About FlowSeat
How an engineer who built machines for the deep ocean ended up rethinking the office chair.
Our Story
FlowSeat started with a simple observation. Founder Seton Schiraga had spent years engineering machines for the bottom of the ocean and instruments that had to be exact to the fraction of a millimeter. Then he looked at the office chair — a design that hadn't really changed in decades — and realized it got one basic thing wrong.
A chair holds you still. A body wants to move. Seton built the FlowSeat around that tension, using the same idea that holds up bridges and living structures: tensegrity, a balance of tension and compression. Instead of locking you in one position, the base flexes and responds. You shift, lean, and stay engaged without thinking about it.
Every FlowSeat is built by hand in the United States, to the same tolerances Seton held when a loose fitting could sink a submarine. That's the whole point — the person who designed it has never made anything ordinary.
Our Mission
We think the problem is sitting still, not the chair itself. Most of us hold one position all day and feel it by evening — in our backs, our focus, our energy. The FlowSeat fixes that at the source by making movement the default instead of something you have to remember to do.
We're a small company betting that a chair can genuinely make your day better. That's the mission, and it's the whole of it.
Seton Schiraga
Founder & Lead Engineer, ArTen Designs
Seton Schiraga is a licensed Professional Engineer and the founder and lead engineer at ArTen Designs. His work centers on structures that pair rigid mechanics with the fluid, adaptive movement you find in living things. The FlowSeat grew directly out of that research — and out of a patent he holds for what he calls "surface adaptive tension-compression base structures."
For seven years, as a senior mechanical design engineer at DOER Marine, he built robotics for places most engineering never has to go. He designed the hydraulic systems for James Cameron's deep-sea submersible and the life-support and cooling systems for Paul Allen's ten-person submersible. At those depths, a small flaw in a pressure hull is fatal. There is no version of "good enough."
That standard carries into everything he designs. His approach — biologically inspired tensegrity — uses simple, local structures to produce complex, adaptive motion. It's why the FlowSeat behaves less like a piece of furniture and more like something that moves with you.
He has also held senior roles at Mettler-Toledo Rainin and at Science, working on ergonomics and precision instruments. At Science, he led teams building brain-computer interfaces and surgical tools — work where the way a device meets the human body is the entire point.
He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering, with a focus in mechatronics, from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, along with coursework in marine biology and biological oceanography through the Sea Education Association.
"Find out where your limits are, and start from there." It's how Seton approaches every project — including the one you can sit in.
Our Values
The principles that guide everything we do
Innovation
We continuously push the boundaries of what's possible in ergonomic design, combining cutting-edge research with practical application.
Quality
Every FlowSeat is hand-built in the USA with premium materials and meticulous craftsmanship. We never compromise on quality.
Health First
Your wellbeing is our priority. We design products based on scientific research and real-world feedback to maximize health benefits.