From Mauve to Modular: What Office Designs Have Circled Back Around

Flip through Watson’s old ads and you realize something fast: the office never stops reinventing itself. Some decades gave us hits, some gave us mauve. But the themes keep circling back: ergonomics, flexibility, choice, and quality. The words haven’t changed much, but what they mean absolutely has.

The 1980s: Mauve & Modular

The office of the 80s looked like Patrick Nagel had styled it. Mauve panels everywhere, overhead storage with downlighting, and sofas plunked into “collaboration” zones like an afterthought. Exec desks were still L-shaped fortresses, while cubicles strained to make room for the real boss: enormous typewriters and early PCs.

Watson launched Flex during this era:  an ergonomic workstation that rolled computers onto the desk and dropped keyboards to a lower surface. It was ergonomics before anyone called it wellness, a rare nod to user health in a decade otherwise defined by boxy silhouettes and fixed-height everything.

Timeless: Ergonomics as a design driver, even Flex was an early attempt to put human health at the center.

Out of Style: Furniture layouts dictated by the footprint of machines instead of the needs of people.

Back: Acoustic solutions, once a novelty, are now a core design tool, and those angular chairs have returned as icons of postmodern cool.

The 1990s: Cupholder Desks

Fast forward to the 90s, when every corner was rounded within an inch of its life. Thick edge banding, semi-circular pods, and desks that literally cupped the user. Collaboration meant four people facing inward, their PCs tucked into corner shrines. Filing was endless, because paper still reigned.

But hidden in those pods was something new: the beginnings of integrated power and data delivery. Primitive by today’s standards, but unmistakably the ancestor of what became one of Watson’s signature strengths. For the first time, the desk wasn’t just furniture; it was a conduit for work.

Timeless: Adaptability was the promise, and Watson even offered variable-height systems long before sit-to-stand was fashionable.

Out of Style: Pods that forced workers to conform to the furniture rather than the other way around.

Back: Rounded corners, reinterpreted as softer edges and organic forms that signal comfort and approachability instead of excess laminate.

The 2000s: Agile (Sort Of)

The aughts promised agility, but the office still looked suspiciously like a cube farm. Dividers crept higher, privacy was back, and storage units took on bulbous curves that could’ve been borrowed from The Jetsons. Corners were cavernous, even as laptops became standard issue. Paper still piled high, and filing cabinets still crowded the floor.

Ads leaned hard on flexibility, reconfigurability, and mobility — words that haven’t left our vocabulary since. But back then, “mobile” meant wheeling around a cart, not reconfiguring an entire office before lunch.

Timeless: The individual workstation — never gone, just constantly evolving to balance focus and flexibility.

Out of Style: “Agile” environments that still locked users into fixed panels and static configurations.

Coming Back: Privacy, now reimagined as individual, modular pods and soft seating nooks, where every person can claim their own space.

The Late Aughts to Today: Finding Our Lane

By the late 2000s, the office started to calm down. Watson found its lane in a European-inspired aesthetic, characterized by slimmer profiles, sustainable wood, and precision metalwork. Modular systems finally lived up to decades of marketing promises.

Pods gave way to workbenches. Collaboration zones stopped being an afterthought and became an integral part of the floor plan. Storage shrank, grew wheels, and followed people around instead of towering over them. Adjustability went from “premium feature” to baseline expectation.

Timeless: People have always been at the center, even when technology tried to steal the spotlight.

Out of Style: Furniture no longer revolves around a monitor or PC; instead, it supports a wide range of work modes.

Coming Back: The L-shaped desk has re-emerged, streamlined as a multipurpose bench rather than a corner-office throne.

Today: Don’t Fear AI

One vintage Watson ad urged: “Don’t fear automation.” Swap in AI and you’ve got a 2025 headline. The anxieties recycle, but Watson’s approach hasn’t: build furniture that lasts, adapts, and keeps the human at the center, whether the challenge is mauve panels, massive PCs, or a new acronym.