George Nelson (1907 - 1986) American voice on design

George Nelson Swag Leg Desk and Eames Herman Miller Chair, Circa 1960

George Nelson (1907 – 1986) was an American industrial designer.

Education

Between 1928 and 1931, he went to Yale University and got a degree in architecture. In 1931 he studied fine arts at the Catholic University of America in Washington. Between 1932 – 1934 he attended the American Academy in Rome.

Biography

Nelson was very talented as an artist. He was a well-known and respected critic, author, and commentator on design issues. In 1964, when there was still a strong and hopeful belief in progress, and importantly created several pavilions for the New York World’s Fair. Nelson gave an ambitious definition of “good design” when he said that it is the ability of the human spirit to go beyond its limits. This is something that Nelson himself did.

His Storagewall shelf system, which he made in 1945 and could also be used as a dividing wall, changed the way offices worked. It was so exciting and new that the furniture company, Herman Miller, wanted to work with the brilliant designer. Nelson worked with Charles Eames and Alexander Girard, two young designers, to give Herman Miller its new, very innovative look. He was in charge of the company’s designs from 1946 to 1965.

Furniture designs

He was an expert in storage and packaging, but he also made some amazing designs in other areas. The Marshmallow sofa from the 1950s, which was a precursor to Pop design, is one of his best-known pieces. Its seat is made up of 18 round cushions, just like those on most barstools.

The Atomic wall clock was a smart mix of symbols and a simple modern design. The spheres that mark the hours are a metaphor for atoms, which is the best way to describe an era that put a lot of faith in technological progress. His works often make metaphorical statements. For example, the striking shell shape of the Coconut Chair wasn’t just made for comfort; it can also be seen as a reference to the more casual, less formal way of life that was becoming popular in the late 1950s. In the 1960s, Nelson kept using a multidisciplinary approach. He and Robert Propst made the Action Office furniture system, which became so popular that it was soon in every modern office in the United States.

George Nelson Clock for Howard Miller, US, 1950s

George Nelson Low-Back Executive Tilt-Swivel Chair for Herman Miller

George Nelson Two-Tone Lacquered Chest of Drawers for Herman Miller

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL

Design Books – Amazon

* This website may contain affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you click on links at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon and Sovrn affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

More furniture designers

Daniel Pabst (1826 – 1910) German American furniture designer

Daniel Pabst (1826–1910) was a German American furniture designer and cabinetmaker, best known for his work in the modern Gothic style. He studied at the technical high school in Hesse-Darmstadt and was one of the hundreds of German craftsmen and furniture workers who settled in Philadelphia in the mid-19th century. He opened his own workshop…
Antonia Astori (b.1940) co-founded Driade

Antonia Astori co-founded Driade with her brother Enrico and Adelaide Acerbi in 1968. She was able to create a unique network of furniture designers, galleries, and shops.Read More →
Isaac Elwood Scott (1845 – 1920) American Furniture Designer

Isaac Elwood Scott (1845 – 1920) was an American furniture designer, woodcarver, and ceramicist, active in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, and Boston. He founded Scott and Copeland, Designers, Carvers, and Art Wood Workers, and collaborated with Henry S. Jaffray to create the interiors and design of Warder, Bushnell, and Glessner’s new Chicago headquarters. Read More…
Ambrose Heal (1872 – 1959) British Furniture Designer

Ambrose Heal (1872–1959) was a British furniture designer known for his simple and functional designs inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and was a member of the Art-Workers’ Guild. He adopted the more fashionable Modern approach to furniture, following the style of his designers J.F.…
Reuben Cary (1845 – 1933) American furniture designer

Cary’s father moved to the Adirondacks area of New York State in the year 1845. In 1874, Brandreth asked Cary to make him 24 chairs with slatted backs, plain turned legs, and splint seats in a traditional style. Cary may have made some of the rustic furniture in the cottages at Brandreth Park.Read More →
Charles Pfister (1938 – 1990) American interior designer

Charles Pfister (1939 to 1990) was an American interior and furniture designer and architect. He was professionally active in San Francisco.Read More →
Peter Murdoch (b.1940) British furniture, industrial designer

Peter Murdoch (b.1940) is a British furniture, interior, graphic, and industrial designer.Read More →
Jasper Morrison (b.1959) – British Designer, quirky, understated furniture

Morrison produced quirky, satiric, understated furniture. His 1986 South Kensington flat was widely published in design magazines. He designed 1988 Door handles I and II, and a 1989 range of aluminium handles produced by FSB in Germany. Read More →
Sebastian Bergne (b. 1966) – English / Italian industrial designer

The phrase ‘less is more’ perfectly encapsulates the core of these works, the quality of which can only be attained by a proper understanding of form.Read More →
Jay Spectre (1930 – 1992) American Interior and furniture designer

Jay Spectre (1930 – 1992) was an American Interior and furniture designer. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He was professionally active in New York. He began his interior design career in 1951 in Louisville. In 1968, he established the design company Jay Spectre, in New York. He designed interiors for luxury homes, private jet…
Oscar Onken (1858 – 1948) and the ‘The Shop of the Crafters’

Oscar Onken (1858 – 1948) was an American entrepreneur. He was professionally active in Ohio. Onken was a prominent businessman and philanthropist. Impressed with the Gustav Stickley and Austrian stands at the 1904 St. Louis ‘Louisiana Purchase Exposition,’ he founded The Shop of the Crafts in Cincinnati in 1904. Read More →
Harry Bertoia (1915 – 1978) Italian sculptor, furniture designer

Harry Bertoia was a sculptor, printmaker, jeweller, and furniture designer. He was born in San Lorenzo, Udine, and worked in the United States professionally. During World War Two he worked with Ray and Charles Eames on moulded-plywood technology. He worked primarily as a sculptor from the mid-1950s onwards. His sculpture was prominently featured in many…
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scotland’s celebrated designer

Charles Rennie Mackintosh is Scotland’s most celebrated architect and designer of the 20th century, and his work is celebrated worldwide. READ MORERead More →
Poul Kjærholm (1929 -1980) Danish designer

He was a Danish designer who worked for his friend Ejvind Kold Christiansen and created an extensive range of furniture. He received international recognition for his contributions to the ‘Formes Scandinaves’ exhibition in Paris and the legendary ‘Lunning Prize’ for his PK22 chair. LEARN MORERead More →
John Mascheroni (b.1932), American furniture designer

John Mascheroni has been designing furniture for his entire career, recognized for his design acuity and modernism. LEARN MORERead More →
Francis H. Bacon (1856 – 1940) American Furniture Designer

He was a designer for furniture maker Herter Brothers, commissioned by the company to furnish the New York William H. Vanderbilt House, 1881-83. LEARN MORERead More →
Ico Parisi (1916 – 1996) Italian furniture designer

Ico Parisi was an Italian architect and designer of the modernist style who worked with Luisa Aiani and opened La Ruota in 1947. LEARN MORERead More →
Lluís Clotet (b.1941) – Spanish architect and furniture designer

Lluís Clotet (B.1941) is a Spanish architect and furniture designer. Born in Barcelona in 1941. TELL ME MORERead More →
Sam Maloof (1916 – 2009) American furniture designer

The furniture designed by Sam Maloof can be found in every imaginable place in the United States, from boardrooms to bungalows, from the White House to the Smithsonian. READ MORERead More →
Vico Magistretti (1920 – 2006) Italian architect/designer

In 1920 Vico Magistretti was born in Milan, Italy. First recognition of his work came in 1948, at the 8th Triennale. He started designing for Cassina in 1960, and from that date on his signature is to be found on many products.Read More →
Otto Wagner (1841 – 1918), Austrian architect and designer

Architect Otto Wagner was one of the leading figures in the Vienna Secession. After studying architecture at the Vienna Technical High School (1857–1860) and the Vienna Academy (1861–183), he worked in various historical styles for many years until he joined the Secession.Read More →
Ola Wihlborg Swedish industrial and product designer

He took his first steps towards his career as a designer at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Sweden, where he studied furniture and product design. After graduating in 2004, he began working as a freelance designer.Read More →
Antonio Citterio ( b.1950 ) Italian furniture designer

Antonio Citterio is a leading Italian architect and interior designer, furniture and industrial designer. Citterio explored the possibilities of new materials and technologies rather than aligning himself with New Design’s more fashionable aesthetics.Read More →
Émile Bernaux (1883 – 1970) French sculptor and furniture designer

Émile Bernaux was a French sculptor and furniture designer. He was born in Paris in 1883.Read More →
Michael Taylor (1927 – 1986) – “California Look” 🌞

Michael Taylor (1927 – 1986) was an American interior and furniture designer. He was known for the “California Style” and made his homes showplaces of the unexpected.Read More →
Suzanne Guiguichon (1901 – 1985) French Furniture Designer

Suzanne Guiguichon was a French furniture designer and decorator. She was born and worked in Paris. Since 1929 she worked as a designer with Maurice Dufrene at the Galeries Lafayette design studio La Maitrise in Paris. Most of the furniture, clocks, lighting, fabrics, rugs, accessories Guiguichon designed anonymously.Read More →
Robert Bonfils (1886 – 1972) French Graphic Artist

Born in Paris, Robert Bonfils was a French graphic artist, painter, and designer. He studied at the École Germain-Pilon in 1903 and at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1906. He worked for Henri Hamm, a furniture designer. His work included paintings, bookbindings, ceramics for Sèvres, Bianchini-Frerier silk, wallpaper and interior design layouts.…
Ole Wanscher (1903 – 1985) Danish furniture designer

Ole Wanscher was a Danish architect, furniture designer, and writer. In 1944, studied Bygningsteknisk Skole; subsequently, architecture, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, Copenhagen.Read More →
Eugenio Quarti (1867 – 1931) Italian furniture designer

Eugenio Quarto (1867 – 1931) was an Italian furniture designer who was born near Bergamo. He was professionally based in Milan.Read More →
Max Ernst Haefeli (1901-1976) – Swiss architect and designer

Max Ernst Haefeli (1901-1976) was a Swiss architect and designer born in Zurich. He worked in the Otto Bartning studio in Berlin between 1923-24.Read More →
Walter Kantack (1889 – 1953) – American Lighting Designer

Walter Kantack was an American Lighting Designer born in Meriden, Connecticut. He completed his studies at the Pratt Institute in New York.Read More →
Chair No.14, 1855 by Michael Thonet

Bentwood furniture was not invented by Michael Thonet (1798-1871), but he perfected a method for mass production. In 1819, in Boppard, Germany, he opened his cabinetmaking business, and by 1840 he had invented the steam-softening technique for bending rods of hardwood into flowing yet structurally solid shapes. There are just six sections and screws in…
Pietro Chiesa (1892 – 1948) 🇮🇹 Italian furniture and glassware

He was an apprentice in the studio of Giovan Battista Gianotti, painter, furniture designer, and decorator; in 1921, opened Bot- tega di Pietro Chiesa, Milan; in 1927, (with Gio Ponti, Michele Marelli, Tomaso Buzzi, Emilio Lancia, and Paolo Venini) founded Il Labirinto, which produced high-quality glassware. Read More →
Ron Arad Israeli (b.1951) industrial designer and artist

Ron Arad is an Israeli industrial designer, artist, and architectural designer. He is professionally active in the United Kingdom. Israeli-born Arad studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Art in 1971 before moving to London in 1973 to study at the Architectural Association’s School of Architecture. From 1974 to 1979, he was one of Britain’s most…
Pierre Paulin (1927 – 2009) French furniture designer

He was active in research for the government-sponsored Mobilier International. His first plastic object was the 1953 Chair 157 in polyester, ABS, and elastomers produced by Artifort of Maastricht. Around 1955, he was one of the first to work in elasticised fabrics for Thonet and subsequently for Artifort.Read More →
Richard Peduzzi (b.1943) French Set and Furniture Designer

Richard Peduzzi (b.1943) is a French painter and scenic furniture designer. Education He studied drawingRead More →
Fabio Lenci (b.1935) Italian Designer

Fabio Lenci (1935 – ) is an Italian Designer. He received his design education in Rome. He began his professional career in 1966. He set up a shop for contemporary furniture in Rome. Read More →
Mission Furniture – Design Dictionary Term

The term mission furniture was first popularized by Joseph P. McHugh of New York, a furniture manufacturer and retailer. The word mission references the Spanish missions throughout colonial California. The style became increasingly popular following the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.Read More →
John Makepeace (b.1939) British Furniture Designer

He started designing furniture in 1961. In 1964, he set up a workshop in Farnsborough Barn, Banbury, moving in 1976 to Parnham House in Dorset. He established the Parnham Trust and School for Craftsmen in Wood in 1977.Read More →
Clément Mère (1861 – 1940) French, designer and furniture maker

Clément Mère was born in Bayonne and active in Paris. He was a French painter, table-builder, artist and furniture builder. He studied painting with Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.Read More →
Léon Jallot (1874 – 1967) French designer and artisan.

Léon Jallot (1874-1967), a scion of the French Art Nouveau, stood out within the movement as an ébéniste, or cabinet maker.Read More →
Helen Abson (b.1942) Australian Architect and Fabric Designer

Helen Abson, who trained as an architect, is an Australian designer. She pursued architecture for five years; founded ZAB Design where she designed fabrics that exhibited a preoccupation for texture achieved through pattern and colour.Read More →
Chaise Lounge by Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer designed this chaise lounge during his influential period in England (1935-37). His work for the London-based design and architectural firm Isokon is the most recognizable of this period. The chaise was designed for the 1936 Seven Architects Exhibition for Heal & Sons Department Store.Read More →
Dovetail – design term

Dovetail is the name for a shape that looks like a dove’s tail and is used in woodworking. Joints are made up of tabs in the shape of a dovetail that fit into holes in the other part. Dovetails are often used to join the corners of cabinet drawers and box shapes.Read More →
James Evanson (1946 – 2022) American furniture and lighting designer

James Evanson has been at the forefront of the “functional art” movement around the world. His work has travelled worldwide since his first exhibition in 1979 at the Art et Industrie Gallery in New York. For the Memphis Collection in Milan, new work was created just for the occasion. The “Lighthouse” lamps gained international acclaim…
George Sowden – British/Italian Designer

George James Sowden is a British designer. He was born in Leeds and active Italy. Between 1960-64 and 1966-68, he studied architecture, Gloucester College of Arts. Read More →
Bill Stumpf (1936 – 2006), inventor of the modern swivel chair

In 1976, the Ergon chair was introduced by Bill Stumpf, a designer for Herman Miller. It had a foam-filled back and seat, gas-lift levers to change the height and tilt. The Ergon was based on the new science of ergonomics, first used to design aeroplane cockpits.Read More →
Henry Van de Velde (1863 – 1957) Belgian artist, architect, interior designer

Henry van de Velde was a Belgian architect, industrial designer, painter and art critic. He worked in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.Read More →
Marcel Guillemard (1886 – 1932) French Decorator & designer

Marcel Guillemard (1886 – 1932) was a French decorator and furniture designer. He was born and professionally active in Paris.Read More →
George Nelson (1907 – 1986) American voice on design

George Nelson (1907 – 1986) was an American industrial designer. His Storagewall shelf system, which he made in 1945, changed the way offices worked. The Marshmallow sofa from the 1950s is one of his best-known pieces.Read More →