Formway Furniture 

Formway Furniture was a small, promising Petone-based furniture design company.

Then design director, Mark Pennington, and his team designed the 'LIFE' chair, which was voted the best ergonomic chair in the world.

The LIFE chair was a true technological breakthrough, destined to become a design classic, due to its peerless ability to sense what different bodies need and adjust to accommodate.

A giant US furniture manufacturer and marketer bought the rights to distribute LIFE in the northern hemisphere, and Formway - now more of a global player - needed a clear brand architecture and value story that could be shared and articulated in any market.

The Formway design team share an absolute belief in 'the living laboratory' (designing to better meet people's real life needs).

Out of this belief, DesignWorks Enterprise IG came up with the single organising idea 'make work better', which expresses Formway's ideology and values and pushes designers to be more strategic.

DesignWorks Enterprise IG then updated the Formway trademark, provided a brand palette and established a brand hierarchy.

LIFE was designed as a sub-brand, part of the Formway family, yet distinctive enough to stand alone.

The LIFE brochure won Best Graphic Design at the New Zealand Best Design Awards in 2003, and the chair has racked up no fewer than 11 international awards to date.

However, for Pennington, by far the most valuable aspect of rebranding has been finding a new internal focus, clarity and a greater sense of unity and purpose.

The brand driver 'make work better' expresses Formway's idealogy and values, and focuses designers strategically.

"It's the power within," says Pennington. "We live it, we remind each other, it's extremely potent and empowering. You can feel the new sense of direction in the organisation."

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