Jasper, Ind. – April 27, 2007 – Gracie Andraos from the Virginia Beach, VA, office of Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern, Inc. (HSMM), and Jamie Drzayich, a junior at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA, recently captured top honors in the Delano and Adagiato Design Competition sponsored by Kimball Office.

The juried contest gave professional and student designers from across the U.S. an opportunity to showcase their most imaginative designs for business interiors using Delano and Adagiato lounge and guest seating, both designed by David Allan Pesso. More than 100 boards were submitted.

"The application creativity was outstanding," said Terry Carroll, Seating Product Line Manager for Kimball Office. "Many entries showed the products in professional services segments where Kimball Office is traditionally strong, but we also saw lots of fresh ideas in terms of where students envisioned the products being used, such as coffee shops, retails spaces and day spas. We're very excited about the success of this competition."

In the Professional Category, Ms. Andraos took first place for her design of a coffee bar featuring Delano chairs with round tablet-arms. She repeated the circular motif utilizing backlit cutouts in the walls and echoed Delano’s unique polished aluminum fasteners in the system used to hang the restaurant's artwork.

Second place went to Jamie Herring of Gensler’s Boston office for her vibrant color scheme and playful mix of light and dark veneers. Clusters of paired Delano lounges sported tomato red bolsters, while the Adagiato chair backs alternated between tomato red and leaf green.

In the Student Category, Ms. Drzayich, placed first for her design of lounge and conference settings in a law firm. She used sliding glass panels and Adagiato chairs in natural maple to create a sweeping suite of quasi-public areas overlooking city views.

Aireen Wong, also a CCA junior, took second place with her alternative offering for the same law firm space. Ms. Wong’s concept included Delano seating and a rich, tactile blend of warm maple veneer, bronze-toned metallics, honey-colored resins and deeply hued textiles.

The third place winner was Kate Rudolphia, a junior at Maryville University in Saint Louis, MO. Ms. Rudolphia employed contrasting values and textures — dark walnut veneers, saddle tan leather against rough slate and gray suede against stainless steel — to give visual energy to a long, narrow and architecturally unremarkable retail space.

The student winners were awarded cash prizes — $1500 for first place, $750 for second and $250 for third. The two professional winners received Delano and Adagiato pieces. Judges for the competition included David Allan Pesso, Principal of New Studio, LLC, in Boca Raton, FL; Gary Nichols, Principal and President of Douglas Booth Architects, Inc. (dbA) in San Francisco; and Kathleen Peters, Director of Interior Design of Areté 3 Ltd Design Group in Tinley Park, Ill.

The winning boards will be on display in the Kimball Office Chicago showroom at 325 North Wells Street during the week of NeoCon, June 11-13.

About Kimball Office
The recognized leader in fine office furnishings, Kimball Office has been building its reputation on quality and integrity of design for more than 30 years. The company is a business unit of Kimball International, Inc., a corporation that provides a vast array of products from its two business segments: Furniture and Cabinets, and Electronic Contract Assemblies. Based in Jasper, Indiana, the publicly traded company (NASDAQ: KBALB) had sales of $1.14 billion in 2006. To learn more, please visit www.kimballoffice.com.