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Jens Risom Chair

Author: 
Carroll Gantz
Designer: 
Risom, Jens for Hans Knoll
Date: 
1943
Jens Risom Chair

This chair, of simple wood construction using surplus military webbing, was designed by Jens Risom for Hans Knoll, before Risom entered the Army during World War II. It was the basis for Knoll's first line of products introduced in 1942, virtually the only modern furniture available during the war in the US, and was patented in 1945. Jens Risom was born in Denmark in 1916, and arrived in the US in 1938. He worked as a textile and furniture designer with Dan Cooper in 1939, and in 1941 joined with Hans Knoll to produce modern furniture. After the war in 1946, he started his own design and manufacturing business, Jens Risom Design. Hans Knoll (1914-1955) was born in Stuttgart, Germany, where his father was a furniture maker. Hans studied in Switzerland and England, and emigrated to the US in 1937 to establish his own business, the H.G. Knoll Furniture Company in New York, offering simple, modern furniture. In 1944, Hans married Florence Schust. She had studied architecture at Cranbrook Academy, the Architectural Association in London, and at the Illinois Institute of Technology under Mies van der Rohe. Hans and Florence established Knoll Associates in 1946, with the idea of creating a collection of furniture designs by well-known designers and paying them on a royalty basis. These included George Nakashima furniture, the Hardoy sling chair (1946), Mies van der Rohe's 1929 Barcelona chair (1947), Eero Saarinen's Womb chair (1948),Isamu Noguchi's cylinder lamp (1948) and Akari lamp (1952), Harry Bertoia's Diamond chairs (1952), Eero Saarinen's Pedestal chair (1956) , Mies van der Rohe's 1930 Brno chair (1960), as well as his 1927 Weissenhof chair (1964), his 1930 Tuganhat chair, and his 1930 Berlin leather couch (1964). This successful "designer and royalty" concept was imitated by many contemporary furniture companies.

Sources: 
100 Years of Design consists of excerpts from a book by Carroll M. Gantz, FIDSA, entitled, Design Chronicles: Significant Mass-produced Designs of the 20th Century, published August 2005 by Schiffer Publications, Ltd.
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American Modern

Author: 
Carroll Gantz
Designer: 
Wright, Russell
Date: 
1935
American Modern

This line of furniture in natural maple was designed by Russell Wright, manufactured by Conant Ball Company for Macy's, and first introduced in 1935 under the name Modern Living. It immediately became popular as the first modern furniture in the US, and later was appropriately re-named American Modern. A similar line was also produced in bleached "blond" maple. The success of these lines made Wright instantly famous to the public. Russel Wright (1904-1976), after study at Princeton, apprenticed with Norman Bell Geddes and first worked as a stage designer. He began a business in 1930 with his wife, Mary, designing and producing spun-aluminum decorative accessories for the home. Wright is credited as one of the first to explore aluminum decoratively, as earlier use was essentially as cooking utensils. His only earlier furniture design was the first "sectional" sofa, manufactured by Heywood-Wakefield for Bloomingdale¹s and introduced in 1934. Wright championed the principles of informal living, and by many, was considered the pioneer of "organic" design. In 1938 he established a "casual living" concept of accessories, re-naming his firm Russell Wright Accessories. In 1939, de designed and introduced the highly successful American Modern ceramic dinnerware, manufactured by Steubenville Pottery. In 1940, he initiated a patriotic nationwide project to promote low cost design called The American-Way, which unfortunately was eclipsed by the start of war and abandoned. At the same time, he closed his accessory business and with several partners, formed a new firm, Raymor, which continued to sell his products as well as a range of internationally-designed products after the war. In 1944, Wright was one of the founders of SID, a predecessor of IDSA. In 1951, he and his wife published A Guide to Easier Living, promoting casual and inexpensive contemporary design for the home.

Sources: 
100 Years of Design consists of excerpts from a book by Carroll M. Gantz, FIDSA, entitled, Design Chronicles: Significant Mass-produced Designs of the 20th Century, published August 2005 by Schiffer Publications, Ltd.
Copyright Information: 
I own or have obtained the rights to the image(s) included with this article and grant industrialdesignhistory.com the right to post it(them) on its website and make use of it(them) in print media with proper attribution.

Ergon Chair

Author: 
Carroll Gantz
Designer: 
Stumpf, William
Date: 
1976
Ergon Chair

The Ergon chair, with an innovative gas-cylinder post mount to absorb impact of "heavy" sitters, was designed by William Stumpf for Herman Miller, Inc. and introduced in 1976. William Stumpf (b. 1936) is a US furniture designer based in Minneapolis. He received a Bachelor's degree in industrial design at University of Illinois in 1959, and a Masters from University of Wisconsin in 1968. He has worked with the Herman Miller Furniture Company since the early 1970s, using ergonomic research to "make a beautiful chair comfortable." Among many others he designed, along with Don Chadwick, were the Equa chair, introduced in 1984, and the Aeron chair of 1995, both for Herman Miller. The latter was named a "Design of the Decade" by IDSA in 2000. These chairs have joined the ranks of classic design chairs in the last half of the 20th century, which include Niels Diffrient's Jefferson Task Chair of 1984 for SunarHauseman; the Charles Eames fiberglass chair for Herman Miller (see 1948); the Jens Risom Chair for Knoll (see 1943); Harry Bertoia's Diamond Chairs of 1952 for Knoll; Eero Saarinen's Pedestal Chair of 1956 and Womb Chair of 1948 for Knoll; Eames molded plywood chairs in 1947, 1951and 1953, and his lounge chair and ottoman of 1956, all for Herman Miller; and Vernor Panton's one-piece stacking fiberglass chair of 1967 for Herman Miller.

Sources: 
100 Years of Design consists of excerpts from a book by Carroll M. Gantz, FIDSA, entitled, Design Chronicles: Significant Mass-produced Designs of the 20th Century, published August 2005 by Schiffer Publications, Ltd.
Copyright Information: 
I own or have obtained the rights to the image(s) included with this article and grant industrialdesignhistory.com the right to post it(them) on its website and make use of it(them) in print media with proper attribution.