Knoll
Knoll Associates was founded in 1946 by Hans Knoll (1914-1955), the son of a German furniture maker, and his wife Florence Knoll, an architect who had studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, at the Architectural Association in London and under Mies van der Rohe at the Armoury Institute, Chicago and who had worked for architects Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius.
Before they married Florence was taken on as an interior designer for Hans Knoll in 1943 and she subsequently changed the direction of the company's production line from Scandinavian style to International style. They began manufacturing modern sculptural furniture designed by Eero Saarinen, Isamu Noguchi and Harry Bertoia among others, which greatly raised the profile of the company and in 1948 they acquired the production rights to Mies van der Rohe's furniture designs.
They began manufacturing modern sculptural furniture designed by Eero Saarinen, Isamu Noguchi and Harry Bertoia among others, which greatly raised the profile of the company and in 1948 they acquired the production rights to Mies van der Rohe's furniture designs.
During the 1950's the distinctive Knoll look was pioneered by Florence Knoll who oversaw all aspects of corporate projection, from the design of showrooms and interiors, which were characterised by a clarity of layout and meticulous attention to detail, down to the design of graphics.
In 1955 Hans Knoll was tragically killed in a car accident but under Florence Knoll's direction the company continued to flourish. Unlike many interior designers she had such a remarkable knowledge of architectural form that her interiors always made full use of the available space while complimenting the buildings in which they were sited.
From 1967 the Knoll identity was strengthened by Massimo Vignelli who designed a programme of bold graphics that had a strong geometric uniformity. Increasingly, Knoll became associated with the production of contract furnishings and today they are the third largest manufacturers of office furniture and continue to produce highly innovative designs as well as their extensive back catalogue of design classics.
