The Industrial Designers Society of America has presented Aeron chair designer and longtime Herman Miller collaborator Bill Stumpf with its 19th IDSA Personal Recognition Award.
Stumpf received the honor at the 2001 IDSA National Conference in Boston in August.
Citing his more than 40 years of achievements, the IDSA--in its September/October Design/Perspectives newsletter--called Stumpf a "design and ergonomics legend."
During his 20-plus-year relationship with Herman Miller, Stumpf has designed such classics as the Ergon chair (1976); the Equa chair (1984, honored by Time magazine in 1990 as "Best of the Decade" in design); the Ethospace office system (1985), the Ergon 2 chair (1988); the Aeron chair (1994, and another "Design of the Decade" winner); and the Caper chair (1999).
Regarding the Aeron chair, a design icon featured in museums worldwide and spotted frequently in movies and television shows, Stumpf said, "The human form has no straight lines, it is biomorphic. We designed the chair to be above all biomorphic....There is not one straight line to be found on an Aeron chair."
Stumpf remains active with Herman Miller today, as evidenced by his design firm's work on the recently reintroduced Ethospace system, and comments from the designer regarding his Herman Miller projects.
"I work best when I'm pushed to the edge," Stumpf once said, "when I'm at the point where my pride is subdued, where I'm an innocent again. Herman Miller knows how to push me that way, mainly because the company still believes--years after D.J. DePree first told me--that good design isn't just good business, it's a moral obligation. Now that's pressure."
Bill Stumpf is a principal with Stumpf, Weber + Associates, of Minneapolis, Minn.
|
