“Thank you for your interest in the Herman Miller collection”
Herman Miller Furniture Company
Herman Miller Furniture Company: “Thank you for your interest in the Herman Miller collection [letter salutation]". Zeeland, Michigan: The Herman Miller Furniture Company, May 1969. Original edition. Eight Herman Miller marketing items housed in original mailing envelope with a May 15, 1969 postage cancellation. Includes all specifications, dimensions and materials for the various pieces and lines manufactured in the late sixties. I suspect this information might be useful to some folks out there. Contents and conditions listed below, but a lightly handled very good or better set of vintage Herman Miller marketing ephemera.
Contents
- Herman Miller mailing envelope with printed logo, typed address label sticker and postage cancellation dated May 15, 1969. Cut open along fore edge, else very good.
- Typed letter signed by Howard Sutton on Herman Miller letterhead, dated May 14, 1969. Upper corner creased, else very good.
- Herman Miller Dealer Directory. 14-panel map-folded guide for finding the closest dealer and matching your particular needs. 26.75 x 15.25-inch directory printed recto only and roughly machine folded into 14 panels. Listings referenced as A – specializes in commercial/institutional furniture; B – specializes in commercial furniture; C – specializes in residential furniture; D – specializes in medical furniture; and E – specializes in educational equipment. Stray pen mark to verso, else very good.
- Herman Miller Inc., Chairs. Oblong quarto. Photo illustrated stapled self wrappers. 20 pp. Full color selection charts. Halftones, line art and specifications for the Eames Executive Chairs, Eames Aluminum Group Chairs, Eames Padded and Regular Shell Chairs in all their configurations, Eames La Fonda Seating, Eames Molded Plywood Chairs and the Cube Group. A fine copy.
- Herman Miller Inc., Eames Lounge Seating. Oblong quarto. Photo illustrated self wrappers. Tri fold brochure with 6 pp. of halftones, line art and specifications for the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, the Eames Chaise, Eames Sofa Compact, and the Aluminum Group. A fine copy.
- Herman Miller Inc., Tables. Oblong quarto. Photo illustrated self wrappers. Tri fold brochure with 6 pp. of halftones, line art and specifications for Contract tables, Segmented Tables, Conference Tables, and the Eames Universal Base line. A fine copy.
- Herman Miller Inc., Seating Systems. Oblong quarto. Photo illustrated self wrappers. Single fold brochure with 4 pp. of halftones, line art and specifications for George Nelson’s Modular Seating System, the Steelframe Seating System, the Contract Bench System. A fine copy.
- Herman Miller Inc., Cube Group. Oblong quarto. Photo illustrated self wrappers. Three hole punched. Single fold brochure with 4 pp. of halftones, line art and specifications for the Cube Group based on George Nelson’s designs. A fine copy.
- Herman Miller Inc., Stacking/Ganging Chairs. Oblong quarto. Single page information sheet printed recto and verso with halftones, line art and specifications for the Eames institutional stacking chairs. A fine copy.
The Herman Miller furniture lines from 1948 has been called the most influential groups of furniture ever manufactured. A rare piece of original ephemera that captures the zeitgeist of Herman Miller Furniture Company at the end of the swinging sixties.
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.”<p>
"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
George Nelson (American, 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.”