Formed over a millennium under heat and pressure, stone reflects the particular characteristics of its origin. A fact kept in mind when we selected stone tops for the new Nelson and Eames outdoor tables.
Wanting stone with unique character, we found four we liked from quarries across North American: Georgia White Marble, a white stone with accents of warm beige and grey veins; Georgia Grey Marble, a cloudy grey stone with strong veins of light and dark grey, and reflective crystals; Wisconsin Black Marble, a dark stone speckled with lustrous green and grey veins; and Quebec Graphite Granite, a subtly patterned granite composed of deep grey hues.
Each is a natural complement to the design it sits atop, and durable enough to stand up to all types of weather.
Faced with answering this question, Anna Hernandez of Luna Textiles found inspiration in the, “shapes and forms of contemporary architecture.” The resulting patterns—Connection, Current, and Circuit—form a new fabric collection developed exclusively for Herman Miller.
“Inspiration is subtle,” says Hernandez, “it may express itself in small ways. Some especially evident to architects and designers in the profession.” Connection for instance, while a geometric pattern, forgoes 90-degree angles. “Modern architects who design buildings without straight lines will recognize these forms.”
Grass cloth, a popular textural material of mid-century interiors, inspired the tiny gird pattern of Current. “It’s not symmetrical,” explains Hernandez, “it’s a little off, giving the pattern a more natural look with a mid-century feeling,” while Circuit pays homage to round, organic forms common to the 1950s.
Drawing on her inspirations, Hernandez aspired to a timeless collection, “that responds to the moment, but without being specific to a brief period of time.”
Our lives don’t stop outside the walls of our buildings, and our furniture shouldn’t either. A fact addressed by Charles and Ray Eames with the Aluminum Group. Originally referred to as the “Indoor-Outdoor Group,” the Eameses intended their design to blur the distinction between patio and living room in the modern home.
To make the Aluminum Group chairs appropriate for outdoors, the Eameses found saran—a cloth-like fabric made of woven plastic fibers. Porous and fast drying, they felt it was the ideal material for life outside. Perhaps ahead of its time, saran proved to have durability issues forcing the Eameses to abandon it just a year or two after production. Consequently the entire collection migrated indoors.
Today, the Eames Aluminum Group is once again ready for life on your patio. Building on the yarn and weave technology pioneered in Pellicle, we have developed with designer Susan Lyons a new outdoor upholstery option called Outdoor Weave. Porous, fast drying, and durable, it meets all of the characteristics Charles and Ray demanded of saran.
Every day people endure rush hour traffic, mediocre coffee, and the interruptions that come with office life. Equipped with a laptops and cell phones, many workers could work from elsewhere. So, why to do they go to the office?
“All work is social,” says Larry Prusak, author and director of IBM’s research lab. While mobile technology untethers workers from their desks, nothing trumps face time when it comes to developing and deepening relationships with others.
René Shimada Siegel writing in Inc magazine recently observed, “We’re all in the people business. We’ll only be successful if we really get to know our customers and colleagues.” To do this, Siegel advocates meeting in person, offering 5 reasons to forgo Skype, emails, and texts.
People chose the office for a reason. For those of us who design and furnish offices, the challenge is to make them places where people want to be.
Reimagining an iconic design is no small matter. For designer Stephan Copeland, it held the extra pressure of taking on a design from his childhood: the classic L-1 architect lamp by Luxo—also known as Pixar’s mischievous mascot. The result, the Ovelo light, was Copeland’s modern interpretation of the iconic design for the era of efficient LED lighting technology.
What did you think when Luxo approached you to design Ovelo as an update to their L-1 lamp?
I was excited, but it was certainly stressful. The L-1 sat on my desk as a kid. It’s one of the most refined and efficient designs you’ll experience. Professionally, I’ve competed against it for 20 years. Now I was given the opportunity to imagine it for the LED era.
How was LED technology an influence on the design?
It was. The small size of LEDs and lack of heat, offered so many design options. The most obvious was reducing the size of the lamp’s head. But more importantly, LEDs allowed the center of the lamp’s head to be left open, turning the entire head into a handle, a comfortable point for somone to grasp and adjust the lamp.
Aesthetically, Ovelo is quite different than L-1. Why not follow the design cues of the classic more closely?
I wanted Ovelo to be peaceful, and to encourage interaction and natural adjustment, so I spent a lot of time developing new imagery for the lamp. Designing the head to be a handle was one aspect of this. Another was enclosing all of the components—electrical, the arm mechanism of L-1, and all of the fasteners—in a smooth case. If you run your hand over the body of Ovelo, there is nothing to catch it.
I hope that people find Ovelo approachable and easy to adjust, because in the end, that is the purpose of a desk lamp—to put the right amount of light right where you need it.
“There’s no reason that great design can’t be something for everyone to have,” says designer Yves Béhar. With projects like One Laptop Per Child and See Better to Learn Better under his belt, Béhar’s belief in attainability rings true.
For Herman Miller, Béhar created SAYL—his answer to an attainable ergonomic work chair. To do this, Béhar challenged us to develop a technology not seen in low-cost seating: a unique frameless back, stretched into place, with ergonomic support molded into it.
SAYL proves that innovation can cost less than traditional foam and fabric construction—making great design available to more people.
Check out this excerpt of Yves Béhar’s recent interview on The Next List, CNN’s weekly profile of innovators, visionaries and agents of change.
Who beat out the Eames molded plastic chair to take first place at the Museum of Modern Art’s International Low-Cost Furniture Competition in 1948? We weren’t sure, so we asked Eames scholar and Daniel Ostroff. Here’s what we learned:
As Ostroff puts it, “The “Second Place” finish for Charles and Ray deserves an asterisk.” At the time of judging, months before the public exhibition, The Eames had only produced their single-form arm and side chairs in stamped metal. The winning designs—first place was shared by Donald Knorr and George Leowald—were both lightweight and very low cost. In comparison the Eames “shells” were heavier and more expensive.
However, by the time the exhibition opened Charles and Ray had worked out how to make their winning “shapes” from molded plastic. The result was a lighter, cheaper, and easier to produce than the other winner. While technically second place, The Eames molded plastic chair was the star of the show and has proven to be an enduring classic.
Of the two first place designs, only David Knorr’s chair of flat steel joined in a circular shape was produced, albeit for only a few months before being discontinued.
People intuitively recognize good design; it invokes a sense of inevitability—a “should be-ness” according to Charles and Ray Eames. For those outside of design this can seem simple, but the truth is it’s an iterative process of exploring every possibility until you land on the one that is just right.
Designer Yves Béhar knows something about this from his work on SAYL. Achieving the refined feel of SAYL’s frameless took nearly three years. More than 100 different patterns were created—each evaluated and informing the next pattern. This was repeated until Béhar and Herman Miller landed on the final design that everyone knew was just right.
The result is a frameless back with ergonomic support molded into it. The first of its kind, the back moves, supports, and responds to the sitter in a natural way. When you look at it, you don’t see the process of design; rather you’re left with a sense that it is as it should be.
The Valastro's 1954 Brooklyn apartment with their new Eames furniture. Photo: danielostroff.com
In 1954, a young couple invested their wedding money in furniture for their modest Brooklyn apartment. The furniture, designed by another young couple, Charles and Ray Eames, lasted a lifetime.
For five decades, Sal and Gladys Valastro lived with their Eames designs. They treated the furniture with care, but never pampered it from the rough and tumble of everyday life. At the hands of the Valastro sons, an Eames rocker, turned over, became a turtle shell and the molded plywood coffee table was a spot to sit and spin.
Eames + Valastro is the story of a family with good design. Author, and Eames scholar, Daniel Ostroff provides a reminder that the Eameses designed for life, and their work only gets better with use.
The size of type, intuitiveness of controls, the degree of comfort—design is a process that begins with people in mind.
At Herman Miller this philosophy began with Gilbert Rohde’s belief that design was the only honest way to make furniture that served people. Charles and Ray Eames agreed: imparting their molded plywood chairs with contours mimicking those of the human body.
In the 1970’s, designer Bill Stumpf sculpted foam to comfortably support people while they work—creating the first ergonomic task chair. He introduced ergonomics to our industry.
Since then, Herman Miller and its designers have continued to find innovative solutions, but have never forgotten that design begins with people. Not just their physical attributes, but their behaviors as well. We study the purpose of their work and their postures and movements. Design follows.
