Herman Miller’s First Nesting Chair Is The Perfect Fusion Of Ergonomics, Innovation & Sustainability

Herman Miller’s supremacy in office chairs is pretty much undisputed. They’ve long since set their precedence, and have thoroughly maintained it. And you know how important a decision to choose the right office chair can be! We spend the majority of our day sitting on chairs, whether we’re working in our home office or a corporate one. Hence, this piece of furniture needs to be not only comfortable but ergonomic, and aesthetic as well. And to help simplify our decision-making process, Herman Miller unveiled their first nesting chair! Designed in collaboration with German industrial designer Stefan Diez, the nesting chair was first previewed at MillerKnoll’s Design Days in Chicago.

Designer: Herman Miller x Stefan Diez​

Dubbed Fuld, the newly launched nesting chair is truly quite unique and like no other. It is an efficient and effective solution for reconfiguring your workspace without compromising on style, sleekness, and minimalism. Fuld is a revolutionary one-piece construction featuring an inverted Y shape, which ensures that the production process creates less water. The back is incorporated with elasticity, to ensure the utmost comfort as you shift and move around.

”I am thrilled to have designed the first nesting chair for Herman Miller,” said Stefan Diez. “There’s no other company that cares so much about engineering and quality. It’s very supportive, it’s quite unparalleled, very forward-thinking. The collaboration with Herman Miller never feels like it’s driven by constraints, but driven more by an idea. It’s clear what we’re working for: The product that comes out from the process is not a product that is a compromise, and that’s what I love.”

Fuld was constructed using two materials, both of which can be easily recycled once the chair’s lifecycle ends. An optional 3D Knit textile seat is available as well. It is built from 50 percent post-consumer recycled content, and to the chair’s dimensions, so no material is wasted.

The nesting chair is available in dipped-in-color options such as seat, seat-back, and legs in a single color, and in dual color combinations as well. Fuld is an excellent launch by Herman Miller and Diez that perfectly fuses ergonomics, innovation, and sustainability.

The post Herman Miller’s First Nesting Chair Is The Perfect Fusion Of Ergonomics, Innovation & Sustainability first appeared on Yanko Design.

Herman Miller design exhibit at Milan Design Week celebrates company’s 100 years

Herman Miller, one of the most highly-regarded office chair designers and producers, is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its brand name. To celebrate, they will have an exhibit of the rich history of their company’s graphic design journey. The exhibit will begin at the Milan Design Week and eventually go to Chicago in June. You would think that this exhibit is all about the furniture but is more the visual journey of their design and marketing materials.

Designer: Herman Miller

Founded by D.J De Pree, Herman Miller was launched back in 1923 and by 1930, they hired Gilbert Rhode to bring modern design sensibilities to their previously traditional furniture. His wife Peggy Rhode was his partner as she took charge of designing their marketing materials, matching the new direction that the company was taking. When George Nelson started designing for the company in 1945, pioneer graphic designers like Irving Harper and Tomiko Miho also brought in a new look to their designs.

Designer John Massey and eventually his protege Steve Frykholm then brought the Pop Art look to the designs in the 60s and 70s. Barbara Loveland and Linda Powell then brought postmodern sensibilities in the 80s and 90s. For the textile division of the company, Alexander Girard is the name to remember as he used “graphics to create motifs with meaning” during his tenure as the founding director. His designs will also be on display at the exhibition. They will also be selling limited-edition prints of the Eames Soft Pad Group poster which is an iconic look for the brand.

The exhibit not only shows Herman Miller’s visual design journey but also looks like a history of graphic design over the past 100 years. You can see the various design movements for every decade so it’s also interesting how the company was able to keep up with all of that. It makes sense that they would put on this kind of exhibit rather than just show off their chairs or furniture (although they’re mostly pretty nice as well).

The post Herman Miller design exhibit at Milan Design Week celebrates company’s 100 years first appeared on Yanko Design.

Herman Miller announces the Passport Table, a height-adjusting versatile table that lets you work anywhere

The pneumatic-controlled table is compact enough to fit your entire work setup, and can move around the office to let you be instantly productive wherever you go.

Herman Miller’s Passport Table complements the laptop-based work setup perfectly. Laptops were designed to be portable, allowing you to carry them everywhere. They’re untethered, giving you the freedom to work in a cabin, at a standing desk, a meeting room, or in the lobby. The Passport Table encourages that freedom by being the table that accompanies you and your laptop everywhere. It features a compact, lightweight design that wheels around with you, and comes in two sizes that fit both smaller and larger spaces. The smaller variant sports a 22 x 16” worksurface and height adjustability of 12 inches, while the larger version offers a 27 x 20” working area, and the ability to adjust its height by 18 inches. Additionally, the Passport will be made available in a wide range of colors with the ability to customize it by adding accessories like a flexible privacy partition, etc.

Designer: Herman Miller

“The future of work is a trending topic in our current climate,” says Ben Watson, President of Herman Miller. “But for Herman Miller, the convergence of work, life, and play has always been central to how we design our products. Passport is the next addition to our portfolio that seeks to bring forth solutions that are agile, efficient, and fit for a variety of environments.”

The Passport Table prioritizes flexibility over everything else. When used at home, Passport provides a highly efficient work surface with an adjustable height range that occupies minimal space, giving customers the option to upgrade their multi-use or small home offices. In the workplace, it gives you the flexibility to move around so you’re not restricted to the three walls of a cabin. You can wheel the Passport around with you (and your office chair) and work from an atrium or lobby, or wheel it to your colleague’s desk to brainstorm or work together. The height-adjusting feature also lets you switch to a standing desk format, allowing you to metaphorically and literally ‘be on your feet’!

The compact nature of the Passport Table makes it a perfect addition to any hybrid office space, allowing it to ‘maximize performance while minimizing footprint’. The table features a single-column base and lightweight construction, along with optional add-ons like a bag-hook on the central column, or a flexible privacy screen that magnetically snaps into place, giving you a more cozy, semi-private work environment.

Passport will be available in a wide range of finishes and colors, with pricing starting at $495 USD.

The post Herman Miller announces the Passport Table, a height-adjusting versatile table that lets you work anywhere first appeared on Yanko Design.

Herman Miller Vantum gaming chair sets new bar in ergonomic comfort and adaptability

Herman Miller has set the precedence for office chairs and is also steadily building dominance in the gaming world with gaming-specific versions of the popular Embody (in partnership with Logitech G), Aeron and Sayl chairs. Now the popular and trusted ergonomic office furniture maker has struck another partnership with Logitech for a winning gaming chair design that will be hard to ignore.

Herman Miller x Logitech G Vantum Gaming Chair is the first fully gaming-centric chair by the Michigan-based manufacturer. Just for the records, this is also the first ever gaming chair out there with a thoracic support pad (for upper back, neck and head support) which adds to the USP. To top it off, the chair costs considerably less at just $995 in three color options – Polar, Flare and Obsidian. Stack it to the duo’s first collaborative creation, the Herman Miller X Logitech G Embody Gaming Chair that debuted in 2020 for a price tag of $1,500.

Designer: Herman Miller and Logitech

Vantum is tailored for long gaming sessions to keep the gamers in an “active/upright position the moment they sit down.” This is possible with the custom seat pad and PostureFit’s extra adjustable lower back support. Thereby preventing slouching to reduce fatigue in hot game action.

When you are taking a break from all the shooting or intense racing, the chair supports the head where it meets the spine via the adjustable headrest. Clearly, we can see that the chair has gaming ergonomics in mind, and created to offer support during different stages of play. According to Jon Campbell, General Manager of Gaming at Herman Miller, their team shifted keen focus to the versatile requirements of gamers. Hence, an equally supported reclined position for times when watching movies, chatting with buddies or amid virtual events is important for an ergonomic chair.

The chair has a flexible cushion and special suspension material for balanced pressure no matter what the posture is. This ensures maximum comfort and support for breathable circulation. HM has left no stone unturned when it comes to fabric durability and the glass-filled nylon frame. The Polyurethane foam headrest and seat cushion are made out of 100 percent recycled polyester fabric.

The post Herman Miller Vantum gaming chair sets new bar in ergonomic comfort and adaptability first appeared on Yanko Design.

HAY x Herman Miller Collection transforms eight Eames classics into contemporary colorful versions

An interesting collaboration that recently grabbed all my attention is the HAY x Herman Miller collection. In an ode to HAY’s 20th anniversary this year, Herman Miller invited Rolf and Mette Hay to reinterpret the classic mid-century Eames pieces. The Danish design label transformed eight of the iconic Eames designs into contemporary colorful versions- that feature not only new shades but fresh materials as well.

Designer: HAY x Herman Miller

This collab was extremely meaningful for Rolf and Mette Hay since they’re both major fans of Herman Miller, and have admired the brand and the designers, Charles and Ray Eames,  for a long time. Since both brands incorporate playfulness and a sense of curiosity, they both merged and melded together effortlessly.

“They were very experimental in taking advantage of new technologies. And they were having fun. Since the inception of Hay, our goal has been to provide our customers with access to works by the best designers in the world – designers who understand that if you want to create a high-quality industrial design for the many, then you need to find smart ways of producing,” said Rolf.

The HAY x Herman Miller collection includes eight pieces – all of them maintain the quintessential Herman Miller essence with a fun and modern twist. “Being very familiar with the existing color range, my intention was to focus on looking ahead, instead of looking too far back,” said Mette Hay. The collection includes the ‘Eames Molded Plastic Chair’ (both with and without arms), the ‘Wire Chair’, ‘Wire Base Low Table’, the ‘Universal Base Round Table’, and ‘Hang It All’ coat rack. They’ve all been created in a variety of mesmerizing colors – toffee, iron red, indigo, mint green, powder pink, and powder yellow. Also, the Eames Molded Plastic Chair has been crafted from 100% post-industrial recycled plastic. Cast-glass was also used in some of the pieces.

The HAY x Herman Miller collection combines the iconic Eames design language, new materials, and refreshing colors to provide an invigorating makeover to an already loved and adored brand and its designs.

The post HAY x Herman Miller Collection transforms eight Eames classics into contemporary colorful versions first appeared on Yanko Design.

These Top 10 Seating Solutions are inspired by your favorite Herman Miller chairs!

We often underestimate the importance of a great chair! When in reality we really shouldn’t. We spend the majority of our day sitting on chairs, whether we’re working in our home office, enjoying a meal, or simply sitting and reading a book for leisure! We need a well-designed chair for all our tasks. And if they’re any slouchy heads like me here, you almost always find yourself slinking off into some goofy position! As comfy as these eccentric positions maybe, they’re dreadful for our vertebrae! They can have severe long-term effects on our back, and hence maintaining a straight and proper posture is critical. As important as it is to pick an aesthetically and visually pleasing chair design, we also need to pay attention to ergonomics and form. It needs to be comfortable, ergonomic, and good-looking! Quite a lot, isn’t it? So, we’ve curated a collection of chair designs for you that meet all these criteria! These innovative furniture designs are not only a boon to your back, and help you maintain a healthy posture, but are also super comfy to sink into, and will perfectly match the interiors of your modern homes. You can thank us later!

Tai Matlin and Taiwon Choi of Fellowes have designed an office chair with a hanging seating position that follows the body movements. The hanging seat ensures maximum comfort for the spine, hips, and lower limbs at all times – no matter how long you’ve been sitting! The unique chair design with patented Omni-Kinetic Suspension Technology for micro-body movement in multiple directions prevents fatigue during long hours of sitting. Keeping in mind the extended working hours Elea chair has a contoured design to support natural spine alignment and lumbar positioning which all goes well for long-term health benefits. The chair also boasts adjustable tension and balanced support which most of the office chairs simply don’t have.

Primarily designed for workers who spend most of their days sitting down in the office or at home, the 5° Chair features cushioning that forms to your body and posture to ensure comfortable sitting throughout the day. The chair’s seat plate cozies up to and hugs your hips for support from the bottom, with added cushion for comfort. Similarly, the backrest plate forms to the shape of your back to bolster your posture and encourage an upright spine. The 5° Chair’s legs are reinforced in the core with angled wave springs that can tilt in any direction, while the chair’s spindle can lean from side to side, 5 degrees from its center point. The rotatability of the 5° Chair allows it to adjust to your body’s natural movement, offering support from every angle.

Designed by Xue Song, the multifunctional chair christened Dysta looks simple yet has a multitude of uses – ideal for any city apartment, your bedroom, or the backyard. By simply turning it around in a specific orientation, the function of Dysta changes dramatically. It goes from a high stool to a normal chair and then into a low seating in the blink of an eye. The chair transforms – it can turn into a swing lounger when you need to relax and don’t have a rocking chair on your porch. Such is the design simplicity of the chair; it will fit into any section of your home, lifestyle, or interior.

This Sayl concept chair by Charley takes into account the larger shift in our habits as homes have become hybrid offices and our flexible lifestyle (psst! He also keeps in mind the hours we spend as gamers or serial binge-watchers). We need chairs that can allow us to do more and this Sayl chair lets you maximize your space whether you are working, playing games at your desk, or chilling in a VR universe. The aesthetics of the design uses muted greys to blend into every home interior design with orange accents in the chair that call to attention pivotal touchpoints, making the design as intuitive as possible. Simply push the foot pedal mechanism to collapse the chair’s design, making it an easy-to-store, space-saving solution we all need!

Young Brazilian designers Gustavo Alves Miranda and Silas Stempcoski designed modular workstation furniture primarily tailored for home working setups. The designers’ goal is to optimize the home office workplace with form and function that encourages healthy postural habits. According to Gustavo, his furniture design named Mode, “brings joy and comfort within a furniture for those who work alone.” The minimalistic furniture design comprises a table, seat, and kneeling module – all working in different ways as per the requirement. It has a compact mode which turns it into an elegant side table – ideal beside the bed or sofa. Then there is the customary table and chair module for professional working hours.

Studio Stirling’s Sling Hanging Chair gives you that stress-melting effect you get from a hammock, but indoors. The hanging chair comprises a metal hoop suspended from the ceiling, on which lies draped a piece of thick leather that you sit on. Quite like how a hammock adjusts to your shape and posture when you sit on it, Studio Stirling’s Sling adjusts to your frame too, letting you hang out for a bit… quite literally! The Sling hanging chair is an exercise in form, function, and minimalism. Stripped away from anything excess, it reduces the chair to its most abstract form, even ditching the legs in the process!

Fitwork’s design sort of embodies a no-excuse mentality to being fit. Whether it’s the excuse of ‘being too busy’, or of ‘not wanting to go all the way to the gym’, Fitwork combats it by bringing the gym not just to your house, but to your workspace. Designed as a product to let you work and work out at the same time, this crazy hybrid of a desk chair and treadmill keeps your legs active while you work. Whether you’re sitting in front of a laptop or standing in front of one, it’s the sedentary lifestyle that Fitwork tackles. The setup (which is sure to grab a few eyeballs) comes with an office chair attached to a treadmill underneath, and an elliptical in front. Coupled with an elevating desk, the Fitwork allows you to keep the lower half of your body active while you work, giving you cardio as well as keeping your spine engaged, whether you’re sitting or standing while working.

The Tamable Chair maintains the shape of a traditional lounge chair for optimal comfort. Over time, the Tamable Chair’s surface morphs to different seated positions and becomes more comfortable with continued use. Styrofoam is composed of 98% air, making it the ideal packing material. Styrofoam tends to contort and warp when pressure is applied to its surface. Even as kids, poking at sheets of styrofoam taught us that the depressions our fingerprints make don’t rise. Fountain studio used that insight when developing the Tamable Chair to allow the styrofoam surface to adapt to different body shapes and seated positions.

To give you the feeling of working from the office while working from home, designer Andrew Mangelsdorf created the Commute chair. The name commute chair might give you the idea that it helps you recreate the journey (maybe it’s a variation of floo powder that transports you while sitting in place), it literally helps create a barrier between your home and workspace. Designing a home office is a luxury not everyone can afford – we often convert our bedroom into the workroom and the dining table into a desk for the day. Commute lets you mentally transform yourself by pulling up the partitions of this ingenious chair. The chair also comes with multiple accessories like a swiveling tabletop and a table light – all integrated to create the perfect desk set up in the form of one simple chair.

The Komfort is a shape-shifting ergonomic chair that supports a whole variety of configurations and styles. Designed to make you sit better for longer, its adjustable details allow you to maintain a comfortable posture no matter what your work setup is. For people with higher tables, the height-adjustment feature works like a charm, and for people who want to sit comfortably but be closer to the screen, the seat-tilt function lets you lean forward right in your seat. Moreover, if you want to comfortably stand while working, the swivel-out knee supports allow you to half-stand while sitting, keeping your spine vertical and giving you the benefit of a corrected posture while you work. Along with its shape-shifting nature, the Komfort is also complemented by details that actually make sitting for long more comfortable.

Herman Miller’s latest office furniture range abandons the ‘cubicle’ and promotes social freedom

With changing times, social spaces need to change too… and it seems like Herman Miller has noticed that. As a world that’s slowly preparing to step out of their homes and go back to offices again, this unique window of time we’ve got is perfect to redefine productivity and how offices should look in this new future. Herman Miller’s OE1 series of furniture helps define the ‘new age’ office by creating a space that’s more conducive to co-working and socializing, instead of locking people in cubicles to make them more productive. The OE1 series brings an element of openness, dynamism, and fun to the workplace, giving it a unique facelift that definitely contrasts from the restrictive atmosphere created by working from home.

Short for Optimized Essentials, the OE1 range is “designed to help people experiment with space, discover what works in the moment, and change rapidly for the future”. It focuses on adaptability and on agility, by allowing modules to interconnect or separate, and work well both as a part of a team or as individual units… sort of like humans. The furniture elements can be scaled up, scaled down, or fine-tuned to create the workspace you need. Filled with basic forms and vibrant colors, the OE1 series has just the right amount of character to ad a minimalist yet vibrant touch to the workspace.

“The ideas behind OE1 predate COVID-19. The collection is the result of two years of development, driven by an international research project, in which the team interviewed everyone from office managers to sci-fi writers about the future of work. But as the collection came to a crest in 2020, amid a rise of remote work in response to the global pandemic, this future-forward design became a much more urgent one”, reports Fast Company.

“I often say with a mixture of pride and sorrow that Herman Miller invented the cubicle… probably envisioning a utopia, and it became something different,” says CEO of Herman Miller, Andi Owen. “We envision a future where [modular, flexible] furniture styles are the ones that are most dominant” Owen replies, indicating the demise of the restrictive cubicle, and the creation of what is referred to as an “unsystem” – or a series of individual elements that can be mixed and matched in a variety of ways, without ever really ‘going wrong’.

What’s immediately characteristic of the OE1 is that even as it creates separate, independent workspaces, it does so without putting the user in a bubble. People are still welcome to look each other in the eye, exchange pleasantries and ideas, and work as a collective whole instead of as individual cogs in a machine.

The Agile Wall [above and below] is a series of vertical panels that act as functional elements even serving as room dividers. The upper example showcases a wall-hung whiteboard that even has a soft-board attached to it, while below, a series of shelves helps functionally partition a space without visually creating a partition.

The OE1 series even relooks desks, with the Micro Pack [above] and a more traditional seating arrangement below. Each Micro Pack comes with an adjustable desk system, letting you choose between sitting and standing formats, while even organizing your cables into a central channel. Along with it all, the Micro Pack even lets you hang your bag or backpack on a hook placed right beneath the desk, so you don’t have to drop your purse on the ground when you sit at your desk.

For more traditional sitting desks, you’ve got OE1 Storage Trolleys that nest nicely under them, allowing you to cut the clutter on your table yet still have all your stuff at hand. The trolleys can be moved around as you shift workspaces, and can even be turned into stools by popping a seat on top, so you can have a quick conversation with your colleagues without dragging your chair around.

Ultimately, with the OE1 series, Herman Miller aims at building up the workplace by breaking it down. Plagued by the ‘cubicle culture’ that they themselves created, the OE1 is Herman Miller’s way of going back to the drawing board and redefining creativity and productivity in a way that is less bound by rules and is more accommodating of diverse work cultures. In a rather bittersweet way, it also takes into account the fact that workplaces may see downsizing, budget cuts, and migration to smaller office spaces. With the modular design of the OE1 and those innovative Micro Packs, Herman Miller hopes to create a workplace that fits ‘more into less’ while still “making [the workplace] as comfortable as possible.”

Designers: Herman Miller in collaboration with Kim Colin and Sam Hecht

This foldable, space-saving Herman Miller-inspired office chair is the 2021 wfh investment you need!

This Sayl concept chair by Charley takes into account the larger shift in our habits as homes have become hybrid offices and our flexible lifestyle (psst! He also keeps in mind the hours we spend as gamers or serial binge-watchers).

Now more than ever we demand more from the spaces we live in, our homes are now our workplaces, our workout spaces, and also the places we socialize and relax – the pieces of furniture we choose have to be optimized for our space and be more compact without sacrificing on the functionalities or luxuries in the case of a high-end furniture design brand like Herman Miller. We need chairs that can allow us to do more and this Sayl chair lets you maximize your space whether you are working, playing games at your desk, or chilling in a VR universe. The aesthetics of the design uses muted greys to blend into every home interior design with orange accents in the chair that call to attention pivotal touchpoints, making the design as intuitive as possible. Simply push the foot pedal mechanism to collapse the chair’s design, making it an easy-to-store, space-saving solution we all need!

Furniture design has seen a shift since the pandemic and brands are pivoting towards making pieces that are modular, flexible, multifunctional, and above all, space-savers!

Designer: Charley Bircumshaw

Logitech and Herman Miller team up to design ergonomic gaming furniture

Plenty of gaming chairs look cool, but whether or not they're actually good for your back is another question. Furniture company Herman Miller and Logitech's gaming hardware brand Logitech G want to change that. They're teaming up to create a line of...