That ability, to see the world in a new way, is exactly what helped Chadwick, along with Bill Stumpf, to create the Aeron Chair. Together they designed the first chair to replace foam and fabric cushions, typical of most office chairs, with a mesh-like suspension material that was not only more comfortable, but offered healthier ergonomic support as well. Aeron Chair has since become an icon of design innovation and is the world’s best-selling ergonomic work chair, with a new one produced every 17 seconds.

What would the world be like if Don Chadwick, and designers like him, saw things like you or I? It’s hard to say, but it would certainly be harder to find a comfortable place to sit.

Check out Don Chadwick’s contribution to Why Design, a new video series featuring designers from Herman Miller’s creative network. There are eight videos in total, with a new one debuting every Monday. Stay Tuned; next week is designer Ayse Birsel.

Stumpf began studying how people do—and should—sit back in 1974 at the University of Wisconsin. He worked with specialists in orthopedic and vascular medicine. And he helped translate that research into chairs that people know are comfortable the instant they sit in them.


Working with Herman Miller over the years, Stumpf, and his collaborators, designed four groundbreaking ergonomic chairs: Ergon and Equa, both predecessors to Aeron and Embody. Pushing the edge of design, each was an important advancement in sitting.

Born in 1936, Bill Stumpf would have turned 76 this March. He is still missed, although his work is still very much with us.

The meaning of Magis—”more than”—captures the Italian company’s approach to design and manufacturing. “We add to Herman Miller because we are complementare, complementary,” explains Alberto Perazza, Co-Managing Director of Magis. “Even a world apart, we do the business of design in similar ways. Both companies have many and continuing collaborations with the greatest world designers.”

Much like Herman Miller, Magis employs innovative processes that maximize performance, while minimizing volume of material, energy use, and environmental impact.

The names of Grcic, Morrison, and Fukasawa join the ranks of Eames, Nelson, and Stumpf, as Herman Miller is now the exclusive distributor of Magis products in the U.S. and Canada.

Learn more about Magis designers.

Check out the HermanMiller Store for more details.

One student looked at Alexander Girard fabrics and designed a coffee table from wood pieces formed to reflect one of his patterns. One design includes collapsed fabric and raises to become the Eames molded plywood chair.

Take inspiration from everything is the creative person’s mantra. And we love it when creatives take it from us.

Photo 1: Chris Reinstad, Aeron Chair Organic Oak, 2010
Photo 2: Emily Rich, Perception, 2010
Photo 3: Heather McCalla, LCF (Lounge Chair Fabric), 2010

And if you’ve seen another product that’s not on the list, please post that on our Facebook page as well.

We’re looking forward to your participation!

In helping designers like Bill Stumpf and Jeff Weber to develop Herman Miller products—from stacking chairs, such as Caper, to high-performance work chairs, such as Embody—I’ve learned that sitting, comfort, and health are not so cut-and-dried.

In the 1990s I began using pressure map technology, which visualizes what the seat and sitter interface looks like—and how it changes depending on seat construction and the posture of the sitter. These changes translate to comfort or discomfort for the user.

More recently, in the course of our Embody chair development, I commissioned researchers at both the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Milwaukee’s Marquette University, who measured the amount of oxygen in the blood flowing to and from subjects’ lower extremities and heart rate–key health measures. It turns out, both improved when users sat in the Embody chair, versus other chairs, doing the same seated tasks in both.

So, it’s not a simple question of sitting down or standing up—but where and how you’re sitting.

Don Goeman, Senior VP of Design and Development, (shown in the photograph at left) says, “Bill had a huge impact on the company, its people, and our future.” Connie Garman, Corporate Workplace Strategist, (middle), oversaw the installation project. “We wanted to place this so that everyone could walk up and read Bill’s wonderful language—it’s really a way of having a conversation with customers about Bill’s design ideas.” Clark Malcolm (right), Writer and Editor, worked with Stumpf on many projects and was part of a team of employees who helped create the sculpture to honor one of Herman Miller’s most famous designers.

“Bill Stumpf was a genuine gift to the spirit,” recalls Clark. “His humor, his optimism, his deep concern for the human condition, his language, his childlike inquisitiveness, his impish delight in jokes and jazz, and the genius of his insights are all qualities that made him a first-rate designer and a fine human being.”

Here’s what this unassuming legend says about design:

Stumpf had become connected to Herman Miller when Bob Propst, inventor of Herman Miller’s innovative Action Office system and president of Herman Miller Research Corporation, visited a class he was teaching at the University of Wisconsin. Propst was impressed by the research Stumpf required of his students and by his sketches for a new kind of chair. Stumpf worked briefly for Propst and Herman Miller before setting up his own office. The connection to Herman Miller remained a central part of Stumpf’s life for the next 30 years. After Propst, Stumpf’s impact on the company was larger, in financial terms, than any other in the long list of famous designers to work with the company.

Born in St. Louis, Stumpf moved up river to Winona, Minnesota, as a teenager. He was Midwestern through and through, skeptical of the bi-coastal world of design that he moved in professionally. He loved the Minnesota Twins, Garrison Keillor, his family, his golden retrievers, and the fact that the titanium in his hip and his driver improved his performance walking and hitting a golf ball. In spite of his fame, he never lost his humility.

By Marcia Davis and Clark Malcolm

Herman Miller hit the mark in seating and lighting, reaping two Gold and two Silver Best of NeoCon Awards. See how these award winners are helping improve the human experience in the videos below.

Our drive at Herman Miller to make the human experience better has yielded many innovations. Over the last 30 years, each of our seating products has built the foundation of research and knowledge for the next. Setu and Embody once again extend Herman Miller’s legacy of leadership in design, innovation, and sustainability.

Setu Chairs
Our new family of multipurpose seating, Setu, won the Gold Award in the Conference Seating category and the Silver Award in the Sofas and Lounge Seating category. Setu—the chair for how you work and live now—was designed by the Berlin design group Studio 7.5, who also designed the Mirra chair, a NeoCon Gold Award winner in 2003.

Learn more about Setu and Studio 7.5.

Embody Chair
Designed by Jeff Weber and the late Bill Stumpf, the Embody chair—the first work chair to support both the mind and the body—won the Silver Award in the Ergonomic Task Seating category. Jeff Weber of Studio Weber + Associates is also the designer of our Caper seating, which won a NeoCon Gold Award in 1999. Bill Stumpf, in collaboration with Don Chadwick, designed the Equa and Aeron chairs.

Learn more about Embody and Jeff Weber.

Twist LED Task Light
Yves Béhar, founder of fuseproject, has once again partnered with Herman Miller to create an innovative lighting solution. The result is the Twist LED task light, winner of the Gold Award in the Specialty Lighting category. Twist, an energy-efficient, eco-friendly undershelf LED light for systems furniture, provides value, simplicity, and personal control for office workers. Béhar also designed the Leaf personal light, winner of the Gold Award in the Lighting category at NeoCon 2006, as well as the Ardea personal light.

Intent Furniture and Energy Manager
Our space featured two other new products: Intent Furniture and Energy Manager.

Intent furniture, designed by Joey Ruiter of JRuiter + Studio, offers a new furniture solution that extends from the private office to systems workstations in the open plan. Intent furniture has a crisp, clean appearance and was designed to integrate physically and aesthetically with Vivo interiors.

Learn more about Intent furniture and Joey Ruiter.

Energy Manager is an electrical circuit control system connected between building power and Herman Miller systems modular power. It can provide programmed or occupancy-based control of power delivery to two of the typical four circuits within a cluster of up to eight Herman Miller workstations. This allows individual worker or owner control of powered devices so they are on only when needed, and off when workstations aren’t occupied. That saves you energy and reduces costs.

Learn more about Energy Manager.

By Marcia Davis