DESIGN QUARTERLY 126: A SERIOUS CHAIR
Mildred Friedman [Editor]
Mildred Friedman (editor): DESIGN QUARTERLY 126: A SERIOUS CHAIR. Cambridge: MIT Press/Walker Art Center, 1984. Slim quarto. Saddle stitched thick printed wrappers. 48 pp. Color and black and white illustrations throughout. Folded 20 x 28 two-sided poster laid in [as issued]. Wrappers lightly worn and rubbed, with faint spotting to lower edge of rear panel, but a nearly fine copy.
8.5 x 11 softcover magazine with 48 pages and approx. 75 illustrations, most in color and a 20 x 28 two-sided poster of the DQ 126: A Serious Chair. Great issue (and poster) for industrial designers.
Contents
- Editor’s Notes
- The Preface to a Serious Chair by William Houseman
- The Making of a Serious Chair by William Houseman
- Observations and Intentions by Bill Stumpf
- Bibliography and Credits
Excerpted from Herman Miller's web site: "In developing the original Equa chair, introduced in 1984, designers Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick analyzed a variety of chairs to determine design trends in seating. 'We found that office seating was becoming more specialized in terms of how people sit in chairs and the types of tasks they perform,' Don says. 'We wanted the opposite; we believe that a chair has to allow a person to move around, perform a variety of tasks, and sit in a variety of positions throughout the day.'"
"Key to the chair's 'equitable' design is its one-piece shell. It began its evolution in 1979, when the first iteration showed that using an H-shaped cut-out, the seat and back could act independently. Several shells were laid up by hand to develop a comfortable shell form. Then the right materials and manufacturing process had to be found. A fiberglass-reinforced polyester resin shaped into a one-piece seat and back using thermoplastic molding produced a strong, flexible, cost-effective, and visually pleasing shell."
Also includes work by Gilbert Rohde, Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Buckminster Fuller, Richard Sapper, Norman Zapf, and Raymond Loewy.
Design Quarterly began as Everyday Art Quarterly, published by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis starting in 1946. The editorial focus aimed to bring modern design to the masses through thoughtful examination of household objects and their designers. Everyday Art Quarterly was a vocal proponent of the Good Design movement (as represented by MoMA and Chicago's Merchandise Mart) and spotlighted the best in industrial and handcrafted design. When the magazine became Design Quarterly in 1958, the editors assumed a more international flair in their selection of material to spotlight.