VG&P — Plank Table System

What if tables became Architecture?

Workspaces could encourage calmness and adaptability.

Shared impact

Debut at Clerkenwell Design Week 2025
Featured as Key Launch by Dezeen

Furniture

Furniture - Industrial Design - Strategy

Very Good and Proper (VG&P) is a London-based brand known for creating purposeful, timeless pieces, crafted in close collaboration with local suppliers and responsibly sourced materials.

In partnership with them, we set out to challenge the decades-old stereotype of the traditional workstation. The result is a desk system designed for a new era of work — one that embraces softer, more adaptable workplaces and extends beyond conventional office environments.

Strategy

Architectural Furniture.
Scaffolding-inspired.

The shift toward softer workspaces. Post-pandemic, expectations of the workplace have changed. It’s no longer defined by rigid, task-driven furniture, but by environments that help people feel calm, present, and able to focus.

While interiors and many furniture typologies have evolved in response, desks and workstations have largely been left behind—still reflecting an outdated way of working.

Inspired by the simplicity of timber scaffolding planks, the oak desk system brings a sense of calm and tactile clarity—creating spaces that feel welcoming, grounded, and adaptable.

Crafted with material honesty. Calm without being clinical. Designed not to shout, but to support.

Furniture

Quietly unique.
Where detail meets flexibility.

Soul is in the quiet details. The softly machined leg, set at a 45-degree angle, appears to “kiss” when two tables meet—an understated moment of visual rhythm. It also creates a dynamic presence: slender from certain angles, more substantial from others.

A quietly unique design which is versatile and timeless in its appeal.

Modularity for flexible work. A system of modular add-ons adapts to collaborative, co-working, and hospitality settings. Designed without compromise—each element works together as one cohesive whole.

Subtly curved top surfaces on the power box and lamp create space for small essentials, extending function without adding excess.

Circularity

Timeless by design.
Sustainable by nature.

In a throwaway culture, longevity is the new sustainability.

The Plank desk system is crafted from quality materials with timeless design and robust construction. VG&P’s expert hands-on craftsmanship ensures it stands the test of time, evolving with your space while remaining functional and beautiful for decades to come.

Local materials and local manufacturing go hand in hand. The Plank desk system is crafted from European-sourced oak at VG&P’s East London workshop, ensuring a low-carbon footprint.

With VG&P and forpeople Studio just minutes apart, the process was naturally low-impact. Design meetings happened over coffee, not flights. Samples moved by hand, not by freight. The result is a product as sustainable in its making as it is.

"We initially briefed forpeople on the need for a high-quality wooden desk system, with the intention of working to our manufacturing strengths and developing the product collaboratively.

They came back with a proposal that immediately resonated with us, and from that point on the process was seamless. Together, we were able to refine and develop the Plank Desk System into something that feels simple, expertly crafted and well-resolved."

Ed Carpenter

Founder & CEO, VG&P

VG&P was able to reach untapped premium audiences with the Plank desk system, thanks to its understated architectural simplicity and natural materiality.

Through our close collaboration—made easier by our proximity—we helped create a new benchmark for workstations, designed for the softer, more flexible workplaces of the new era.