Gary’s Spotlight: Ed Abadie, Head Designer
Classical music played softly from the corner, subtle yet inspiring. Foam, fabric and miscellaneous chair pieces scattered across the table, and a light like a spotlight lit up a man’s hands which were working on a small piece of wire and mesh, tweaking and forming it carefully and meticulously with a pair of pliers. This man is no rookie, and knows the ins and outs of each chair handcrafted to perfection from Gary Platt. Meet Ed Abadie, Head Designer and chair Guru of Gary Platt Manufacturing.
Ed has been with Gary Platt for about 15 years, but this was not the start of his career in the chair and furniture designing business. Ed started his career in the industry selling ergonomic commercial seating for about 15 years. Ed had the chance to buy two furniture companies, so he did. For nine years he delved into the design and engineering of custom office seating and furniture.
With all this experience in ergonomics and designing, Ed brought vital skills and knowledge to Gary Platt to help make Gary Platt’s casino seating unsurpassed in both comfort and style. Ed has seen the transition and evolution of bringing the commercial ergonomics of seating to the casino seating industry. Ed has brought a lot to the table when it comes to as he calls, “the refinement of the sit.” He defines his concept with this scenario.
“When people sit in an aesthetically pleasing chair, the last thing that they expect is comfort and that’s exactly the reaction you get when they sit in a Gary Platt chair. They look nice, but the ‘wow factor’ comes in when they sit down and realize that our chairs are way more comfortable than they look. In fact, I’ve heard people describe this as unusually comfortable,” Ed said.
Ed flipped through an old look book from one of his previous companies and delved into the classic style that office and casino seating continues to follow.
“The companies I designed for including Gary Platt contain very classic, streamlined designs. This gives our chairs the ability to be ‘timeless’ in the sense that when you buy a Gary Platt chair, you know it will not only last in its durability but also in its design,” Ed said.
Ed also has an architecture background which has taught him to work with the raw materials to create a new inspiration. Suppliers and vendors will always have something new or different, and Ed uses this as just one source for his many design inspirations.
“From experience and from my architecture background I’ve learned that a lot of inspiration can be found around you and with new materials. I will often find one small piece that ends up inspiring a whole new concept and design,” Ed said.
Ed’s passions in his free time when he isn’t designing chairs aren’t far off from what he does at the GPM warehouse every day. Whether he is working on one of his many classic cars, or space planning and mapping out new office designs, Ed always has design on his mind.
“Design is a forever passion, I can never turn off my design brain. With everything I look at or work on I always think, how can I make this better? What improvements can be made to the engineering and design to make it easier, more comfortable more visually pleasing?” Ed said.
Gary Platt has been the leading casino seating solution for over 20 years with handcrafted, unsurpassed comfort built into each chair, keeping the user in mind from the beginning to end to ensure each chair has a design and style that will last. Gary Platt values their employees as they are the backbone and the magic behind each innovative style that comes to life. Discover your handcrafted perfection today, and check back for our next employee spotlight!
