Turnstone is an office furniture company based in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...

. It is a division of Steelcase and was founded in 1993. The brand was created with the intention of reaching younger businesses with budgets too small to afford a dedicated facilities manager and offices with a small number of in-office employees. As of January 2006, the company employed 30 people.

Company overview

Turnstone's products are designed to meet the needs of

small business Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to ap ...

es, startup companies, and entrepreneurs. Initially, turnstone also focused on supplying the home-office market. Between 2002 and 2006, turnstone launched over 40 new products. One aspect of Turnstone's product development process involves meeting with business leaders and uses observational research from the IIT Institute of Design, IDEO, and the d.school at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. They also visit co-working spaces to study how workers interact with their products. Turnstone also researches and studies subjects like startup culture,

company culture Historically there have been differences among investigators regarding the definition of organizational culture. Edgar Schein, a leading researcher in this field, defined "organizational culture" as comprising a number of features, including a s ...

, and how people work. In 2013, Turnstone partnered with the

Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

to release a list of the 15 top young companies to work for. James Hackett became President of turnstone in 1993. Kevin Kuske was turnstone's general manager from 2009 to 2014. Brian Shapland became turnstone's general manager in the spring of 2014.

Events

Turnstone frequently organizes RV tours, bus tours, and events like the Turnstone Roadshow, a trip that brings a mobile office built in an 18-wheeler around the country to showcase workplace trends and research. The company has also toured using an

Airstream Airstream is an American brand of travel trailer ("caravan" in British English) easily recognized by the distinctive shape of its rounded and polished aluminum coachwork. This body shape dates back to the 1930s and is based on the Bowlus Road C ...

RV as a traveling showroom.

Designer collaborations

Turnstone has collaborated with outside designers for some of their products: * Brian Kane, Jenny Chair * Charles Perry, Uno Chair * George Simmons, Crushed Can Stool * Chuck Anderson, limited edition tabletop for the Campfire Paper Table * Mark Schoolmeester, Buoy seat

Awards and recognition

Some of Turnstone's products have awards at the NeoCon World's Trade Fair: Other awards and nominations: * 2004

Good Design Award In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...

for their Scoop stool from the

Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design The Chicago Athenaeum is a private museum of architecture and design, based in Galena, Illinois. The museum focuses on the art of design in all areas of the discipline: architecture, industrial and product design, graphics, landscape architectu ...

* 2004 Good Design Award for their PET lounge seating from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design * 2009 Good Design Award for their Campfire Big Lamp from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design * 2009 Platinum Award winner in the ADEX Awards for the Tour Workspace * 2011 Best of Year Award for the Bivi desk from

Interior Design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...

* Their Shortcut chair was nominated for Interior Design's HiP Award in the Education/Institutional Furniture category in 2015 * Their Campfire additions were nominated for Interior Design's HiP Award in the Workplace: Furniture/Systems category in 2015

Similar companies

* Steelcase *

Coalesse Coalesse is a United States-based furniture company founded in 2008. It is a division of Steelcase and creates products with the goal of encouraging collaboration. Coalesse is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan with their design headquarters i ...

* Izzy+ * Herman Miller * Haworth *

Knoll In geography, knoll is another term for a knowe or hillock, a small, low, round natural hill or mound. Knoll may also refer to: Places * Knoll Camp, site of an Iron Age hill fort Hampshire, England, United Kingdom * Knoll Lake, Leonard Canyon, Ar ...

References

{{reflist, 2 Furniture companies of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Michigan Companies based in Grand Rapids, Michigan Design companies of the United States Companies established in 1993