THE KNOLL LEISURE COLLECTION
Knoll Associates
Knoll Associates: THE KNOLL LEISURE COLLECTION. New York: Knoll Associates, Inc., 1966. Original edition. Slim quarto. Photographically printed stapled wrappers. 12 pp. Color and black and white photographs by Herbert Matter. Price list laid in. Trivial wear overall, thus a nearly fine copy.
8.5 x 11 saddle-stitched brochure with 12 pages devoted to the furniture designs of Richard Schultz, circa 1966. Price list dated April 1967 laid in. All furniture designs are identified by name and dimensions. I suspect this information could be useful to some people out there.
This scarce original brochure needs to be seen to be truly appreciated. A first-class production, from the crisp printing, sensitive typography, photo editing, grid layouts -- all elements come together to produce an excellent design artifact for the ages. Herbert Matter’s original Corporate ID Design is very much apparent, from the stylized Knoll “K”to the fine-arts Sculptural approach to photographing the furniture. Looking at this catalogue, it’s easy to trace the evolution of the Knoll Visual Identiry from Matter’s European Avant-Garde origins to Massimo Vignelli’s European Modernist neutering.
"With outdoor furniture there is more freedom to be playful because of context. With interiors, form should not be so exuberant because you have a roomful of furniture." --Richard Schultz
For half a century, Richard Schultz (b. 1926) has been designing outdoor furniture, first at Knoll where he assisted Harry Bertoia and developed his own lines, and after 1972 as a freelancer.
Outdoor furniture, Schultz explained, must also withstand rigorous physical and environmental testing. There is the salt spray test, for example, in which furniture is put into a chamber and alternately sprayed and dried in an effort to simulate the environmental abuse found at the seashore. Such testing standards are often set by the automotive industry, particularly for corrosion. “That’s why we don’t pop things out in a hurry. We don’t want the customer to do the testing.”