George Nelson was born in Connecticut in 1908 and is considered one of the founding fathers of American modernism. He graduated Architecture at Yale University in 1928, and completed his Bachelor of Fine Art in 1931. George Nelson was from a generation of Architects who found too few projects and instead turned to other forms of design, including product, graphic and interior design. He was also an influential journalist. He defended the principles of modernist design, much to the irritation of other industrial designers of the time, who he believed made too many concessions to the commercial forces in the industry. By 1940 there was a lot of attention drawn to a number of his popular designs. In 1945 Herman Miller’s President D. J. Du Pree saw one of his innovative concepts, the “storage wall” and offered Nelson the position of Design Director. He set new standards for design involvement in all aspects of the company.
Nelson’s designs were simple and functional. His iconic designs included the coconut chair (1955), the marshmallow sofa (1956) and the swagged leg group of chairs (1958), of which the D A F armchair is a part of.
He utilised principles of the Bauhaus movement which ‘based its design philosophy on the principles that design should be relevant to the needs of society and that it should utilize modern technology and materials to inexpensively meet consumer needs’ (1) This movement also introduced the use of tubular steel in furniture design. This focus on function resulted in clean, simple, modern design. Similarly, the modernist movement focused on function and involved the introduction of new technologies and manufacturing techniques.
Several of George Nelson’s designs, including the D A F Armchair are still in production today.
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