George Nelson

As an architect, author, furniture designer, graphic designer, exhibition designer, teacher, amateur photographer, and general provocateur, George Nelson shaped the course of design in America for over four decades.

To many, George Nelson (1908-1986) is known as the designer of the Coconut Chair, Marshmallow Sofa, and Ball Clock, yet those iconic pieces represent only a small fraction of the prodigious output of someone who shaped the American design scene following World War II. Over the course of forty years, Nelson produced a body of work, both on his own and in collaboration with a talented team of associates, that includes hundreds of furniture, buildings, exhibitions, and graphic designs, as well as nearly a dozen books and over 150 magazine articles.

Over the course of his long association with Herman Miller, Nelson designed hundreds of pieces of furniture and recruited other designers, including Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard, and Isamu Noguchi, now all widely acknowledged as some of the brightest talents of the time.