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.Herman Miller is no stranger to ergonomic chairs. They claim that we sit more in a day than we do sleep. So they have made it their mission to make the most comfortable ergonomic chairs on the planet.

They are confident in saying that you will have the best support that keeps your back feeling relief of pain and fatigue. They have a number of great chairs on the market that vary in price. Its no wonder so many people invest and buy these chairs. When you buy Herman Miller chairs you are getting quality products and not cheap office furniture. You are getting top of the line products that help you with office ergonomics.baby high chair bouncer Aeron Chair: The Aeron is most well known ergonomic office chair on this plant. bamboo chairs for sale on ebayIt is made of a breathable, woven membrane. leather office chair tuftedGiving it a more lighter feel. fuzzy bean bag chairs sale

The Aeron distributes your body weight perfectly, eliminating and discomfort and heat buildup. Kinemat and posture fit technology allow you to tilt and recline, and hugs your body where it needs it. Check out the Full Herman Miller Aeron Review here. Embody Chair: The embody is an ergonomic chair that not only looks good, but it feels good as well. This chair was specifically designed with your spine in mind. chair seat covers bed bath and beyondThe chairs back itself looks like a spine. bean bag chair benefitsThe Embody is a great ergonomic chair that blends ergonomics with style and comfort. Click here for the Full Herman Miller Embody review. Sayl Chair: The Sayl was designed by Yves Behar, his muse was suspension bridges when he created this chair. Suspension bridges use the least amount of material but support a lot of weight.

The Sayl allows your body to move around comfortably. It has elastomer strands which vary in thickness and tension to provide different support on each part of your back. Click here for the Full Herman Miller Sayl review. Setu Chair: The Setu has great material engineering behind it. It is made out of a material that gives it great flexibility plus strength. It allows you to recline and its shifts your weight accordingly. It also conforms to your body and aerates your body as you sit. While deciding on your Best ergonomic office chair you will need to consider different factors that will influence your overall sitting experience and this will change from each person. We usually all share common standards, which include, comfort, and budget. Each top manufacture strives to reach these goals but in the end it is up to your style of chair you decide on.The ancient essayist Plutarch once posed the following theoretical quandary—if all the parts of the legendary ship that Theseus sailed were replaced and updated by the time he sailed it back to Athens, was it still the same Ship of Theseus?

Today, Herman Miller announced the remastering of the Aeron chair—one of the most successful and well-known office chairs of all time—with a host of material, technological, and ergonomic updates. Its distinctive shape and name, however, remain untouched. So Don Chadwick, who designed the original Aeron chair in 1994 with Bill Stumpf,  knows he will have to come up with a satisfactory answer to Plutarch’s question. “I’ve often drawn an analogy to the Porsche 911, which came out in 1965,” he says. “The overall profiles of that car have pretty much remained constant up through the latest models. It’s a different car, but in a way, it’s the same car.” Chadwick and Stumpf revolutionized office seating with the original Aeron. The tilting mechanism supported many postures, and the mesh for the back and seat eschewed foam and upholstery to bring transparency—and breathability—to offices. It was a chair designed for the digital age. Chadwick, now 80, has been involved in the design of the new Aeron, helping re-engineer the mesh to focus support on certain areas of the body and changing the technology that drives the tilt mechanism.

In this exclusive interview, Metropolis talked to him to understand the spirit behind the update. Avinash Rajagopal: We think of the Aeron as a serious chair, but you’ve often said that you and Bill Stumpf were inspired by toys. Don Chadwick: When Bill and I grew up, we had toys like an erector set, or we had blocks. The fact that you could put something together, disassemble it, and then put it back together was a critical part of the ideas behind the Aeron chair—as it was with its predecessor, the Equa chair.  We also drew upon the analogy of bicycles that are easily repairable. So even though you wouldn’t characterize the Aeron chair as a playful composition, it’s playful in the way it’s conceived as a construction of parts. AR: You mentioned the Equa chair, how was that a predecessor to the Aeron? DC: The Equa chair had certain integral dynamics, particularly in the shell. We designed the shell so that it would provide the proper amount of flexibility as you sit into the chair and sit back.

It also incorporated one of the first so-called knee tilt mechanisms, where the pivot point moved from the traditional position above the center post, forward. It was sort of mimicking your knee joint. That was the beginning of understanding a whole new set of kinematics, the way the body moves and the way the chair moves. We also began to look at chairs that no longer dictated status. Up until the late ’70s and early ’80s, there was an executive chair, there was a management chair, and there was a secretarial chair. There was this idea of inequality in the office, and when we did the Equa, we said, “Well, everybody deserves a good chair.” When we got into the Aeron chair, that attitude continued because we offered it in three different sizes. So whether you were small or large, everybody got the same chair. AR: Another precedent for the Aeron, which isn’t discussed much generally, was this amazing project that you did in the late ‘80s called Metaform. How did that project influence the Aeron?

DC: When Bill and I worked on Metaform, the primary product was a reclining chair. It was designed particularly for older people. We were given the assignment to develop a mini environment, where the user would spend a good amount of time, that could be adjusted from upright to full recline, and also had a table that would swing over the chair, lighting, storage. The reclining chair had many pivot points. Some of those pivot points were useful in establishing how we would develop the Aeron chair. In that reclining chair we also had a suspension that was a prelude to the mesh in the Aeron. It was an off-the-shelf material that Dupont had developed called Dymetrol, basically a one-way-stretch woven material. We took that Dymetrol idea and made it into what would be called an A-surface—a functional, visual surface. That led to the whole development of the woven material that you call a mesh, in generic terms, but what we call the Pellicle. That did not exist until we did the Aeron chair.

It was a whole new seat and back-support technology. And it had its origins in Metaform. AR: Do you remember the initial reaction to the Aeron chair? DC: People either loved it or hated it. In the early focus group testing, the moderator would explain the whole concept ahead of time, and then they would uncover the chairs, and people would react to what they saw. They noted all this down. Then, they were allowed to sit in the chair. Their reactions, in most cases, changed quite a bit. They were amazed that it could be so comfortable, without all the traditional accoutrements of upholstery and foam. The original idea was that the chair would appeal to the technology companies, because they were more involved with heavy computer use, and keyboard interface, etc. It just permeated its way into the entertainment industry. Hollywood picked it up, and all the people that were making commercials were putting it in the commercials. At the same time, all the special effects people were using it, because they were working at computers.

Disney got intrigued with it. It just migrated everywhere, way beyond our expectations. I don’t think anybody ever anticipated that it would have such a broad appeal. We’re all very thankful for that. AR: So how did you feel when you first heard about the update? DC: This has been in the works, on and off, for a number of years, so it wasn’t a complete surprise when they finally said, “It’s time.” We had actually made earlier proposals, but it was at NeoCon several years ago that I was approached by the head of design development, Don Goeman, saying that they wanted to go ahead with the project. It was very exciting to take another look at the chair. AR: Did it allow you to address issues that you wish you could have in ’94? DC: Well, one of the things that always bothered Bill and myself when the chair came out in ’94 was the tilt mechanism. Because of the type of rubber torsion spring we used, it was always visually a little bulky looking. With the new Aeron, since we’re using a leaf spring mechanism, we were able to re-scale the chair according to that mechanism.

It’s much slimmer in the profile. All the proportions are quite a bit lighter. Everything on the chair is brand new, from the castors up. The whole composition is more refined. The various castings, the swing arms, everything has been re-proportioned. There are also a couple of metallic-looking finishes that I think give the chair a little more character in different lighting conditions. AR: The original Aeron was an exercise in material design, especially in the mesh. How does the new chair take that material science approach further? DC: Brock Walker, who is a consultant to Herman Miller and was very involved with the original Posture Fit on the chair, came up with specifications for how the mesh, which we call Pellicle, could better support the body both in the seat and on the back. Going through those required that we come up with a much more sophisticated weaving process. It’s now called a zoned suspension in that there are four different zones on the seat—it allows sufficient support at the front edge, but as you move back it gets a little bit softer, and then to the rear it stiffens up again.

There’s actually four different stiffnesses that are incorporated into that weave, which is a whole new technology. On the back, likewise, there are various zones of stiffness. The evolution of this Pellicle is really a major breakthrough in the technology of the chair. AR: The original Aeron came out at a time when computers were widely being adopted. We are now in the throes of another digital revolution, with smart devices. Can you talk about the relationship between digital technology and the Aeron, old and new? DC: Well, the original Aeron chair was designed by hand, all the prototypes were built by hand. Of course, with the new chair, it’s all digital. The parts were designed on the computer, and then 3D printed to make sure everything was correct. The new Aeron is a product of the new computer software programs, as are a lot of other chairs today. But also, the mobility of people working today is so different because of smart devices and portable devices. You’re no longer tethered to a traditional keyboard and a monitor.