George Nelson

Herman Miller: A Way of Living

Every once in a while, I purchase a book based on the reviews I’ve read and fully expect the actual product to not live up to the hype. Usually, it’s that thing where my expectations were inflated due to glowing reviews that tout the quality of the layouts, the editorial, photography and more. With my recent purchase of “Herman Miller: A Way of Living” I have to say the reviews were spot on. (Amazon has this for about $20.00 less)

This book chronicles more than 100 years of Herman Miller’s history and the key events that have made it a cultural icon. Broken out into 10 chapters, the book creates a timeline that highlights key achievements, people, and events that have made the Herman Miller company the powerhouse that it is today.

Thanks to exhaustive research done by Herman Miller archivist Amy Auscherman, Sam Grawe and Leon Ransmeier the book is 614 pages of history, illustrations, photography, and essays that add up to a comprehensive history that in my opinion is the best book on Herman Miller to date.

Auscherman, Grawe and Ransmeier, spent the better part of four years combing the design collections at the Vitra Design Museum, UCLA Libraries, the Eames Office, Museum of Modern Art, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation included for Herman Miller-related documents, photographs, archives, and illustrations for the new book and it paid off. They have gone into historic detail that not only delves into the company history but the influence that the products, architecture, and people brought to Herman Miller culture over the last 100 years.

The 10 chapters that go in-depth on everything from key figures in the company’s history (Nelson, Eames, Girard, Frykolm) to pivotal moments in popular culture that shaped Herman Miller’s trajectory, this book is the summation of Herman Miller’s existence thus far—the most expansive one to date.

“Even the nerdiest nerds and Herman Miller fans and people who have spent their whole working life at the company will have something to learn from this book,” she says. “I sit in this interesting position at the company where I kind of know the genesis of ideas that have proliferated and made the company what it is today. These ideas have been revisited and refined over and over again—not in a bad way. Usually, people aren’t coming up with something totally new, but they’re new iterations on something that’s already existed and making it better.”

Amy Auscherman

The book covers everything from furniture design, advertising materials, design research, human factors company culture, textile development and more. Each section or chapter is prefaced with an in-depth essay on the influence that this portion had on the company as it grew from a small Michigan based furniture manufacturer into an international powerhouse.

Half Nelson.

It’s a snowy last day of 2012 here in Kansas City and I’m using the time to go through a bunch of things I bookmarked a while ago. A few months back I was searching for new table lamps for the bedroom when I came across “Half Nelson” designed by George Nelson Office, circa 1950. The lamps are being produced by Modernica in Los Angeles to the exacting standards of the original lamps produced by Koch & Lowy from 1977 until they were discontinued in the late 1980’s.
George Nelson originally designed the ‘Half-Nelson’ Table Lamp for the Holiday House project, a commissioned design vacation home for the publishers of magazine bearing the same name. The house was built in 1950 on the southern coast of Long Island where it was intended to showcase the magazine and to promote a post WWII economy where anyone could afford to own a vacation home. George Nelson designed the home and most of its furnishings. The ‘Half-Nelson’ was designed specifically for the living room, and originally existed only as a prototype.

Telling Time with George Nelson.

Since I was a little kid I have loved George Nelson clocks. I think the fascination with them stems from the fact that a number of our neighbors had them, and the iconic shapes seemed to be everywhere. I remember the pediatrician had one in the waiting room. The Nelson Ball Clock. One neighbor, and I can’t remember which one had a Kite Clock. That particular clock is one that I have always wanted, and lucky for me two weeks ago Fab had the entire line on sale. I scored a George Nelson Kite Clock for 90 bucks and couldn’t be happier.

The clock arrived this afternoon and was waiting for me when I got home. It’s smaller than I remember. I also had forgotten that the face is made from cut and bent steel. The clock is a stunning and timeless piece of design (pun intended). So after un-boxing the new Kite clock is now hung in the kitchen against the bright orange wall section. The off white and black look wonderful against the bright orange, and the clock counters the Nelson Crisscross bubble lamp hanging above the island ten feet away.

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Chroma Lab Clocks

I have been wanting to get a wall clock for the new house for some time. At first I considered a George Nelson clock, but they have become so popular that i started looking for something a bit different. Today I came across Chroma Lab hand-made clocks and I think I might have found what I am looking for. The clocks have a sophisticated, bright color pallet that is accentuated with simple geometric forms, and a visual vibrancy that plays off of the competing color values.

Each clock is built by hand from quality birch plywood and then hand painted. They are .5″ thick by 105″ across and come in a variety of colorful designs. Chroma Lab uses American made quartz mechanisms that run on one AA battery.

The cost is $65.00 which seems very reasonable considering that each one is hand painted. And I love the size,at 9.5 inches it is not to big, not to small.