The Designers of Herman Miller (book proposal)

The Designers of Herman Miller edited by donald albrecht

1

The MIT Press

The Designers of Herman Miller edited by donald albrecht

Fifth printing, 2013 First MIT Press edition, ©2010 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

Design by Kaitlin Meme Set in Serifa and Avenir Printed and bound in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Albrecht, Donald.

The Designers of Herman Miller/Donald Albrecht. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-7643-1119-3

1. Miller, Herman.

2. Furniture-United States.

3. Designers-United States.

I. Title.

NK1412.E18K57 2010 745.4’4922—dc20

94-24920

CIP

Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Pa r t O n e

D e s i g n e r s o f mid - c e n t u r y cl a s s ic s

1 2 3

Charles and Ray Eames George Nelson Isamu Noguchi

Pa rt T w o

D e s i g n e r s o f o t h e r H e r m a n M ill e r

3 7

15 77 121

cl a s s ic s — pa s t, p r e s e n t, a n d f u t u r e

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Gilbert Rohde Alexander Girard Robert Propst Jack Kelley Don Chadwick Bill Stumpf Tom Newhouse Geoff Hollington Bruce Burdick Stephen Frykholm Other Designers: Paul László, Fritz Haller Poul Kjaerholm, Verner Panton Jorgen Rasmussen, Peter Protzmann Ray Wilkes, Tom Edwards

127 133 143 149 155 161 165 167 173 179 191

Conclusion

203

Bibliography Index

209 215

Herman Miller Furniture —Introduction leslie piña

I used to work at home on an uncomfortable

The perception of designers, manufac-

old chair, probably from a dining set, in front

turers, dealers, and other people who talk

of a 1950s blond wood desk that did not

about furniture is that there are two disparate

accommodate a computer and keyboard. It

categories — contract and residential. Contract

is too difficult to part with the desk, but I

furniture is for the workplace and public places

recently brought home an Eames Soft Pad

away from home; residential furniture, as the

Chair with polished aluminum arms and frame,

name denotes, is for the home. In other words,

cushioned leather upholstery, a seat with

one is for places where people work, and the

adjustable height that tilts back and swivels,

other is for places where people live. In the

and a sturdy four-pronged pedestal with

United States (more than in Europe) there is little

wheels (I also discovered an ingenious key-

crossover. To keep this segregation clear, even

board stand called a Scooter). My husband

the styles differ. For the most part, twentieth-

Ramon looked at the chair, sat down, stood up,

century residential furniture has been, and still

sat down again and said, ‘This is a wonderful

is, based on historic styles. Even as we approach

desk chair.” Then he looked at it again and

the threshold of the millennium, it is no more

added, “It’s also beautiful. We could use it just

surprising to see a room filled with uninspired

as well in the family room or even the living

wannabe eighteenth-century look-alikes than it

room.”(He probably forgot that the living

is to see state-of-the-art electronics perched on

room is never used, except occasionally as a

them. Americans have an uncanny capacity for

cut-through). Then it hit me why the chair was

accepting visual and cultural anomalies.

considered a classic and why it is included in a

Modernism, the creation of new forms

very distinctive catalog of the “Herman Miller

with a conscious effort to avoid historic style

for the Home” line of furnishings.

and redundant ornament, has found wider

7

acceptance in the area of contract furniture

home still looked about the same as it did

than residential. Even in the early twentieth-

before this rather radical reconfiguration of the

century, office furniture, though basically without

American office.

style, was designed to be utilitarian. The

(LEFT) WOODEN CHAIR (RIGHT) WOODEN TABLE

Today, neither the retail residential furniture

attempt at function was a carry-over from the

industry nor the ubiquitous blandness of the

mechanical inventions called “patent furniture”

American home have changed significantly. What

in the Victorian era, and it took precedence

is really curious is the division between work

over style and decoration. After the Second

place and living place, Don’t people in fact live

World War, the really alert designers began

where they work and also work where they live?

to introduce inspired forms of truly functional

Most workers spend about one third of their day,

furniture that even looked original. It was

maybe a fourth of their lives, in the workplace.

designed from the inside out, and it could be

Most of the other three fourths is spent at home

appreciated from the outside in. Plus, it could

(including sleep time). When these two worlds

be mass produced and marketed for huge

are taken together, we live most of our lives with

populations of people in the workplace who

furniture. We eat on it, write on it, place things

suddenly needed furniture to accommodate

on it, work at it, and store things in it and on it.

new ways of doing business and better systems

We decorate with it, put our feet up on it, lose

for organizing information. Inspired by what

things in its crevices, and watch the cat jump on

had been perceived as a handful of pre-war

it. We sit, lounge, play, make love, sleep, give

tubular steel Bauhaus prototypes and other

birth, and die on it. Furniture is as much a part

austere eccentricities, it was the beginning of a

of our lives as any material object can be. Yet

revolution. With super-designers and thinkers

we casually allow others to design, build, and

like George Nelson and Charles and Ray Eames

even select it for us without batting an eye. Most

on board, Herman Miller was suddenly in

people give little thought to, or have little say in,

the process of reinventing itself and modern

the posture of their backs or the pleasure of their

furniture. Then in 1968 with the debut of Robert

spirits. They are more particular about details

Probst’s Action Office, the first open office

when ordering a meal than in choosing a chair

system with interchangeable components and

that will support a species-specific weak back

extreme flexibility, the revolution was in full

and give comfort to a hyper-sedentary bottom

swing. But with few exceptions, the American

for years, perhaps decades.

So why not have well-designed, functional, comfortable, durable, and good-looking furniture in both the workplace and the residence? And

“The great designs are the classics because they are still great by any standard.”

if it happens to have modern styling consistent with a modern life style, why should it be limited to the office or workplace? These are questions that the people at Herman Miller have been asking for years, and in 1994 they introduced a line of mid-century classics plus new designs called “Herman Miller for the Home.” Although these classics have been perceived primarily as contract furniture, they have also been attracting the attention of a growing cult of modernism collectors, dealers, and a general audience that is noticing the lack of style and choice in the residential marketplace. The great designs are classics because they are still great by any standard. The company that led the office revolution has become a classic in its own right for acting on its beliefs and good ideas.

Softening the barrier between contract and residential furniture is one of these ideas, and the classics, like the Soft Pad Chair in my home, are candidates for the job.

The Star Furniture Co. was founded in Zeeland, Michigan in 1905 to produce high quality furniture, especially bedroom suites, in historic revival styles. Dirk Jan De Pree began as a clerk with the company in 1909 and became its president by 1919, when it was renamed the

9

Charles and Ray Eames Design is a Method of Action

1

donald albrecht

1

A set of questions asked by the Musee des Arts Decoratifs was the basis of the Eameses’ section of the exhibition Qu’est-cequele design?

(What Is Design?), held at the Louvre in 1969. When asked if design is “a method of general expression,” Charles Eames answered, “No — it is a method of action.”

2

This August 26,1954, letter is in the possession of Lucia Eames, Charles’s daughter; ©1997, Lucia Eames dba Eames Office. In 1975 Fortune Magazine reported that Charles Eames drove a 1955 Ford convertible for eighteen years before he gave it away, and Ray drove a 1960 model for twelve years. Afterward he bought a small Mercedei and she a Jaguar sedan, Walter McQuade, “Charles Eames Isn’t Resting on His Chair,’ Fortune (Februrary 1975), 99.

3

Throughout this essay I use the term “Eameses” in order to reinforce the collaborative nature of Charles and Ray Eames’s design practice.

4

Bill Lacy is currently the president of Purchase College, State University of NewYork.

5

Bill Lacy, “The Eames Legacy,” Los Angeles (June 1989), 77

6

“A Designer’s Home of His Own: Charles Eames Builds a House of Steel and Glass,” Life, September 11, 1950, 152

In the summer of 1954 Charles and Ray Eames

solved more basic human problems, whether

needed a new car, Charles had driven Fords

posed to them by clients or—as with most cre-

since 1929. Together they had owned Ford con-

ative geniuses—posed by themselves. Bill Lacy,

vertibles since 1941, the year they married and

their friend and colleague,4 summed up the

moved to Los Angeles from Detroit. But wanting

couple’s work: “There is no Eames style, only

to buy a car in 1954 —when wartime austerity

a legacy of problems beautifully and intelli-

was only a memory for many Americans—was

gently solved.” 5

difficult for the Eameses, who considered the

With the design of their own house the

automotive industry’s new two-toned models

Eameses sought to solve the postwar veteran’s

garish. “We believe in the use of standard pro-

need for affordable shelter. Their mass-produced

duction models,” Charles wrote Henry Ford II,

chairs, tables, sofas, and storage units were

asking the company’s president to help meet his

beautiful yet inexpensive ways to furnish the

need for an “anonymous” black convertible with

modern interior and meet the increased demand

a natural top, an interior of tan leather or good

for flexible, informal living.Their films, exhibi-

synthetic material, and a minimum of advertising

tions, and books helped people understand the

logos. In conclusion Charles thanked the corpo-

complex workings of the world around them.

rate titan “for the many positive things that bear

As expressed by Charles, the Eameses’ design

the name of Ford.”

2

This simple one-page letter offers a key to

credo — to bring “the most of the best to the greatest number of people for the least” 6—

understanding the many positive things that

resounded in their optimistic faith in modern

bear the name of Eames. Like Ford’s Model T,

industry and mass production. And in writing

virtually everything Charles and Ray designed

directly to Ford, Charles demonstrated his con-

solved a problem. Ford satisfied America’s de-

fidence that industry and designers could join

sire for cheap and easy mobility. The Eameses3

forces and accomplish this uplifting mission.

15

Over the years the Eameses would infiltrate corporate America as few designers before or since have done. Starting as furniture designers, they became communicators who helped hightechnology giants such as International Business Machines (IBM), Westinghouse, Boeing, and Polaroid explain themselves and their products.

The Eameses only took on projects they were in sympathy with and only worked with companies whose objectives they shared—objectives that were often in tune with a booming American economy hungry for new consumer goods.

The Eameses’ range of corporate work was extraordinary: they received commissions from Herman Miller to design furniture, films, graphics, and showrooms; from Boeing to make a film promoting a proposed supersonic transport plane; from CBS for a series of short films for broadcast about popular culture; from Westinghouse for a film to illustrate the diversity of its product lines; and from Time Inc. to design lobbies for the new Time & Life Building in New York City’s Rockefeller Center. The Eameses’ protechnology stance also ensured a

eames soft pad lounge chair photo by herman miller 2011

vaunted position developing dozens of exhibitions, films, and books for IBM over the course of two decades.

Charles and Ray Eames were especially well suited partners for America’s progressive industries. When they tackled a project, they did so in a modern, “corporate” way, seeing their products and those of their clients through the multiple lenses of design, manufacturing, distribution, promotion, and use by the customer. Their relationship with their clients was often both personal and professional.Young and successful, the Eameses embodied a forward-looking perspective that fit well within the nation’s expanding capitalist economy.

In order to understand the Eameses’ achievements, one must understand the challenges they set for themselves and the processes —both conceptual and technical —they developed in their search for solutions.The Eameses’ work can be viewed as a series of questions they posed to themselves: how to produce affordable, eames molded plywood dining chair PHOTO by herman miller 2004

high-quality furniture; how to build economical, well-designed space for living and working; how

17

to help Americans and people from other cultures understand each other; and how to make fundamental scientific principles accessible to a lay audience. Representative projects from the Eameses’ vast body of work illustrate their solutions to these problems, which were often developed in collaboration with clients who shared key goals and provided the means to realize them.7 This work reveals the ambition and scope of the Eameses’ agenda — from the utilitarian chairto more complex issues of human perception, understanding, and knowledge —as well as the overlap of that agenda with corporate America’s.8

7

These questions form the conceptual basis and organi- zation of the exhibition that this book accompanies

8

Certain quotations in this and other essays are from interviews conducted by Eames Demetrios, Charles and Ray Eames’s grandson, with Eames staff, friends, and colleagues.They are part of the ongoing Eames Office Video Oral History Project, © 1995, Lucia Eames dba Eames Office.

desk and storage units PHOTO 1946 BY CHARLES EAMES

Production Models for Modern Living

“You usually find that what works is better than what looks good.

You know, the looks good can change, but what works, works.”

Recognizing the need, Charles Eames once said, was the primary condition for the practice of design.9 At the outset of their careers together, Charles and Ray Eames identified the need for affordable, high-quality furniture for the average consumer— furniture that could serve a variety of everyday uses. For the next forty years, they continued to experiment with ways to meet this challenge, designing versatility and flexibility into their compact storage units and collapsible sofas for the home; seating for stadiums, airports, and schools; multipurpose furniture for dormitories; and stackable chairs for virtually anywhere.

An ethos of functionalism informed all their furniture. “You usually find,” Ray once said, “that what... works is better than what looks good.

You know, the looks good can change, but what

9

Another question asked in conjunction with “What Is Design?” was “What do you feel is the primary condition for the practice of design and its propagation?” Charles answered, “Recognition of need.”

10

Ray Eames, interview with Ralph Caplan, February 24,1981, Venice, California, Herman Miller archives, Zeeland, Mien.

works, works.”10 The Eameses’ interest in creating functional furniture grew out of the egalitarianism of the Great Depression, when socially committed architects devised “new deals” to alleviate economic hardship through design. New York’s Museum of Modern Art was especially active, promoting new

19

21

WIRE CHAIR GROUPING PHOTO 1946 BY CHARLES EAMES

ideas in housing for the poor and middle class

ers, curators, and other taste makers who would

and domestic products that were well designed

become influential after World War II. The war

and affordable. When Eames and architect Eero

had democratized modern architecture and de-

Saarinen won first prize in the museum’s 1940

sign, as thousands of new armament factories

“Organic Design in Home Furnishings” competi-

and mass-produced houses for defense workers

tion, they and their colleagues advocated collab-

were built across the country. Their functional-

orations between designers, manufacturers, and

ist aesthetic came to embody the architecture

merchants to create mass-produced furniture for

of an optimistic Pax Americana. Military vic-

the American family of moderate income. Edgar

tory brought power and prosperity, thrusting

J. Kaufmann, Jr., a representative of his father’s

Americans, their government, and their business

trendsetting department store in Pittsburgh,11

corporations into an international spotlight. For

had proposed the idea for the competition, and

many, modern design symbolized the country’s

twelve department stores planned to market the

new political and technological prowess. The

winning pieces. (Three companies, including the

machine-made gridiron of the steel and glass

Haywood Wakefield Company, were set to man-

office facade—free of nationalist symbols and

ufacture the furniture, but the outbreak of war

prewar traditions —became the established

canceled the program.) Eames and Saarinen’s

emblem of a new world order based on interna-

winning entry included a sectional sofa, molded-

tional business and finance.

wood chairs, and modular units that formed

11

Edgar Kaufmann’s father had commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build him a house in Mill Run, Pennsylvania in 1934; the result was Fallingwater. Kaufmann wrote to Barrin January 1940, and the competition was inaugurated on October 1,1940.

An exhibition related to the competition was held at the museum from September 24 to November 9, 1941.

A leading generation of postwar architects

benches, cabinets, desks, and tables. The chairs

and designers —such as Saarinen, Eliot Noyes,

were produced by a manufacturing method new

Alexander Girard, George Nelson, and the

to furniture: a light structural shell consisting

Eameses—merged this postwar aesthetic with

of layers of plastic glue and wood veneer mold-

their own sophisticated sensibilities. The result

ed into softly curving three-dimensional forms.

was a humane, mass-produced modernism that

In their technical innovation, aesthetic brilliance,

appealed to America’s corporate and institution-

and social purpose, these chairs prefigured the

al elite. The design equivalent of the suave and

Eameses’ future furniture designs.

elegant Gregory Peck in Hollywood’s The Man in

The organic design competition also

the Flannel Suit, the style struck a middle ground

propelled Charles and Ray into full-fledged

between dollars-and-cents propriety and mate-

membership in a coterie of architects, design-

rial luxury. Objects and fabrics made by hand

tempered the machine-made. Buildings and interiors were colorful without being garish, progressive without being radical or threatening.

To this mix the Eameses added their own effervescent whimsy and playfulness, a “look” that was visible as early as their demonstration room for the Detroit Institute of Arts’s exhibition For Modern Living, one of many postwar efforts that sought to convince middle-class homeowners to buy products of contemporary design. The Eameses’ room featured an artfully random arrangement of a kite, a Mexican mask, and a pot of paper flowers, all hung from a rectangular grid of pegs. Such grids were one way contemporary designers positioned “natural” or handmade objects within the framework of man-made modernity. The “ESU ” (Eames Storage Unit) made its public debut here as well. Its off-the-shelf materials and modular design contrasted dramatically with displays of straw baskets, clay pots, stones, and starfish. This collagist aesthetic of organized clutter— the studied contrast between old and new, rich and humble, foreign and familiar, mass-produced and handcrafted— became the Eameses’ signature.

(LEFT) violet chairs, cropped (RIGHT) green chairs in office space PHOTO 1946 BY CHARLES EAMES

The Eameses had designed the ESU for the Herman Miller Furniture Company in Zeeland, Michigan, which began marketing the unit in 1950. By the time of the Detroit exhibition, they

had already enjoyed a four-year relationship

23

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209

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