George Nelson
How many names can you recall when you think of the great American modernism? These were the people who reformed the society’s traditional thought processes in the eighteenth and the early nineteenth century. Charles and Ray Eames were of course two of the notable designers who gave the movement of modernism a huge push. However there is only one man who exuded creativity and exemplary insight into things that changed the face of design itself.
George Nelson c
an be called the father of American modernism. He is a man whose talents include exceptional drafting, articulate writing and a splendid sense of furniture design. In fact, he is the guy who hired Charles Eames himself. He was born in Hartford in Connecticut. During the times of his education in Yale University, he gained instant recognition even in his first year when he was hired by Adams and Prentice.
After getting a degree in Fine Arts, Nelson entered the Rome prize for Architecture. What was the prize? It was a palatial stay in Rome with a handsome recompense and an opportunity to study architecture in Rome. He was a writer for Pencil Points, during this time and his stay at Rome took him far across Europe. He met influential people like Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius and wrote about them.
George Nelson’s true career however, took off in the prestigious Herman Miller firm. He had worked for Architecture Forum with Henry Wright once. Miller had seen his revolutionary concepts about the storage wall and the family room in his book that he had co-written with Henry Wright –Tomorrow’s House. Howard Miller, brother of Herman Miller introduced the two and there it started. Although Nelson had not previously designed furniture, he was an instant hit. He worked with other greats like Charles and Ray Eames, Richard Schultz, Isamu Noguchi, Harry Bertoia and Donald Knorr whom he hired for Herman Miller.
His designs like The Coconut Chair, The Platform Bench, the Bubble Lamp, the Sling Sofa and the Marshmallow Sofa are very renowned inventions that are in use even today. He started his own firm –George Nelson Associates in the year 1955. Employees like Irving Harper and John Pile gave the company the best of their work.
Nelson’s generation of designers and architects were greatly limited as this was the time of the great depression. However, Nelson’s perspicacity and commitment was too great for any depression. He sailed through the period with ease. He often criticized his co-workers for being too giving to the commercial forces. He passed away in 1986. He was at that time 77 years old.
Nelson’s simplicity and the sense of keeping things as natural as possible earned him the fame that he now rightfully enjoys. He had once said that there was a joy and excitement in taking an idea into one’s own hands and giving it a proper form. And that, in a nutshell explains what he spent his life doing. Giving ideas the shape and structure they were meant to be there for.