Nearly all of the furniture in the Ohio State University’s Knowlton Hall is on wheels. The mobility of pieces like Herman Miller’s Caper Chair encourages spontaneous collaboration throughout the building, which serves as both an architectural marvel and a learning space for students of the university’s Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture. Photo: Ian Allen
Vintage and contemporary designs merge in this eclectic New York City home studio. Photo: Nick Keppol
Architecture and design firm Gensler’s downtown Chicago office in the Louis Sullivan Building stays true to the look and style of the iconic architect’s work. An open work plan and light, agile seating encourages flexibility and collaboration. Photo: Gensler
A view of London from the contemporary digs of Actis, made more comfortable thanks to the Aeron Chair. Photo: Gensler
A pair of purple Eames lounge chairs and a Central Park view from the Manhattan penthouse of architects Billie Tsien and Tod Williams. Photo: Bryan Derballa
The New York skyline from a corner conference room of the law firm Brown Rudnick. Photo: Gensler
Tired of your desk? At Autodesk you can pull up a SAYL Chair and spend some time working in a community lounge. Photo: Gensler
A classic Herman Miller coffee table and lounge chair make an appearance in this Paris home, once a convent in the heart of the city. Photo: Louis Desrosier
Matching is overrated; an Eames chair with a wood dowel base sits among an artful selection of several designs. Photo: Amy Azzarito
A beautifully renovated home nestled in the wooded hills of Marin County, California, complete with an Eames Lounge and Ottoman. Photo: Bruce Damonte
Look closely, notice anything? Artist Liu Bolin hides in the open, camouflaging himself so he disappears into an environment. Photo: Liu Bolin
Heights don’t bother photographer Alexander Remnev, who routinely climbs tall buildings without a harness to snap dizzying photos like this one. Photo: Alexander Remnev
A young Buddhist monk demonstrates his agility in Hunan Province, China. Photo: Steve McCurry
The stacked ice bubbles of Abraham Lake in Alberta, Canada, are a rare phenomenon caused by methane gas naturally released by the lake’s plant life. Photo: Chip Phillips
The world’s smallest deer, the pudu, is just 16 inches tall and weighs 20 pounds. This baby, only one month old, is even smaller. Photo: Jose Luis Saavedra
This runaway tent was able to take flight thanks to some creative photography and a bit of digital manipulation. Photo: Laurent Chehere
Only on close inspection does this swirling, iridescent sphere reveal itself to be an ordinary soap bubble. Photo: Jason Tozer
Every morning, the giraffes of this Kenyan estate help themselves to a table of breakfast treats. Photo: The Safari Collection
The last, foggy remains of night cling to the trees high up in the Polish mountains. Photo: Boguslaw Strempel
Designer Yves Bèhar isn’t kidding when he says, “Every molecule in the SAYL chair had to work harder.” To achieve Bèhar’s vision of an eco-dematerialized design, every piece of SAYL was examined, sculpted, and hollowed out to use the least amount of material without compromising strength. Was it successful? Well, SAYL survived having a 300-pound sack dropped on it—multiple times.
The Herman Miller Test Lab, where SAYL was put through its paces, is infamous among our designers. Some have even dubbed it “the place where designs go to die.” Weights, pulleys, and pistons test every design to the brink of failure—and beyond—to ensure they meet the requirements of our standard 12-year warranty.
Engineers weren’t sure SAYL would make it. It did, thanks to some hard work making every piece work harder.
Transparency, executive visibility, and timely communication during major organizational changes can help employees understand high-level strategy and embrace change. The Campbell’s Soup Company exemplified these ideas during a recent headquarters renovation, and the results were as delicious as their soup.
A strong desire to provide an invigorating, supportive workplace for employees lead Campbell’s to create a LEED-NC Silver Employee Center packed with people-pleasing features, including a credit union, fitness center, company store, café, training center, and pilot workplace that would act as a test lab to inform future space planning.
Campbell’s, with help from Herman Miller, kept employees informed during the renovation process through information sessions, executive-lead panel discussions, and a café fair for employees to learn about the services provided in the new employee center. The result? The new employees center is a hit, and Campbell’s employees now embrace and even champion change instead of resisting it.
George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher, is a traveling exhibit exploring many facets of Nelson’s peculiar brand of genius, from furniture designs to urban planning to essays and criticism.
As Herman Miller Design Director from 1946-1972, Nelson believed a problem should never been viewed in isolation from the context in which it exists—the most important being people. He observed this to be “an approach that is more likely to create trends than follow them.” Nelson was right, and his philosophy drew the Eameses, Isamu Noguchi, and Alexander Girard to Herman Miller.
The exhibit runs until October at the Cranbrook Museum of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and marks one of just five stops in the U.S. for the extensive collection of artifacts and Nelson furniture.
Happy birthday Charles Eames! Born June 17, 1907, Charles would have been 105 years old this year. In celebration, we thought it would be fun to look back at Charles and his “monkey mind” by sharing a few paragraphs from an August 1959 Vogue magazine article. Vogue, being a fashion magazine, paid particular attention to Charles’ style.
“In spite of the whir of his mind and his life, Eames has a great inner quiet. A thin, tanned man, with brown gay eyes, deep laugh ruts, and a sudden stutter, he is a fascinating man. And clothes fascinate him, too. He likes to wear yellow-beiges, yellowish-greens, shirts of wonderful subtleties, roughly textured jackets, often with silver Navaho buttons which his wife, Ray, sews on a with special curved needle. These buttons are a partial clue to both the Eameses. They see the beauty in small oddities that others may miss. They are intensely practical. They work as partners, both designers, both filmmakers, both at ease in their life.”
“Charles, however, has a monkey mind that leaps about, exploring. He has great capacity to see, to think out problems as though no one had ever pondered them before…. Added to those qualities are his sense of structure and, finally, his wide keyboard, beyond the eighty-eight notes, of enthusiasms.”
Our bodies have a way of letting us know when they’re feeling uncomfortable. Stiff shoulders, sore neck, back pain, and eyestrain are all messages telling us that we’re are not working right.
Technology can be the culprit, forcing us into unhealthy postures. Laptops are wonderful; we’re untethered and free to work from anywhere. But that laptop screen is likely too low for everyday use. Before you know it, your neck is craning and your shoulders are hunched; you’ve become what Cynthia Roe Purvis, Ergonomics R&D Director at HP, calls the “Turtle.” You might even be sitting like a turtle right now and not even know it.
The key to comfort is listening to our bodies. Don’t stay in one posture for too long: sit, stand, and stretch, move around throughout the day. Combined with an ergonomic support tool like a Lapjack to lift your laptop’s screen to the proper height and an external keyboard, and in no time you’ll be feeling better. Your body will thank you for it.
Visit our Thrive Portfolio of ergonomic solutions to learn more.
Trained as an architect, but immensely multi-talented, Alexander Girard joined Herman Miller in 1952, serving as Director of Design for the Textile Division until 1973.
From his outpost in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Girard designed textiles, collections of wallpaper, decorative prints and wall hangings, an expansive group of furniture, and both decorative and useful objects. His passion for international folk art (or “toys” as he called them) led him around the globe, amassing a collection of roughly 106,000 pieces. Recognized for the diversity of his skills, Girard brought a unique vision to everything that he did.
Experience Girard’s way of seeing in Uncommon Vision, an ongoing exhibit of Girard’s textiles, graphics, furniture and interiors, along with personal artifacts. On display in our Chicago Showroom, located on the third floor of the Merchandise Mart, everyone is welcome to stop by and take a look.
Every year around this time in June, Herman Miller joins others in Chicago for NeoCon, a contract furniture tradeshow. Much like the major auto shows, this is when brands debut their new designs. This year we have some new treats on display. Explore the slideshow to learn more.
See what else we’re up to at NeoCon 2012, click here.
If your job were a game, would it be like Angry Birds? Or Whack-A-Mole? See how your answer compares with everyone else’s by taking the Community Pulse—thought-provoking questions on work, life, and that fuzzy area in-between.
You can answer just one question, or all of them. It’s up to you. After you answer each question, a real-time infographic will show you what the larger community is saying.
Join in the conversation by taking the Community Pulse, click here.
