MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNED BY GEORGE NELSON
The Herman Miller Furniture Company
The Herman Miller Furniture Company: MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNED BY GEORGE NELSON. Zeeland, MI: The Herman Miller Furniture Company, [1948]. Original edition. 8.5 x 11 eight-panel brochure folded into quarters [as issued]; unfolds to 17 x 22. A couple of pencil notations to margins, otherwise a very good copy.
8.5 x 11 sales brochure that unfolds to 17 x 22, featuring the initial line of furnishings designed by George Nelson while he served as Director of Design for the Herman Miller Furniture Company. The Herman Miller furniture lines from 1948 has been called the most influential groups of furniture ever manufactured. This original sales brochure shows why.
What you make is important. Design is an integral part of business. The product must be honest. You decide what you want to make. There is a market for good design.
— George Nelson
"The real asset of Herman Miller at that time," Nelson wrote, "were items one never found on a balance sheet: faith, a cheerful indifference to what the rest of the industry might be up to, lots of nerve, and a mysterious interaction that had everyone functioning at top capacity while always having a very good time."
Even if he had never designed a single piece of furniture or a wall clock, George Nelson (1908 - 1986) would be remembered as one of the founding fathers of American Modernism. The Hartford native's writing celebrated American Design with messianic zeal and pedagogical insight. Every book Nelson authored is a true classic in every sense of the word.