We believe furniture becomes classic when it demonstrates a lasting appeal, an original personality, and a simple, innovative beauty and function. Classics are living proof that good things endure; they have a way of evoking a particular time and making time irrelevant. Committees and corporations don't design classics. Individuals like Charles and Ray Eames and George Nelson and Isamu Noguchi do. Their view of modern design lies at the heart of Herman Miller's collection of modern classics. Some of our recognizable classic products, such as the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, are part of the permanent collections at New York's MoMA and the Art Institute of Chicago. They have also been the subject of documentary films and books and are featured prominently in television series and movies. Our mid-century modern furniture is made to order, and most products are handcrafted in West Michigan.No other business of its kind did more than the Herman Miller Furniture Company to introduce modern design into American homes.
Working with legendary designers such as Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson and Alexander Girard, the Zeeland, Michigan-based firm fostered some of the boldest expressions of what we now call Mid-Century Modern style. In doing so, Herman Miller produced some of the most beautiful, iconic and, one can even say, noblest furniture of the past seven decades. Founded in 1923, Herman Miller was originally known for grand historicist bedroom suites: heavily ornamented wood furniture that appealed to a high-minded, wealthier clientele. The company—named for its chief financial backer—began to suffer in the early 1930s as the Great Depression hit, and D. J. De Pree, the company’s CEO, feared bankruptcy. In 1932, aid came in the form of Gilbert Rohde, a self-taught furniture designer who had traveled widely in Europe, absorbing details of the Art Deco movement and other modernist influences. After persuading De Pree that the growing middle-class required smaller, lighter household furnishings, Rohde set a new course for Herman Miller, creating sleek chairs, tables and cabinetry that were the essence of the Streamline Moderne style.
Rohde died suddenly in 1944. The following year, De Pree turned to George Nelson, an architect who had written widely about modern furniture design. Under Nelson’s leadership, Herman Miller would embrace new technologies and materials and audacious biomorphic forms. Some of the pieces the company produced are now emblems of 20th century American design, including the Eames lounge chair and ottoman and Nelson’s Marshmallow sofa and Coconut chair. As you can see on these pages, such instantly recognizable furnishings have become timeless—staples of a modernist décor; striking, offbeat notes in traditional environments.Shop unique and handmade items directly from creative people around the world Popular items for herman miller Scroll to View Timeline One of the first Eames designs manufactured by Herman Miller, this chair was named the "Best Design of the 20th Century" by Time magazine. Impressed by Eames' molded plywood furniture, Nelson introduced him to Herman Miller president D.J. De Pree in 1946.
And so began a remarkable and long-lived partnership. The Eameses' experiments with molding plywood in the early 1940s led to many innovative pieces of furniture, including this flexible and self-supporting folding screen. The DCM ("dining chair, metal legs") was designed in 1946. This wonderful and extremely comfortable chair has been in continuous production at Herman Miller since 1949. Lightweight, playful, functional storage with standardized parts designed for mass production—hallmarks of Eames design aimed at all areas of a home or workspace. The Eameses became interested in the new material fiberglass after World War II as suitable for an earlier chair design. Various versions of the plastic armchair have become ubiquitous emblems for low-cost, good design. This famous picture of Herman Miller's most famous designers shows the founder of Herman Miller, D.J. De Pree (standing in center) with designers Robert Propst, Alexander Girard, George Nelson, Ray and Charles Eames.
Introduced in 1951, the wire chair was available with a variety of bases, with or without padding. Another example of the Eameses adapting industrial welding methods to furniture. Ever the pragmatists, the Eameses designed this sofa to fold up for shipping and moving, reducing the elements of a sofa to a minimum and producing an elegant seat for homes and institutional settings. Who can imagine school gymnasiums or church basements without this chair? The simplicity, durability, and practicality of this design has been evident since its introduction in 1955. The ultimate expression of the Eameses' innovations in molding plywood, the Lounge Chair and Ottoman combine in equal measure craftsmanship and mass production techniques. Arlene Francis, host of NBC's "Home" show, introduced Charles and Ray to television audiences in 1956, along with their now-iconic Lounge Chair and Ottoman. These chairs resulted when Alexander Girard asked the Eameses to design quality outdoor furniture for J. Irwin Miller's new Eero Saarinen-designed house in Columbus, Indiana.
Yet another timeless product resulting from a specific project, this one to design seating for Chicago's O'Hare airport. Now seen around the world, Tandem Seating was introduced in 1962.We talk to a design nerd after our own hearts Herman Miller, Inc., based in Zeeland, Michigan, is a major American manufacturer of office furniture, equipment and home furnishings. It is notable as one of the first companies to produce modern furniture and, under the guidance of Design Director George Nelson, is likely the most prolific and influential producer of furniture of the modernist style. Among classic Herman Miller products are the Equa chair, Aeron chair, Noguchi table, Marshmallow sofa, and the Eames Lounge Chair. Herman Miller is credited with the invention of the office cubicle (originally known as the "Action Office II") in 1968 under then-director of research Robert Propst.[2] Herman Miller holds a unique position among furniture manufacturers for having cultivated the talents of a large number of modernist designers, producing a significant number of pieces that are now considered icons of industrial design.
A typical distribution depot, in Chippenham, Wiltshire. Herman Miller was founded in 1905 as the Star Furniture Co. in Zeeland, Michigan.[2] Initially the company produced high quality furniture, especially bedroom suites, in historic revival styles.[2] In 1909, Dirk Jan De Pree began working for the company as a clerk, and became its president by 1919, when it was renamed The Michigan Star Furniture Co.[2] De Pree and his father-in-law, Herman Miller, purchased 51% of the company stock in 1923 and renamed it the Herman Miller Furniture Company. It became Herman Miller, Inc. in 1960. Until 1930, the company produced only traditional wood furniture.[2] With the coming of the Great Depression the company was forced to explore new products to survive in a shrinking market[2] and reluctantly hired Gilbert Rohde, a designer who specialized in modernist designs.[2] Rohde turned the company in a totally new direction and in 1933, Herman Miller debuted a line of modern furniture at the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago, Illinois.
[2] In 1941, the company opened a showroom in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, and another in New York City. Under Rohde's supervision Herman Miller entered the contract (office) furniture market in 1942, with the introduction of the "Modular Executive Office" Group (EOG), the first in a long line of office furnishings to be produced by the company.[2] Rohde died in 1944 and was replaced by architect George Nelson, who joined the firm as director of design in 1945.[2] Over the next four decades Nelson was to have an enormous influence upon Herman Miller, not only for his personal design contributions, but also for the talented designers he recruited to its ranks, including; Isamu Noguchi, Charles and Ray Eames, Robert Propst, and textile designer Alexander Girard.[2] Beginning in the late 1940s, the period under Nelson's guidance saw Herman Miller produce some of the world's most iconic pieces of modern furniture, including the Noguchi table, Eames Lounge Chair, Marshmallow sofa, Ball clock (actually produced by Howard Miller Clock Company), and the Sling sofa.
Dirk Jan De Pree continued to serve as Herman Miller CEO until 1961, when he was forced by illness to step-down. He was succeeded by his son, Hugh De Pree. Hugh served as company CEO until the mid-1980s, when he was succeeded by his brother Max De Pree, who held the position until 1990. In 1961, Herman Miller added the Herman Miller Research Division, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[2] This division developed the "Action Office" line in 1964 under the supervision of Robert Propst and with the design assistance of George Nelson's New York design studio,.[2] Though the initial line, known as "Action Office I", was not a success, it led Propst to develop the "Action Office II" line, which introduced the "Office cubicle".[2] The impact of "Action Office II" on the workplace cannot be overstated, as it revolutionized the office environment. In 1978, "Action Office II" was renamed simply Action Office. Herman Miller's line of "Action Office" products has generated sales of over $5 billion to date.
George Nelson's influence at Herman Miller gradually declined during the 1970s and new designers joined the company, including Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf, who co-designed the Equa chair, and in the 1990s developed the highly successful Aeron chair. In 1981 Herman Miller started to work with the Italian designer Clino T. Castelli on the process of designing physical environments: a so-called Design Primario[2][3] including CMF Design and Ethospace design concept.[4] Designer Tom Newhouse introduced the "Newhouse group" of free-standing furniture in 1987 and assisted with the "Ethospace" wall panel system for the "Action Office" line. Ray Wilkes designed the "Modular Seating Group", popularly known as the Chicklet Chairs. Artist Stephen Frykholm is also noted for his contributions to Herman Miller. From 1970 to 1989 Frykholm produced a series of posters for Herman Miller's annual summer picnics, some of which are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, and remain highly sought-after art prints.
In July 2014, Herman Miller announced it had reached an agreement to purchase the contemporary retailer Design Within Reach (DWR) for $154 million in a bid to establish itself as a “premier lifestyle brand.” Herman Miller is consistently recognized as one of Fortune Magazine's "Most Admired Companies", having placed at the top of the list for Furniture companies for the past 18 consecutive years. According to CNN Money, as of March 2011, Herman Miller is ranked as the second most admired company in the Home Equipment, Furnishing division. They also scored first in Innovation, People Management, Use of Corporate Assets, Social Responsibility, and Quality of Products/Services. In Quality of Management they scored second place, third in Long Term Investments, fourth in Financial Soundness, and ninth in Global Competitiveness. In March 2008, they settled an antitrust lawsuit with the states of New York, Michigan, and Illinois for $750,000.[7] The lawsuit focused on Herman Miller's use of a suggested retail pricing policy, which was found to be within the bounds of the law.
Today, many companies employ such policies to avoid price erosion in the internet channel. Herman Miller has engaged in a number of initiatives to promote sustainability, and many of them have had cost-saving implications for the company. The company has developed a technique of mixing sawdust with chicken manure to produce topsoil. The company also uses a database to track every chemical in each product used by the company, in order to eliminate harmful chemicals from their products. Management of the company has expressed concerns about global warming, and the company was using 27% renewable energy as of 2007. The company also issues a sustainability report. Herman Miller's driving sustainability initiatives is its "Perfect Vision" goal. This is a broad initiative that sets significant targets for the year 2020. These targets include zero landfill, zero hazardous waste generation, zero air emissions (VOC), zero process water use, 100 percent green electrical energy use, company buildings constructed to a minimum LEED Silver certification, and 100 percent of sales from DfE-approved products.