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Courtesy Chris Adamick

August 28, 2024

Chris Adamick Designs for Life

 The Los Angeles–based product designer launches the paradigm-shifting Admix table system with Allsteel. 

By: Adrian Madlener

Chris Adamick approaches design with X-ray vision. For the Los Angeles–based industrial designer, objects and spaces have the ability to suggest what they could be and the ways of living that they might shape. It’s all about challenging the status quo. “You can learn a lot by simply slowing down and asking questions,” he says. “Design allows us points of entry into the deeper meaning within our everyday lives, and as a designer I get to shine this light on life for other people.”

Adamick developed his penchant for creative pursuits at an early age. While his father was a successful contractor, his mother ran the finances of their family construction business. “The experience of seeing my parents create their own company and build buildings from the ground up gave me practical examples of creativity,” he says. “I always wanted to be an artist from my earliest memory, and I didn’t feel that there was any distinction between art and the rest of life.” For him, he says, his father’s antique cars, Surfer magazine, Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and Black Flag album covers were all equal “forms of creativity.”

image of tables and chairs in a white room
The Admix collection is a light-scale table system that takes away the power dynamic of a traditional rectilinear table and promotes collaborative work. Its range of configurations makes it ideal for the evolving workplace. Courtesy Allsteel.
people sitting on a shared work table in a white room
Chris Adamick develops behavior-shifting designs for a wide range of brands, including the Recharge modular lounge system for Iowa office furniture producer Allsteel. His latest collection, Admix, is Allsteel’s latest adaptable conference table and workstation launched at NeoCon 2024. Courtesy Allsteel.

He went on to study fine art at UCLA, and under instructor Jorge Pardo—the famed Cuban-American sculptor who often incorporates elements of design in his work—he was convinced to continue his education at ArtCenter College of Design, where everything came together. With a master’s degree in environmental design, he landed a job at RIOS in Los Angeles and eventually found himself at influential graphic design firm Pentagram. While helping imagine a family experience for a multinational retail client during his time at the former, he helped develop a wayfinding scheme for a Tadao Ando–designed building in Mexico in his capacity at the latter. 

“Working at Pentagram was a dream, but it required hard work,” the designer reflects. “I felt very encouraged and welcomed because I had a great rapport with some of the partners who I found to be curious, unique, and independent. They inspired me to envision a life working for myself rather than as an employee.” 

Branching out on his own and making a foray into the previously uncharted waters of commercial furniture, Adamick got his first big break with the development of the Audio chair for Bernhardt, which the company’s president Jerry Helling chose to emphasize at the brand’s Milan Design Week showcase. Other major collaborations followed, including the Constellation Table for Corral and the Toluca armchair for Martin Brattrud. 

birds eye view of a circular table with three people sitting at it on their laptops
Courtesy Allsteel.

Admix, his latest collection developed for Iowa-based office furniture manufacturer Allsteel, is a new system of radically flexible tables aimed at collaborative work. “The post-pandemic world has represented the most significant change in our work lives since the Industrial Revolution,” Adamick explains. “We thought, what if hybrid work schedules allowed businesses to hire a wider range of people such as new parents, neurodiverse individuals, physically disabled people, and those who live far away?”

The resulting suite of products flattens hierarchies, affords multiple postures, and facilitates remote participation in a sensitive way, allowing teams to be more creative and resilient. The tables were configured so that no one ends up assuming the traditional position of power or being put on the spot. Easily interchangeable components allow for adaptability and personalization, which—according to the designer—people are craving. The collection officially debuts at NeoCon 2024 and is his first comprehensive collection to hit the contract market. 

“Designing this type of commercial furniture is challenging because of the need to balance our deeply personal relationship with these items with the complexity of manufacturing,” he concludes. “There is also a symbolic dimension to furniture where we can explore and communicate value sets through forms and materials. I feel that there is a mysterious quality to great furniture. It’s not just beauty paired with functionality but something else entirely. I think it needs to feel like it has its own life or soul.” 

For him, it comes down to uncovering and clarifying problems so that they can be properly addressed: “The best outcomes are those that are beautiful because they improve life in subtle ways.” Adamick has spent the past 20 years making paradigm-shifting design decisions—like the complete lateralization of conference room tables—that respond to major changes in society and, in turn, have longer life spans. 

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