Edward J. Wormley is best known for his custom and limited-edition furniture designs for the Dunbar Furniture Corporation. He is honoured as one of the 20th century’s major designers of American modernist furniture. Ironically, Wormley married modern sensibilities to traditional designs that gave his modernist designs a distinctively muted warmth and a quality that defies time, making them stand out from among their contemporaries. He proved that one need not choose the new over the old and that new things can be made out of the old. A large number of Wormley’s popular pieces from the 1930s and 1940s were selling well even into the 1960s, and even command very high prices at auctions today.
Category Archive: Furniture
Milo Baughman was an American furniture designer best known for his chair, sofa, and table designs. Baughman’s designs were all about simplicity and functionality. He practiced restraint and resisted novelty ideas that would not stand the test of time. As a result, he excelled at creating pieces that were distinctive and had long-lasting appeal, all without sacrificing affordability. He is known for his claim that good design is equal to enduring design. Baughman left behind a body of work that became emblematic for furniture design of the 60s and 70s. His designs became so iconic that they are still used, copied, and built upon by furniture makers and designers up to this day.
In an industry dominated by men, Charlotte Perriand stands out not merely because she was female, but because of an impressive oeuvre of beautiful, comfortable and functional designs. She was among the most important furniture designers and architects of the mid-20th century. Her work was anchored in “the art of living” or l’art de vivre. Perriand sought to make good design accessible. She knew how to use the current technology to realise good furniture. She developed designs that could be mass-produced, employing standardisation, prefabrication, and flexible use of materials. Today, her pieces command high prices and are found in major public and private collections.
The Barossa Germanic furniture craft explained the historical settlement blueprints of the Barossa Valley and also gives more than a few chapters on diverse types of craft practice. Barossa German is the German language mainly spoken in the Barossa Valley region of South Australia, where it got its name from. Barossa Germanic furniture collection is available in side tables, stool, and wooden armchairs used by a 19th-century immigrant German family in South Australia. The furniture pieces are quite exceptional and are an excellent way of decorating your apartment. Some of the Barossa Germanic furniture collections can still be found at the National Museum of Australia till today.
Robin Day possessed a talent for drawing from an early age and his birthplace was also a great influence on his chosen career path as High Wycombe was a place renowned for its furniture making. Day may have produced a wide range of furniture but perhaps the most well-known of his creations was the polypropylene chair, fondly known as the polyprop chair. It was a game-changer and its phenomenal success made it a landmark in modern design. His designs prioritised durability, function, and comfort. His furniture was an inspiration for many modern furniture designers. Robin Day devoted himself to creating high-tech, mass-produced, budget furniture believing it would contribute to the betterment of the world.
Schulim Krimper was an Australian furniture designer and cabinetmaker who took the local Melbourne furniture market by storm during the 1960s and 70s with his modernist pieces. His furniture and cabinets during that time had exceptional materials and artistry making them instant collector’s items. His cabinets usually had simple designs, with a focus on clean, smooth lines and ergonomically curved edges. He was also quite partial to low profiles. So in awe were the clients of his work that they afforded him the kind of respect that was usually reserved for artists such as sculptors and painters. His pieces are still highly sought after today and often fetch high prices in auctions and sales.
Among the seven designers inducted into the Design Institute of Australia’s Hall of Fame on June 15, 2018, was a posthumous inductee—furniture, interior, industrial and exhibition designer Lester “Bun” Bunbury. Bun is recognised as a pioneer and leader in establishing Mid-Century Modern design locally, but there is not much information about him. His practice covered not only furniture and exhibitions but products and corporate branding as well. Aside from private practice, he passed on his knowledge by teaching and writing on design. He was passionate about design even in personal life. His contributions to design continue to be appreciated today.
Gordon Arthur Andrews is known as one of Australia’s greatest designers. His first inspiration was his father who was also an inventor and designer. The early 1960s saw a lot of Gordon’s interior design but the year 1963 was perhaps one of the most notable for him. It was in this year that the Advisory Committee chose Andrews’s designs for Australia’s new banknotes. He designed furniture as well. The designer believed that furniture should not only be aesthetically pleasing, but also comfortable and efficient. Gordon’s furniture designs are sought-after and even copied by others. Andrews is seen by some as a “cultural hero” deserving of a place with those represented in the banknotes he had designed.
Marc Newson may well be one of the most influential and groundbreaking designers of the present generation. He has delved into aircraft design, product design, furniture design, and even clothing and jewellery. He is known for collaborating with a number of big corporations including Apple, Montblanc, Nike and Louis Vuitton to name a few. Newson has quite a number of solo exhibitions under his belt including his very first one in 1986 where he unveiled his Lockheed Lounge chair. He is known for smooth geometric lines with an absence of sharp edges. As he is still quite young and active, we can only speculate as to how impactful his legacy would be.
Fred Ward was considered a pioneer by fellow designers. He was creating furniture that took ergonomics into consideration way before it became a fad. He demonstrated the beauty of unstained native Australian timber when others were imitating the look of European wood. His designs have been described as having a simple beauty, pleasing to look at yet streamlined and functional, which seemed to have reflected him. After the war, Fred applied his innovative mind to meeting the needs of the era. Australians could have affordable yet stylish furniture. Two decades after Ward’s death, collectors and antique lovers are rediscovering his work.
Roger McLay was not only a designer; he was also a builder. He used to build the designs that he made himself. At his apprenticeship, McLay learned lithography, a printing method, which was his first foray into design. McLay got interested in industrial design when he was on his way to Europe to join the RAAF. He had a stopover in New York where he saw, in one of the museums, a display of the famous Studebaker motor car by industrial designer Raymond Loewy. Roger McLay may not be as prominent a figure as some of his contemporaries, but he did leave his mark on the Australian design landscape.
The Australian label TH Brown, founded in 1911 by Thomas Howard Brown, became an exemplar of Mid-Century Modern style especially with the work of designer Peter Brown, one of Thomas Howard’s sons. The company’s pieces quickly became popular and in high demand. Despite a change of hands and a few decades away from the spotlight, TH Brown pieces have never gone out of style. The focus of Mid-Century Modern style on clean lines and functionality make it timeless and easy to incorporate in modern settings. The combination of style, quality and functionality make TH Brown an enduring name in classic yet modern, classy luxury furniture in Australia and around the world.
George Nelson is considered one of the most important American designers of the 20th century. He was inspired to study architecture after he saw exhibits from students when he entered the Yale School of Architecture building to get out of a rainstorm. Although best known as an author, teacher, and as Director of Design for Herman Miller, George Nelson also designed furniture. One of his best-known designs was the Coconut Chair, a lounge chair that looked like, as Nelson puts it “a coconut cut up into eight sections”. He was more interested in the process that led to the end product than in the end product itself. Nelson’s greatest contribution was his introduction of modernism to American society.
Jens Risom was one of the icons of Mid-Century Modern furniture design. While working for an architectural firm, his interest in furniture was ignited by the introduction to the work of Alvar Aalto and Bruno Mathsson. Risom teamed up with Hans Knoll and they launched the Hans Knoll Furniture together. However, he separated and launched Jens Risom Design when Knoll’s wife served as design director. He was among those who introduced Scandinavian design, marked by simplicity and functionality, to the American public. Risom identified function, comfort and construction as the touchstones of his design philosophy. Risom lived long enough to see a new generation rediscover and appreciate his work.
Greta Magnusson Grossman was among the few female designers to be celebrated in the architectural scene during the mid-twentieth century. Her work was looked at as a mixture of both European thoughts as well as the culture and way of life in Southern California. The European influence on her work was due to her early exposure to the European Modernism. Greta acknowledged the shortcomings of being a feminine artist and affirmed that she must succeed by making history on the field. Her furniture was distinguished by its matchless mixture of materials and willowy magnitude. As far as the experimental architecture world is concerned, this woman was a prominent figure all through the 1960s.
Isamu Noguchi was a well-respected and admired Japanese American sculptor and designer. At the urging of his mother, Noguchi enrolled at the Leonardo da Vinci Art School, where his talents were recognised and encouraged. Noguchi’s forms seem to suggest nature and human beings interacting with one another or with their surroundings. His preference was generally for wood or stone. Noguchi’s work was also richly inspired by European surrealism and abstraction. His sculptures, fountains, and gardens are focal points in major cities of the United States and worldwide. Noguchi was best known for sculpture, but he worked in many other mediums, including painting, ceramics, interior design, and architecture.
Drawing on the Scandinavian tradition of functionalism, simplicity, and craftsmanship, a lot of Danish designers utilised the new industrial design methods to design furniture, buildings, and domestic objects. On the other hand, the making of industrial design was utterly started by the foundation of the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufacturing Company at the end of the eighteenth century. Beauty, function, and an excellent selection of materials can be discovered in just about all designs which were made in Denmark even ten years ago. For the period of many years, Danes were influenced by a variety of elements but the fact is that the core principles ever remained the same.
Florence Knoll Bassett is considered to be one of the most influential designers in America after World War II. She was taken under the wing by world-renowned designer Eliel Saarinen after he took notice of the young Florence’s interest in the buildings around her school campus. While working for Hans Knoll, they fell in love and married, and Florence became a partner in the company. Florence used to call her furniture designs as “meat and potatoes”, fillers among the pieces of such great designers as Bertoia, Saarinen and van der Rohe. But even with such big names, Florence’s furniture creations weren’t overshadowed. In fact, they are still admired and produced to this day.