George Nelson studied architecture at Yale University and graduated from Yale School of Fine Arts in 1931, and then continued at the graduate school at the Catholic University in Washington D.C. until 1932. In the year of his graduation, Nelson won the Rome Prize which allowed him to spend two years at the American Academy in Rome.
In 1935, Nelson was back in the USA where he published twelve portraits of modern European architects in the magazine Pencil Points while also becoming the associate editor of the publications Architectural Forum and Fortune. Together with William Hamby, Nelson designed the Sherman Fairchild House in New York 1941 and four years later he published the book Tomorrow’s House, co-authored with Henry Wright, in which he introduced the concept of the family room and the storage wall as interior concepts. Tomorrow’s House played a major part in director of design at the furniture manufacturer Herman Miller since he had no prior experience of furniture design.
Nelson’s contract allowed him to work outside of the company and to use designs from other architects that he had worked with. Ray and Charles Eames, Harry Bertoia and Isamu Noguchi are some of the designers who worked for Herman Miller due to Nelson. Nelson founded his own industrial design studio in New York 1947 and also worked as an editor for the Interiors magazine.
In 1952 the clock company Howard Miller began production of his Bubble Lamps, three years later Herman Miller launched Nelsons’s Coconut Chair (named after the shape and color that resembled the inverted shard of a coconut shell). In 1956 Nelson also designed the DAF chair and the Marshmallow sofa – seen by some as the first example of Pop Art furniture – was put into production.
In 1959 Nelson was the chief designer of the American Exhibition in Moscow and at the New York World Fair five years later he designed the Chrysler pavilion. In 1960 Herman Miller Research Cooperation was founded under direction of Robert Propst who together with Nelson designed the Action Office, based on studies of the changes in the use of office furniture. Action Office was launched in 1964 but wasn’t a success for Herman Miller. Probst then designed Action Office II, more known as the office cubicle.
Nelson was the head of programming at the International Design Conference in Aspen 1965, three years later he was appointed Fellow of the Industrial Designers Society of America. Beginning with Tomorrow’s House, Nelson published several books, including Chairs, Living Spaces, Storage, and Display in 1953, Problems of Design in 1957, and the How to See: A guide to reading our man-made environment in 1977.
In 1979 Nelsons last publication was released called George Nelson on Design. In the mid 1980’s George Nelson closed his studio and became a scholar in residence at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. He passed away in 1986 at the age of 78.
