We congratulate Paul Riches, Heritage Office Furnishings, Vancouver, BC (Steelcase), winner of the rendering contest at this year User Conference, held at the Luxor hotel, Las Vegas.

Klick for larger images.

Paul Riches

 

The other winners are: in second place Kyli Kui, Meadows Office, New York, NY (Haworth).

Kyli Kui

 

Third Place:  Jessica Poe, Miller’s Inc, Columbia, SC (Haworth).

Jessica Poe

 

Ones again we congratulate the winners and we would also like to thank all for sharing your renderings with us!

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH., USA—May 19, 2008—Configura, Inc. today announced that Steelcase Inc. has launched Steelcase SmartTools, Steelcase’s Extension powered by CET Designer,

Configura’s software for designing and specifying office furniture and interiors.

“Steelcase and Configura have collaborated over the past year to produce Steelcase SmartTools. This Extension is specific to Steelcase product lines, and we’re pleased to announce it’s now available to Steelcase dealers,” said Peter Brandinger, vice president, Configura. “It’s designed to make their work
easier and faster as well as more creative and accurate.”

Said Steven Eriksson, Channel Strategy Leadership Team, Steelcase Inc.: “The design process for the contract furniture industry has always required designers to work at a detailed parts level and is very complex, sometimes taking years to learn the rules and application criteria for systems furniture. Steelcase SmartTools powered by Configura’s CET Designer reduces the learning curve to understand and design with our extensive systems products, designing at the object rather than at the parts level.”

Calling it more efficient and intuitive than traditional programs, Eriksson noted the design modifications are easier and faster to implement. “We will be able to offer more design and product applications solutions, coupled with the ability to cost effectively and quickly render those solutions. Designers using Steelcase SmartTools can provide customers with faster overall responses, accurate specifications, a broader variety of design possibilities and budgetary pricing,” he said.

Configura released Version 2.0 of its NeoCon-award-winning CET Designer software earlier this month. The software is also used by Haworth and Teknion dealers. A partnership with ProjectMatrix provides CET Designer users access to more than 80 percent of the products in the commercial furniture industry.

Steelcase dealers can visit a dedicated Web site, http://in2.steelcase.com/configura/, where download instructions, a training schedule, a narrated software demo, FAQs, and other helpful information are located. Dealers with questions are encouraged to use the ‘contact us’ link on the Web site or they can send e-mails directly to CETadmin@steelcase.com or call the Configura CET Designer toll-free help number, 877-238-0808. For more information about CET Designer in general, please visit www.cet-extensions.net.

Configura will demo CET Designer at NeoCon in Chicago this June at Booth 7-7046. Also, a CET Designer Users’ Conference is slated for Oct. 1 and 2 in Las Vegas.