Modern Chair Design hotels bars clubs restaurants

Social furniture design using rotational moulding for use in hotels, restaurants, bars, lounges, clubs, cafes or poolside and indoor and outdoor public spaces. Presenting the shnug perch chair, the shnuglet ottoman and the convo chair designed by award-winning designer Adrian Halkes.

Made in Italy

reddot design award Shnug design multipurpose hotel restaurant indoor outdoor furniture perch chair product bar lounge

Shnug Perch Chair

Thanks to its trendy colour and curved design, this multipurpose chair achieves a high level of attention

Reddot Website

Shnug Perch Chair Red Dot Award Winner

The Shnug Perch Chair was designed for multifunctional use in bars, lounges, clubs, cafes, or swimming pool sides.

Its asymmetrical shape offers additional seating for a second person or serves as a tray for personal items. The organically shaped seating surface promises relaxed seating.

Rotational moulded from polyethene, this multipurpose chair is recyclable after many years of use. Its robust surface withstands even the considerable stress of commercial use both indoors and outdoors.

Shnuglet Ottoman

The Shnuglet is a unique multi-purpose ottoman, side table or stool for seating which stands alone with great utility poolside, in a club or bar or as public seating. Designed as the perfect companion for the Shnug Perch Chair the Shnuglet is the do-it-all solution to social seating and more.

The Convo Chair from Shnug

The Convo Chair from Shnug is a modern spin on the conversation chairs of the Victorian era. As public space seating for four, matched in pairs or even sanding solo or even in a corner. The Convo Chair maximises social interactions and exists to start conversations by bringing people together as a feature item in building lobbies, lounges and public areas: triggering conversations in a way the world has forgotten.

Shnug convo chair public space saver bar lounge club clover leaf

Shnug convo chair public space saver bar lounge club quarter

Shnug convo chair public space saver bar lounge club front red dot award winner

Adrian J Halkes - Designer

Adrian J Halkes comes form an engineering family and launched his career in design as a teenager with a solo exhibition, going on to found the first commercial holography company in Asia in the 1980s; leading to a whole new area of business development in Hong Kong and Asia Pacific.

A self-taught industrial designer, Adrian innovated new technical solutions in that emerging technology, by pioneering new products and materials manufactured in the USA and Europe. This production leap spurred global markets and a massive industry via the incorporation of his designs into the industrial materials supply chain. Later branching into retail design and product branding he continued to developed new products and markets through the 90s and beyond, being granted patents and winning business awards.

To meet a very specific technical client need for more efficient space use, in the night-club context, Adrian moved outside his comfort zone and developed the Shnug “perch chair” from a simple idea to a full product; with a single arm or perch for a second person the Shnug received a Reddot design award and is the subject of multiple international design and trademark registrations.

Adrian is based in Hong Kong and travels extensively whilst pursuing his parallel career in intellectual property and regulatory law; he continues to develop new products and designs for global markets.

Father and Son Collaboration

The Shnug Journey

I was sitting in a meeting on liquor licensing and premises re-design for a top club venue in Hong Kong; talking about the interior with new furnishings.

Previously I had innovated a seating plan with one regulated capacity when operated as a restaurant and another when it was a high-energy night club; that related to escape & exit routes.

As the club always needed maximum floor area at night, and as a customer I knew that late-night everyone was perched on the arms of chairs; there would always be a guy on a chair, with a girl (or another guy) perched an arm of the same chair…. It was social seating of a proximate nature and fun. But a heavy-duty armchairs take up a lot of space that blocks square footage.

So I started to sketch; my thinking was if two people used one chair, but only used the seat and one of the arms; why would the chair need to be so big or have two arms?

Shnug design hotel restaurant indoor outdoor furniture perch chair public space bar lounge club wireframe

… if that’s what’s going on, why not just have a smaller chair with one arm … which somebody could perch on?

The Shnug was born to solve a problem of my regulatory licensing practice and to address the way people socially interact in a nightclub, and I set out to make a chair that could be sat on by two people, yet only take the same amount of space as a much smaller armchair; couples or friends could interact socially together; one seated and one perched on the same chair … and that’s it.

The Shnug name is a play on words for something “snug” (as two people are on the chair) and the umlaut is just a hint to there being two people on it not one … too subtle perhaps however a bit of fun to our mind and being playful with words, graphics and design is important!

The Shnuglet was developed as the perfect companion to The Shnug in a way that sees it used as a side table, stool to perch on or ottoman depending on how people want to use it; which is totally up to them.
The Convo Chair brings yet another social seating solution into the Shnug family.