Home > George Nelson
1904 - 1986
George Nelson was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1904. After graduating from Hartford Public High school in 1924 he studied architecture at Yale University, where he graduated in 1928. George Nelson would spend a great deal of his time with the other founders of the modernist architecture movement of the forties including Eliot Noyes, Charles Eames and Walter B. Ford all of which he would later collaborate with.
In 1931 He received his degree in Fine Arts and the following year he entered the Rome Prize competition in Architecture as a preparation for the Paris Prize and won, although Nelson didn’t win the Paris Prize. The award for the Rome Prize was a year in Rome studying architecture
Based in Rome, George Nelson travelled through Europe where he met a number of the modernist pioneers, whom he interviewed for the purpose of writing articles for 'Pencil Points'. He was to become a highly regarded critic, influential author and respected commentator on design issues as well as as exceptional creative talent. He gave his definition of good design when he said it was the ability of the human spirit to go beyond its limits - which he himself achieved.
His Storagewall shelf system, designed in 1945, was to revolutionise the office environment as it could also be used as a partitioning wall. This excited the manufacturer Herman Miller so much that it became eager to collaborate with George Nelson. Together with Charles Eames and Alexander Girard the trio gave Herman Miller its new, highly innovative image and from 1945 to 1965 he was to hold the position as the company's design director.
Though Nelson was to specialize in storage solutions he created some iconic designs in other areas including the Marshmallow Sofa, the Coconut Chair (a reference for a more relaxed lifestyle becoming popular in the late 1950s) and series of wall clocks - the most famous being the Ball Clock or Atomic Wall Clock as it was originally known. This was a sophisticated combination of both symbolism and modern simplicity with the balls or spheres representing atoms - the most 'potent metaphor of an era with a strong faith in technological progress'.
More recent additions n the Vitra stable include the range of three Ceramic Clocks he designed in 1950 but didn't actually go into production until 2009.
George Nelson died in New York in 1986 but his memory lives on and we feature all his major designs, still manufactured by Vitra.
