Tables that do not look like meetings
Shaped and irregular tables for breakout and collaboration spaces, including Impulse Black Series slimline and straight tables. A rectangle in a breakout area turns it into a meeting room, and these exist to avoid that.
Shape changes behaviour
People sit at a rectangular table the way they sit in a meeting: opposite each other, along the long edges, with an implied head. An irregular or shaped top does not offer those positions, so conversation stays looser.
That sounds like interior design theory until you watch a team use both in the same week.
Where they belong
Touchdown areas, informal meeting points and the space between desks and the kitchen. Anywhere people stop for twenty minutes rather than book for an hour.
They are not a substitute for a proper meeting table in a room with a door.
Pair with soft seating
A shaped table surrounded by office chairs still reads as a meeting. With soft seating or stools around it, the area reads as breakout, which is presumably the intent.