass inlay in the desktop and the range also features aluminium laminate detailing. Height adjustable feet are standard across the range.
The four-leg variant features screw-in legs that are easy to remove, making it ideal for installations into sites with difficult access and allowing for easy office relocations.
The Time 4 leg desk is also available as a boardroom table. The boardroom variation has a linking piece allowing tables of any length to be made – creating a striking visual in any office landscape.
The Time features in many of our office fitouts and is locally manufactured and available in a wide range of finishes and sizes. Custom sizes and configurations can be made upon request.
Our Best Selling Future Chair Features on InDesignLive.com
Krost’s Future Chair hit the market running in 2008, since then it’s proven to be one of the most versatile and best performing office chairs around – but is that really saying much?
What’s really made the Future so successful are its aesthetics, comfort and functionality. It’s sleek, stylish, slim, has a big family of options with different colour mesh backs and numerous options for seat upholstery (mesh, fabric, leather. vinyl…). But the hidden features like its braille inscribed adjustment controls and advanced synchronised mechanism are the attention to detail touches that are hallmarks of Krost office furniture.
Anyway, see what InDesignLive.com have to say about it here.
Vast and Axis Workstations – 3D Models Now Available
We’ve just uploaded 3D models of our Vast and Axis workstations to our website in Sketchup format. Using different scenes we show how the systems fit together from individual components into all sorts of different configurations.
The models gives a great overview of how versatile the workstation systems are.
You can download the files directly from here:
Don’t forget that all our office furniture is available in either 2D CAD blocks or 3D models from the Design section on our website.
What’s the difference between melamine and laminate?
Actually, melamine is a type of laminate and there are a few different variations of laminate.
Direct-pressure laminate, otherwise known as low-pressure laminate is what is commonly referred to as melamine. It is manufactured under 2 to 3.5 meganewtons of pressure per square metre and the final product is a sheet of melamine resin – a highly durable type of thermosetting plastic bonded with a phenolic resin glue and a melamine resin plastic facing.
Whereas the final product with low-pressure laminate is attached to a substrate of board, attaching high-pressure laminate to board is usually an entirely different process.
We have found ‘melamine’ to be the material most suited to the manufacturing of office furniture for most work settings. It is highly durable, extremely cost effective and an excellent surface to work on. We also make sure to use a moisture-resistant substrate board which adds to the durability of the surface.
Sustainable Office Furniture
When you’re purchasing office furniture but want to lessen your impact on the environment it’s important to consider where your furniture is coming from.
Are the materials recycled?
Many of our products use recycled materials in their production, from plastic to steel and wood. This reduces our footprint on the environment, but can actually also be a more cost effective solution when used correctly.
We use veneer and melamine finishes on a substrate made from chipped wood and resin, which can also contain wasted wood and forest trimmings (materials that would otherwise go to waste). These are glued with low formaldehyde glues to comply with Australia’s E0 standard. Wood isn’t the only material that can be recycled though, steel frames, workstation legs and modesty panels are just some of the other parts and products that are over 90% recyclable in the Krost collection.
Recycled (or recyclable) doesn’t mean lesser quality, however. All our products come with a minimum 3 year warranty, but most of our range features 5 year warranties.
Can I reuse the furniture in the future?
As well as being recyclable, the product’s lifespan, reusability and versatility are equally important. If you need to relocate, our workstation systems ensure your office furniture can be moved and refitted with your business. All Krost systems are adaptable and can be disassembled and reused in different configurations.
Is the company using processes that consider the environment?
We are one of the few company’s in our industry to hold the international certifications of ISO 14001for our environmental management system and ISO 9001 for our quality management system. ISO 14001 details how our products are designed and manufactured with a viewpoint on maximising our environmental efficiencies and also gives us a framework for continual improvement.
Further, products can undergo particular third party certifications, such as GECA or AFRDI reviews, to assure customers of quality, sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. Many of our products feature these certifications. Our raw materials are sourced from suppliers that offer chain of custody over the materials, ensuring that the wood is from well managed sustainable sources.
Wastage is also an important factor in the design and production of office furniture. With our ISO 14001 coupled with our ISO 9001 certifications, we have tangible and realistic management systems to reduce wastage, such as segregation, disposal, environmental reporting and effective record keeping. These measures ensure we can effectively control and minimise impacts to the environment.
Pics from a recent project at Pernod Ricard
We recently completed a highly functional fitout featuring our Vast workstation system with FGR legs and Aim seating. Design and construction was completed by Valmont Interiors.
The office has a green and lush outlook which is reflected internally through the colours of the desktop and panel finishes.
Click on the image above to view more photos from the project.
Take a look at some more of our recent projects here.
2D CAD Blocks and 3D Models now live in our new Design Section
We’re super excited to announce the newest addition to our website!
(Drumroll please…)
Please welcome the Design section to www.krost.com.au.
A full library of drawings is available through this section, with features including:
- 2D CAD blocks (in the industry standard .dwg format). All desk shapes and storage shapes/types, all workstation configurations (2Way, 3Way, 4Way etc) and all the niche features of Krost products.
- 3D models (in the universal SketchUp format). Orbit and zoom in on our products, take all sorts of measurements and get a really good feel of the space you’re fitting out.
All will be easily accessible and readily downloadable, waiting for you to create your own design solutions. Whether you are a creative professional, student, experimenter or simply a visionary you now can plan your workspace with all our furniture.
For 3D models, you’ll need SketchUp (free). 2D drawing blocks will require a CAD program, such asDraftSight (also, free) or AutoCad.
Each page has a help function in case you get stuck along the way and we’re always available to help through our office line (+612 9557 3055) or email info@krost.com.au.
What is an activity based office?
For a long time now, corporations and designers have been working together to look at how workspaces can be used more effectively to increase employee productivity and reduce space.
Over the past 5 years, mainly due to advances in IT and developments like cloud computing and smart boards, a firm and relevant move to more open-planned office environments has become more common.
Finally, after a long time in the wilderness and numerous well publicised failures (see ‘Lost in Space’http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.02/chiat_pr.html) ‘hot-desking’ and ‘hoteling’ are forming the basis of viable ideas. Advances in manufacturing and more modular and customisable furniture have aided this trend, allowing employees to reconfigure office furniture to suit their needs.
The activity based setup allows for the diverse range of work that takes place in an individual’s role and attempts to facilitate and support the varying levels of concentration and teamwork required. It provides different work spaces, stimuli and levels of group collaboration. In practical terms, this results in sections of each office floor being tailored to different activities. Some spaces are suitable for meetings and brainstorming other places are more quiet enclosures where personal work and thinking needs to be done. The exact implementation of the idea varies from organisation to organisation and is entirely dependant on the firm’s nature of work.
The cynic would argue that the possible 30% reduction in physical space requirements is the valuable commodity driving this trend. However, the setup has shown marked increases of worker productivity and employee satisfaction. Those who have initiated the change recommend taking it in stages. This allows for employee feedback in design and to facilitate a transition period into this vastly different and new style.
Will activity based working take over in the next 10 years? We believe that for all the benefits that come with job specific working environments and all the great technological improvements that are driving this trend, it’s equally important to allow for the individual’s role and their level of comfort through their own office chair, storage space, physical space and sense of belonging to the organisation. Overall, the answer probably lies somewhere in-between. What do you think?