THE DESIGN OF HERMAN MILLER
Ralph Caplan
Ralph Caplan: THE DESIGN OF HERMAN MILLER. New York: Whitney Library of Design/ Watson-Guptill Publications, 1976. First edition. Black cloth with silver titling to spine. Photo-illustrated dust jacket. 120 pp. 8 pp. in color. 100 black and white illustrations. Jacket photography by Bruce Davidson. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. Jacket lightly rubbed and showing mild wear along the top edge. Textblock top edge dusted, so a very good copy in a very good dust jacket.
8.5 x 8.5 hardcover book with 120 pages with 8 color pages and 100 black and white illustrations. Foreword by Benjamin Thompson. Includes work by Charles and Ray Eames, Gilbert Rohde, George Nelson, Isamu Noguchi, Alexander Girard, Robert Propst, William Stumpf, Stephen Frykholm, Fritz Haller, Poul Kjaerholm and John Massey.
- Foreword by Benjamin Thompson
- Preface
- The View from Madison Avenue
- Zeeland: The Soil
- D. J. De Pree: The Roots
- Early Growth: Rohde
- The Flowering of Design: Nelson, Eames, Girard
- Branching Out: Propst
- My Life in an Action Office
- Redesigning the Family Tree
- New limbs
- Shoptalk
- Baptism and Chicken Soup
- What Day is It?: Frost
- Collision Insurance
Ralph Caplan is a writer and communications consultant who lectures frequently on design and its side effects. He is the author of "By Design" and "Cracking the Whip." He is an Emeritus Board Member for the International Design Conference in Aspen and has served as program director for their conferences.
Gilbert Rohde spearheaded a paradigmatic shift in Herman Miller's approach to design in the '30s. At his behest, the company abandoned its reliance on ornate reproductions and began producing furniture of the day -- unembellished, modular pieces designed for modern life and work. The catalogue for Rohde's Executive Office Group describes his designs as "office furniture that is modern from the inside as well as the outside, modern in the works as well as in the way it looks."
George Nelson had great things in mind when he set out to produce the first Herman Miller Collection catalogue in 1947 -- much to the dismay of CEO D.J. De Pree, who rejected the design based on the projected costs. But instead of downgrading, Nelson upped the ante, adding a hardcover and an unheard of three-dollar price tag. The gambit paid off (literally), and the 1948 catalog set a new standard for the industry. By 1952, Nelson had further honed his approach to honest, problem-solving design.
By describing the plight of the common office worker George Nelson and Robert Propst argue the insight and aesthetics behind "the Action Office." Nelson, then Herman Miller's Design Director, and Propst, its Director of Research, back their position with numerous examples of how Action Office promotes health and productivity: by encouraging people to change postures throughout the day; giving them ways to store and display materials; and allowing for adaptation so furnishings can adjust to the ebb and flow of the workday.
As Herman Miller's Research Director, Propst's investigation of "the office and the human performer" asserts that the constant, exponential change in technology and modes of work has left the physical environment lagging far behind. Since the revolution in work was based on communication, Propst argues that networks must be the primary concern.