New York City’s Itoki Design is just one year old. As the American subsidiary to the well-known, 100 year old Japanese brand, Itoki – one of the top ten contract furniture manufacturers in the world – its US counterpart has been booming under the creative powerhouse, industrial designer Jeff Miller, who started working with Itoki five years ago as a consultant. Miller’s design career began at Carnegie Mellon University and continued into a prolific arena of product development for companies like Apple, Estee Lauder, Motorola, and Herman Miller, among others.

CH bench. Designed by Itoki Design.

This year at NeoCon 2010, Itoki Design introduced the CH bench. A piece that can stand alone with its uneven angles and artistic form is not easy to find in a bench component. Even more tricky is encountering an asymmetrical, twisted cube that fits nicely together when there is more than one. With four or five of them, the CH bench turns into a square, pentagon, or long bench. Modular by nature, the flat, slightly seat can actually form any shape desired, similar to the Vox Monogram desks by Nienkämper. Unlike  in five brilliant colors – green, yellow, orange, white, and black – you can choose to mix and match shades or go for one color that looks like one solid, unique piece of furniture.

Since the recent inception of Itoki Design back in the spring of 2009, the line of domestically-manufactured furniture pieces have brought with them the legacy of Itoki (Japan). They’re key to success in the U.S. however is to combine the Japanese expertise in efficiently furnishing a space with the American ideals of the home and office. This juxtaposition of styles has brought Itoki Design into their own, creating a completely different kind of furnishings than other companies. As Jenny Rector shared about Itoki Design’s SP chair in the 2009 NeoCon show – that won the Best of NeoCon09 Winner for Seating: Ergonomic Desk/Task Innovation! – some of their products are also distributed in both Japanese and U.S. markets.

One of the best qualities of the CH bench is its durable, indoor/outdoor use made possible by the Linear Low Density Polyethylene (commonly referred to as LLDPE) material used in one solid piece. LLDPE is a plastic that can endure more than just the general wear and tear of the environment. In fact, it’s resistance to chemical exposure and UV radiation helps the 30″W x 23″D x 15″H bench retain it’s like-new figure in any interior or exterior climate.