As another day dawns on the beautiful, and under-rated, landscape of Baltimore, a city I like to refer to as “Queen of the Mid-Atlantic,” design denizens everywhere take note that #NEOCONEAST (just how many NeoCons are there?) is a scant week away. Just so, 3rings is proud to begin a full week of reviews of participating exhibitors, concluding with live reportage and photography from the show on October 28 and 29. First up, Allermuir’s Bison, “a highly stylish and contemporary tub chair designed with characterful broad shoulders and a compact footprint.”

Bison Chair. Designed by Simon Pengelly for Allermuir.

Never one to quibble with a PR department’s grammatical innovations, I’ll withhold comment on the coinage and just get down to brass tacks: Bison, a piece that shares the compact footprint and “high-shouldered” features of other recent offerings (see PARCS, Sensuede, and Grande Papilio), is a snazzy two-tone chair with a beefy trapezoidal base and slim back and arms that, from a certain perspective, resembles the distinctive profile of a Buffalo’s head. The synergy between the stability of the base and the simple, clean lines of the chair’s upper half creates a distinctive aesthetic that sets Bison apart from other contract offerings.

Though somewhat new to the soft seating game (having recently expanded their product range with offerings from “conservative sofas to contemporary and dramatic styles”), Allermuir succeeds soundly with Bison, a chair whose moulded foam seat and rigid back achieve that unlikely blend of comfort and functionality—just right for office applications as well as public seating, hotel rooms, lounges, restaurants, coffee shops… any of the manifold locations that ask to be outfitted in stylish yet pragmatic seating. Like all Allermuir furnishings, finish and color for Bison can be custom-ordered from their extensive portfolio of fabric and leather manufacturers. The company also encourages you to specify your own finish. So whether your “Bison” comes in the double tones of magenta and lavender, or the more conservative look of chocolate suede, you’ll relish every sit in its broad yet compact contours.