INTRODUCING 2 NEW CHAIRS
Herman Miller Furniture Company, George Nelson
Herman Miller Furniture Company: INTRODUCING 2 NEW CHAIRS. Zeeland, MI: The Herman Miller Furniture Company, [1958]. First edition. 11 x 17 single-fold brochure printed in two colors showcasing George Nelson’s swaged-leg chairs. Graphic design by George Tscherney, the graphic ace of George Nelson and Associates. A fine copy.
“This armchair is part of a collection that was born of George Nelson’s desire to create furniture with a sculpted leg, and he had very specific ideas about how that leg would take its form. He wanted the base to be gracefully curved, crafted from metal, machine formed and prefinished, as well as easily assembled and disassembled so it could be shipped conveniently and made more affordable. Swaging, the use of pressure to taper and bend metal tubes, proved to be the smartest method for producing these legs, and it is this process that lends its name to Nelson’s distinctive design.
“For the chair’s seat shell, Nelson combined separate seat and back pieces to form a sculptural shape that fits and flexes with the body. A slit between the seat and back helps prevent heat build-up. Wide, flat arms provide a comfortable place to rest forearms. Placed at a desk or situated around tables in dining areas or conference rooms, this timeless, distinctive chair fits today’s needs as it did when it was first introduced in 1958.” — The Herman Miller Furniture Company
"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
In a characteristically wry 1944 correspondence with Herman Miller founder, DJ De Pree, George Nelson wrote that “your reservations on my suitability as a designer for Herman Miller Co., impressed me very much for they seem to be well founded… the question of lack of experience in the commercial furniture field is also important, but here, I am afraid, you and your associates will have to make the decision on your own.” Fast forward four years later, and Nelson once again found himself reflecting on the integrity of the Herman Miller Co., but this time, not as a potential hire but rather as Herman Miller’s founding creative director. In the 1948 introduction to the catalogue for his first ever collection for the company, he writes, “From the viewpoint of the designer, which is the only viewpoint I can assume with any degree of propriety, the Herman Miller Furniture Company is a rather remarkable institution.”
Whatever leap of faith was required of De Pree to hire Nelson, the affinity and mutual respect shared between the two was undeniably fruitful. Nelson credits Herman Miller’s singularity as a result of a “philosophy” or “attitude” compounded of a set of principles—that what you make is important; that design is integral to business; that products must be honest; that only we can decide what we make, and that there is a market for good design—that allow for a degree of autonomy and innovation unavailable to companies driven by the shallow demands of the market or sales. “There is no attempt to conform to the so-called norms of ‘public taste,’ nor any special faith in the methods used to evaluate the ‘buying public.’ The reason many people are struck by the freshness of Herman Miller designs is that the company is not playing follow-the-leader.”
George Nelson (1908 – 1986) possessed one of the most inventive minds of the 20th century. Nelson was one of those rare people who could envision what isn’t there yet. Nelson described his creative abilities as a series of “zaps” – flashes of inspiration and clarity that he turned into innovative design ideas.
One such “zap” came in 1942 when Nelson conceived the first-ever pedestrian shopping mall – now a ubiquitous feature of our architectural landscape – detailed in his “Grass on Main Street” article. Soon after, he pioneered the concept of built-in storage with the storage wall, a system of storage units that rested on slatted platform benches. The first modular storage system ever, it was showcased in Life magazine and caused an immediate sensation in the furniture industry.
In 1946, Nelson became director of design at Herman Miller, a position he held until 1972. While there, Nelson recruited other seminal modern designers, including Charles Eames and Isamu Noguchi. He also developed his own designs, including the Marshmallow Sofa, the Nelson Platform Bench and the first L-shaped desk, a precursor to the present-day workstation. He also created a series of boldly graphic wall clocks and a series of bubble lamps made of self-webbing plastic.
"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."
Nelson felt that designers must be “aware of the consequences of their actions on people and society and thus cultivate a broad base of knowledge and understanding.” He was an early environmentalist, one of the first designers to take an interest in new communications technology and a powerful writer and teacher. Perhaps influenced by his friend, Buckminster Fuller, Nelson’s ultimate goal as a designer was “to do much more with much less.” [hm_2019]