Herman Miller Furniture Company

I was born in St. Louis, Missouri on June 17, 1907 and like to consider myself a real Midwesterner (Kirkham, 1998). My father fought in the Civil War which led to him and my mother settling down in St. Louis. My earliest memories of my childhood was my mother playing duets on the piano and flute, she was the motherliest mother you could think of. My childhood was good; I would consider my family to be middle class. I was closer to my mother because my father was an elderly man and his job involved being absent most of the time (Kirkham, 1998). My father was shot in the course of duty and was able to retire and be at our home more. He started devoting his time to hobbies such as photography and painting. His creativity began to rub off on me, …show more content…
Herman Millers director of design first saw my work in a showcase and new that my furniture had huge commercial selling potential. In the fall of 1949 Herman Miller Furniture Company officially opened its doors to a new showroom in West Hollywood. Herman Miller bought out Evans Products Company who was the manufacturer producing my plywood line. This abought Herman Miller production rights to my furniture and I was able to serve as a consultant for the firm. This was a huge step in my career and furniture. Herman Millers philosophy was minimalist much like my own. Being a consultant gave me more time to configure, create, and design new furniture ideas. One of those being an office storage unit. This piece was easily adaptable and interchangeable. I created desks with drawer and a filing system that complete the line. My storage units were the first modular cabinets to be mass produced. Unfortunately, these were not a huge success like expected and therefore we had to discontinue them (Koenig, …show more content…
This trend quickly grew and signaled growing acceptance of modern furniture by the average consumer. My chairs also took a dramatic turn when plastic became more readily available after World War II. The Herman Miller Furniture Company ordered 2,000 fiberglass/plastic armchairs and went on sale around 1950. My wire mesh chair was also one of my greatest works. I used a wire fabricating technique, a technique I perfected over many years. I looked into it and it turned out it was a good production technique and also a really good use of materials (Charles, 2016). The chair was available to customer in three different configurations. One being, fully upholstered, partially upholstered with padding or no upholstery at all. These chair were sold by Herman Miller from 1951-1967 and were a major selling piece. They went back into production by popular demand in 2001 (Charles, 2016). I would say my most memorable and important piece to date, is the Lounge Chair and Ottoman. I wanted this chair to have a warm, receptive look of a well used baseball mitt. It is said that, “No other piece of furniture has so stirred the mind and heart of the twentieth century both here and abroad” (Koenig, 2015). The chair sold for $404 which at the time was a really high price however, it was an immediate best seller. By 1975 Herman Miller sold 100,000 chairs.

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