June 12, 2017
Herman Miller Launches the ColourFormTM Sofa Group
Scholten & Baijings’ first project for Herman Miller is the perfect expression of its designers’ artistic process

Designed by Carole Baijings and Stefan Scholten of Amsterdam-based Scholten & Baijings, the ColourForm Sofa Group was inspired by the creative tensions between color and pattern, between surface and form, and between design and production that defines every project the designers undertakes. It is the perfect expression of its their artistic process.

Scholten & Baijings is known for sculpting in pattern, texture, and color. When designing furniture, the designers consider the play of light and shadow, and the geometry of forms that comfortably host a variety of human postures.

Throughout their practice, the designers emphasize multiplicity and combination with their designs, and, in their ColourForm Sofa Group, the result is a vocabulary of multiple lounge seating pieces, including two- or three-seat sofas with or without arms, a club chair, ottoman, bench, sectional, and a distinctive tête-à-tête (an S-shaped piece that allows people to sit facing each other).

“We create options and possibilities because a product is produced and reproduced many times,” notes Scholten. “We want to give a feeling to each one that it could be unique.”

“And while we want to leave those choices and possibilities to the consumer in the end,” adds Baijings, “at the same time we like to show how it’s nice to combine certain elements or selections to demonstrate how it all can work together.” As intended, each piece of the ColourForm Sofa Group can stand alone or be combined with others to provide a place for work, play, or respite.

In addition to the ColourForm Sofa Group, Scholten & Baijings also collaborated with the Maharam Design Studio to create three new textiles: Mesh, Tracery, and Pare. Throughout their career as industrial designers, the designers have proven themselves to be acutely sensitive colorists—devising a hands-on, process-oriented methodology to arrive at unique hues and fresh palettes. The new textiles they created with Maharam are more intimate textile surfaces, representing a shift away from the boldness of their past collaborations.

Premiering at Salone Del Mobile, and shown at NeoCon, the ColourForm Sofa Group will be available in the North American, Latin American, and Asia Pacific markets beginning late summer 2017.

For more information, contact media_relations@hermanmiller.com.

About Maharam
Founded in 1902, Maharam is North America’s leading creator of textiles for commercial and residential interiors. Maharam is available in the United States, Canada, and Japan; through its Danish partner, Kvadrat, in Europe; through Kvadrat Maharam in Australia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates; and via a network of distribution in the Pacific Rim.

About Herman Miller
Herman Miller is a globally recognized provider of furnishings and related technologies and services. Headquartered in West Michigan, the global company has relied on innovative design for over 100 years to solve problems for people wherever they work, live, learn, and heal. Herman Miller’s designs are part of museum collections worldwide, and the company is a past recipient of the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. Known and respected for its leadership in corporate social responsibility, Herman Miller has earned the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s top rating in its Corporate Equality Index ten years in a row, was named a 2016 Top 100 Healthiest Employer, and has earned numerous global sustainability awards. In fiscal 2016, the company generated $2.26 billion in revenue and employed nearly 8,000 people worldwide. Herman Miller trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol MLHR.

Related Links

NeoCon 2017 Press Kit

Resources

ColourForm Sofa Group Images (ZIP)