Spotlight on Eames Lounge and Ottoman and Yves Behar's Dazzling Leaf Light
Herman Miller for the Home is highlighting a dramatic new look for its enduring classic, the Eames Lounge and Ottoman, during this year's International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. In commemoration of the chair's 50th anniversary during 2006, Herman Miller for the Home will showcase the Eames Lounge and Ottoman in seven striking versions in Booth 1012 on the ICFF exhibition floor throughout the May 20-23 event.
"We're celebrating a fabulous first 50 years for the Eames Lounge and Ottoman--and we're looking forward to an even more promising future," said Marg Mojzak, Director of Herman Miller for the Home.
The path to a bright future may well be illuminated by another Herman Miller innovation that will be unveiled at ICFF. In nearby Booth 1200, Herman Miller is launching a beautiful and technologically advanced table-top lamp called Leaf, designed by Yves Behar. The booth, designed by Behar and his San Francisco studio, fuseproject, will provide a radiant display for the Leaf, an LED light that is elegantly sculptural in form and a remarkable technological achievement in sustainabie design. The booth itself will provide an interactive experience for ICFF attendees.
The lounge and ottoman, designed by Charles and Ray Eames, is commemorating its golden anniversary throughout 2006 with a new sustainable veneer option called santos palisander, a special medallion set underneath the seat of each chair produced during the year, and a traveling museum exhibition organized by the Grand Rapids Art Museum which opened on May 18 at New York City's Museum of Arts & Design.
Herman Miller for the Home's Booth 1012 will feature the Eames Lounge and Ottoman resplendent in the santos palisander veneer. Santos palisander is a richly grained tropical wood sourced from lumber industries certified for their sustainable forest operations.
The booth display also will feature three sets of the Eames Lounge and Ottoman whose cushions have been transformed into impressionistic and fanciful canvasses for three outstanding artisan designers--Korean-born Christina Kim of Dosa, a textile fashion design firm in Los Angeles; Swiss-born Henri Beguelin, a leather designer of Melodia in Milan, Italy; and Shelly Klein of K Studio in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
More information on the artists.
"Each of these talented people is reimagining the upholstery of an Eames Lounge and Ottoman, in textile, leather and embroidered textile," said Lydia Esparza, a Senior Design Manager for Herman Miller. "It's a beautiful and powerful tribute to the chair--and to the idea that something iconic and familiar still has the capacity to surprise and delight."
After the ICFF, the three custom chairs will travel to Chicago and will be displayed in the Herman Miller National Design Center in the Merchandise Mart during the annual NeoCon trade show in June.
Herman Miller helps create great places to work, heal, learn, and live by researching, designing, manufacturing, and distributing innovative interior solutions that support companies, organizations, and individuals all over the world. The company's award-winning products, complemented by furniture management and strategic consulting services, generated over $1.51 billion in revenue during fiscal 2005. Herman Miller is widely recognized for both its innovative products and business practices. In fiscal 2004, Herman Miller was named recipient of the prestigious National Design Award for product design from the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. In 2006, the company was again included in Business Ethics magazine's "100 Best Corporate Citizens" and was cited by Fortune magazine as the "Most Admired" company in its industry. The company trades on the NASDAQ market under the symbol MLHR.