Mid-Century Desk by George Nelson for Herman Miller

Designer, architect, and author George Nelson was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1908. As a student of architecture at Yale University, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1928 and his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1931. Between 1931 and 1932, he studied at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C., at which point he won the Rome Prize, which provided a two-year stipend to study at the American Academy in Rome. While there, he conducted interviews with 12 leading architects of the day (including Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Gio Ponti, and Walter Gropius), which were published in the magazine Pencil Points.

In 1935, Nelson became associate editor of Architecture Forum and Fortune magazines, for whom he continued to work through the 1940s. His writing drew the attention of D.J. DePree, president of Michigan-based furniture manufacturer Herman Miller, and Nelson subsequently designed his first collection for the brand in 1945; in 1947, he became the company’s design director. There he designed hundreds of furniture pieces and recruited rising design talents including Isamu Noguchi and Charles and Ray Eames, among others.

In 1947, Nelson launched a studio in New York to design furniture, architecture, graphics, and exhibitions for clients such as General Electric, Olivetti, Abbott, and more. Over the years, the firm was known variously as George Nelson, George Nelson & Associates, and George Nelson and Company, and its staff included the designers George Tscherny, Gordon Chadwick, Ettore Sottsass, Michael Graves, and Arthur Drexler. Landmark designs include the Bubble Lamps (1952), Coconut Chair (1955), Marshmallow Sofa (1956), and the Comprehensive Storage System (1959). In 1959, Nelson was lead designer for the American National Exhibition in Moscow, the site of a series of exchanges between Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, which became known as the “Kitchen Debate.”

Over the course of his career, Nelson produced hundreds of designs for furniture, building, and graphics, as well as almost a dozen books and numerous magazine articles. He passed away in New York in 1986 at the age of 77.

Herman Miller came into being in 1923 when a company man by the name of D. J. De Pree (1891-1990) bought the majority shares of the Michigan Star Furniture Company, with the help of his father-in-law, for whom he named the new venture. Like other furniture manufacturers in West Michigan at the time, De Pree focused on the production of replicas of ornate, 18^th- and 19^th-century European wood furnishings, until a bankruptcy scare brought on by the Great Depression drove him to seek a new direction. In 1931, De Pree brought in commercial artist Gilbert Rohde, who convinced De Pree that honest, functional designs characterized by clean, simple lines were the way forward—and thus set the course for Herman Miller’s influence on what would become known as the midcentury modern style. Two years later, the first Rohde-designed collection debuted at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago.

After Rohde passed away in 1944, De Pree hired architect-designer George Nelson as the company’s first official design director. By crafting a new, compelling corporate identity and collaborating with some of the most visionary designers of the day—Charles and Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi, and Alexander Girard —Nelson earned the company international acclaim. Under his leadership, Herman Miller created some of the 20^th century’s most iconic objects, such as the Eameses’ DCM “Potato Chip” Chair (1945/46), Molded Fiberglass Chair (1950), and Eames Lounge Chair (1956); Noguchi’s Noguchi Table (1948); and Nelson’s own Bubble Lamps (1955) and Marshmallow Sofa (1965), to name a few. Notably, the Action Office Project I series by Robert Propst (1964) paved the way for adjustable and semi-enclosed work environments (a.k.a. cubicles) at a time when modernist design was increasingly adopted as the style for American corporate interiors. More recent office bestsellers include Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick’s ubiquitous Aeron Chair (1994) and Studio 7.5’s high-tech, environmentally friendly Mirra Chair (2003).

Today Herman Miller and German manufacturer Vitra share many of the same licenses for midcentury modern masterpieces, the former sold in North America and the later in Europe. Much debate surrounds whether one produces better products than the other. The rivalry between the two companies notwithstanding, Herman Miller pieces have been extensively exhibited and acquisitioned into the permanent collections of institutions such as New York’s Museum of Modern Art, London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, and even Weil am Rhein’s Vitra Design Museum—and many, many more.

* All images courtesy of Herman Miller.