iClubby is the second product from Gravitonus president and founder Dr. Alex Kosik, a Russian spinal surgeon who specializes in the treatment of spinal cord injuries and the cervical spine (neck).
The iClubby makes users rethink personal and work environments.
By David Mantey, Editor, PD&D
We have been slaves to the desk for too long. Why is it that we use state-of-the-art technology placed on a piece of furniture that can be found in early medieval illustrations?
Computers become obsolete before the shipping materials hit the recycle bin and yet the furthest we’ve come in office furniture innovation has been cube walls and particle board. The Gravitonus iClubby ergonomic work environment is looking to tear down those foam walls.
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iClubby is the second product from Gravitonus president and founder Dr. Alex Kosik, a Russian spinal surgeon who specializes in the treatment of spinal cord injuries and the cervical spine (neck).
For more than five years, Kosik was a surgeon in the Central Scientific-Research Institue of Traumatology and Orthopedics – the leading Russian institution in spinal cord injury research and orthopedic treatment. He created the first workstation, the Gravitonus, for the disabled community. The second generation was created for gamers and office workers.
“When we created this type of technology, I saw disabled people who were using the computer while sitting in their wheelchair,” says Kosik. “We started thinking of how to help those people who use their computer 
for a long time. We want to mitigate damage to their spinal cord and vertebrae.”
Kosik modified the original design concept into the iClubby, powered by Intel Core i7. When the person is sitting in the iClubby and working, the workstation is actually caring for his/her health. Kosik and his team of eight to 10 designers at Gravitonus made additional modifications to reduce the pressure on the chair, which also features a climate-controlled seat.
A primary modification was the ability to move the chair’s position. “Desks were designed before computers even existed, and they largely dictate the way we configure our working environment today,” says Kosik.
The user has the ability to control the chair’s position with a motorized drive, or the chair moves constantly based on its own algorithms.
According to Kosik, the user wouldn’t notice the constant fluid movement. “This allows a person to work with everything in front of him/her with good support,” he says. “People are now capable of working as long as he/she can tolerate when they feel comfortable every moment. The only reason a person would stop working would be for a coffee break, for example, not his personal discomfort.”
The iClubby allows the person to move freely in the workspace and customize the environment with everything he/she require around him/her. Gravitonus works with each client on an individual basis to make sure to meet each customization need.
“We have created an aesthetic micro universe in which a person operates with a tailored seat, lights, a sound system that massages the body and slow movement that exercises the eyes gently,” says CEO Marshall Ferrin. “A person feels as though they’re in an attractive physiological, biological and mental universe that has been developed for them alone. We have placed all of these features into the same pod, and we found out that the aesthetic attraction of this product has outshone many others.”
Twisted Steel & Mass Appeal
Based around a mirror-polished Italian stainless steel ring, the basic package includes natural leather skin seats that include a built-in 5.1 sound system behind the headrest and a subwoofer incorporated in the bottom of the seat. As the user sits in the chair and listens to Jimi Hendrix, he/she not only hears Jimi, but he/she feels Jimi.
With a stainless steel display mount for one 17- to 30-inch display, the basic version also includes a DVI/HDMI slot.
“The iClubby is just like a car,” says Kosik. “The user individually customizes the system, such as the number of displays. Every device that we’ve created is unique. There are around 20 to 25 options available based on the user’s budget.”
Customization is the key to the iClubby’s success. When a customer is ordering the unit, the first thing the staff does is take the user’s height and weight to create the customized seat. The user can choose from the basic package, but also has the ability to upgrade to a Recaro racing seat with advanced lateral support or a hand-made custom seat reflecting the user’s anatomy (headrests, armrests and footrests).
The display mount configuration can be set up for one to three displays with a vertical or horizontal mount. The sound system can be upgraded to a 7.1 sound system with a ButtKicker silent subwoofer (primarily for gaming) or a 7.1 Harman Kardon system with an amplifier and a 1-kW woofer.
“The concept of the iClubby was to combine ergonimics, functionality and aesthetics,” adds Kosik. “Each customer group sees one of these factors as its main focus. If a person would like to customize the unit aesthetically, he/she has seven to 10 options for aesthetic customization, starting with different colors for the carriage of the unit, decals, engraving on the metal bars, or we can even create a carriage from fiber carbon. We can even sew a name or logo into the chair.”
The nature of customization often leads the design to complication, but according to Kosik, the second-generation work environment is simplified to make it more user friendly. The Gravitonus staff worked to make on-site assembly and construction as easy as possible for the end customer. By doing so, they not only increased customer satisfaction, but also reduced the number of service calls and customer reports.
Industrial Art
Aesthetic value, among other aspects, has set the iClubby apart from the competition, according to Ferrin. “The nearest competitor looks like industrial machinery,” Ferrin says. “If you’re going to have something like this in your house or in the workplace, you want industrial art, and that’s what we have for you.”
Gravitonus offers customers the ability to upgrade the design with custom vinyl decals, aerography on the chassis, artistic engraving on the steel surfaces and custom chassis paint or coating – the station can be coated in silver, gold or Swarovski. Customers can also build “moon lighting” into the ring or install a 3-D simulation platform.
Competing workstations, the industrial machinery, can range up to $40,000. With a $7,500 price point for the basic version, the stiffest competition comes from office chairs and cube construction.
“We found out that the so-called competition for the iClubby is much more expensive and so ugly that we don’t worry about it,” says Ferrin. “The competition is more the ordinary chair.”
The company has already seen interest from people in the gaming community. The hard-core gamers who spend six to seven hours a day require a game station that keeps them in the game without becoming tired. The company also has interest from the software development arena, people who spend 10 to 14 hours in front of a computer screen each workday.
“Anyone who spends a lot of time in front of a computer would be able to go home in good condition,” notes Ferrin.
And if the customer is interested, he/she can even add a stainless steel cup holder that remains stationary while the chair moves.
For more information, contact CEO Marshall Ferrin (mferrin@gravitonus.com) or visit www.iclubby.com.