Teknion — Tone Chair

How can you stand out by being quiet?

by balancing physical and visual comfort.

Shared impact

The fastest sales growth in Teknion’s history.

Furniture

Global

CMF - Furniture - Industrial Design

With Teknion, a leading Canadian furniture brand based in Toronto, we reimagined the task chair—one of the most saturated categories in the contract furniture market.

Working closely across Teknion’s organisation—including leadership, sales, and development—we took an end-to-end approach spanning hardware, digital, service, and operations. The result is a holistic solution that sets a new benchmark for the industry.

Holistic Strategy for Dealer Market

Teknion aimed to strengthen its position in the dealer-driven market.

Through extensive dialogue with dealers, project managers, and interior designers, we identified nine key pain points across finance, product, service, and operations.

Over three years of chair development, all nine were addressed—recognising that products alone cannot solve broader business challenges, and taking a holistic approach to support clients.

Task chairs often shout for attention—over-designed to showcase engineering features. Created in isolation, they focus solely on physical comfort and the chair itself.

TONE takes the opposite approach. We zoomed out, considering not just the chair, but the people who use it and the spaces it inhabits.

We merge the welcoming softness of lounge chair with the performance and adjustability of a task chair—delivering the best of both worlds.

TONE’s soft silhouette and calm, thoughtful detailing blend seamlessly into any environment—workplace, home office, or higher education—without demanding attention or compromising ergonomic comfort.

Rethinking materiality.
Comfort. Tailoring. Planet.

Continuing our mission to make task chairs more human, TONE rethinks materiality.

An innovative mesh—tightly woven beyond traditional standards—takes on the appearance and tactility of residential textiles, creating a softer, more domestic experience.

To address diverse needs in both aesthetics and comfort, we introduced a 3D-knit sleeve that allows people to personalise and refresh TONE, while concealing the plastic back frame and mesh—making it better suited to residential environments.

The 3D knitting process is also zero-waste, forming part of TONE’s broader circular design approach.

Photograph of Teknion's Tone chair, designed by forpeople.

"In partnership with forpeople, Tone provides users exactly what they are looking for without all the extra bells and whistles; challenging the convention that affordable means limited options and compromised comfort.
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Thoughtful in each detail at an accessible price point, Tone innovatively marries the needs of people, place, and planet."

Teknion

Through a close partnership with Teknion, we reimagined the task chair for a new way of working—more human, more adaptable, and more connected to its environment.

TONE brought a softer, more residential language to task seating, helping Teknion gain momentum in the market while delivering strong commercial impact.