A New Ghent Takes Center Stage at NeoCon

For the past few months,  we’ve been working behind the scenes to reinvent aspects of our brand. We’ve been hinting at the big secret and now it is time to reveal: we are consolidating our brands to form ‘A New Ghent’! With that exciting change, plus our attendance at NeoCon this year, we knew that reimagining our showroom layout and creating a unique experience for our attendees was a must.

The Showroom Layout

While most spaces at the Mart only have a single room, Ghent has a unique position and opportunity with our showroom. We’ve been able to utilize public use space in the hallway, which exists both at the beginning and the end of our showroom, giving attendees the ability to visually and physically interact with our products for a longer experience.  The main showroom is 1,200 square feet, filled entirely with products that tell our story – a new, bold, fresh Ghent!

When we were dreaming up our new showroom, it was important that the experience did not include the same old sales pitch. Consciously creating a different approach meant that every aspect of the showroom was considered, to create a fun, professional experience from start to finish. Inspired by a concept called “controlled chaos”, we achieved this look by flooding a portion of our showroom with a vibrant and bright mixture of colors, while still controlling them by locating our pieces on a raised runway. In a way, our showroom was inspired by museums: displaying our products in a clean, sleek fashion that is exciting and focused. By locating everything centrally, we could ensure that the sensory experience for attendees wasn’t overwhelming.

The curated experience in our newly-designed showroom is best described in two words: human centric. “Someone can, without words, visually understand the direction of the ‘New Ghent’”, says Ryan, from our Product Development team. “We want our products to inspire the market, to showcase how our products are not only functional, but beautiful pieces of art even when not in use. We took a lot of inspiration from bold color blocks during the creative process of designing our new showroom. All of our products can coexist in the same space with ease and harmony, and we wanted to highlight the form of our pieces even more so than the function.”

From the moment someone walks down the hallway and into our showroom, they will gain a deeper understanding of who we are at Ghent, what we do, and what sets us apart. Our fresh, new showroom will serve as a method of storytelling.

New Ghent, New Showroom

Because of our major shift in blending our brands into one, this new showroom is definitely an extension of this choice! It's a visual representation of the brand's evolution. We humbly started as an office product manufacturer and throughout the years have grown to become an innovator in the commercial design and contract furniture market. Just as our products are more than communication tools, ‘A New Ghent’ is now more than just a manufacturer. By taking our place in the market as an innovative company that is committed to pushing the boundaries of what visual communication tools can be both functionally and visually, we are enhancing workspaces in ways beyond traditional methods.

Taking Collaboration Outdoors

Aside from our brand consolidation and our newly refreshed showroom, we shared news so big it needed its own space: a line of outdoor collaboration products, inspired by nature: Preserve and Improvista.

We were able to utilize our neighboring room (showroom 1058) to create an engaging and fun space that shows how our new outdoor pieces, Preserve and Improvista, turn collaboration inside-out. Our team has done their research when it comes to biophilic design. Ryan shares, “We have been closely observing the trend in the biophilic movement in commercial interiors over the past few years. We researched the science behind the connectedness to nature in the workplace as well as educational settings.”

Now more than ever we are seeing the importance of connecting people back into nature – even at work. Grounding people into nature positively impacts not  just performance at work, it more importantly impacts one’s mental, physical and emotional health in a nurturing way. With humans having a natural desire to be connected with nature, venturing to the outdoors offers profound benefits creating happier, less-stressed, more efficient employees.  

As we’ve seen the biophilic movement make major waves in the industry, we asked ourselves the question: does collaboration need to be within four walls? Well, the answer was a resounding no! Having an inspired workspace that embraces nature and meets the needs of employees, students or whomever is using the space is at the forefront of what we do. These products create a “fourth space” outdoors, extending the life of interior spaces and also creating a beautiful, grounded area that can be utilized for meetings, solo work and more. 

With all of these incredible changes, we are excited to engage with you in a new way. Our new showroom at NeoCon is a beautiful extension of all the ways we are reimagining how we do what we do at Ghent – or rather, at ‘A New Ghent’!