Herman Miller Wants Clients to See, and Purchase, RED

In the somewhat slower-paced mid-20th century, Herman Miller turned to such design giants as Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson and Isamu Noguchi to create cutting-edge furniture for homes and offices. Many of those pieces have endured decade after decade, essentially unchanged, revered--and now rediscovered by yet another generation of stylistas.

Today’s biz world moves at the speed of Internet connections. Young entrepreneurs act instantly. They may well be idea-rich but too time- and cash-strapped to wait for pricey furniture. In response, Herman Miller has created a new product line called RED and recruited five hip design shops from Manhattan to Malibu to create cool, flexible, less-costly office systems.

Orders are delivered within five days (presumably before the start-up company crashes), can be set up with minimum hassle and can move easily around the office. Aptly, the pieces are available only on the Internet, said RED brand manager Greg Clark (https://www.hermanmillerred.com).

The first work-station lines--Red Spider and Red Rocket--were launched earlier this month. “Our target is small companies that might start with three people and grow to 30 overnight and 100 in a month’s time. They have to buy furniture, and they don’t really have time to think about it,” said Ayse Birsel, creator of the Red Rocket collection and owner of the New York design studio Olive 1:1.

“We were looking into how to compete with Ikea or, in New York, a kitchen table you buy in Chinatown or a door laid across two trestles. Those were my benchmarks,” said Birsel, who last year designed Herman Miller’s higher-end, millennial “Resolve” collection of dozens of office components.

RED, which sells to individuals as well as companies, includes desks, divider screens, canopies, marker and tack boards, computer and phone platforms, and file and disc holders, but no new chairs. Designers took advantage of lightweight fabrics, laminates and metals bent and stretched into bold shapes, ratcheting up the cool factor.

Price is a serious selling point, said Clark. “You can get a basic Red Rocket desk starting at $260, or fully equipped unit with a phone stand, a marker and tack board, privacy screen and overhead canopy for $700.” By contrast, covering the same functions in Resolve components would run from $1,200 to $2,000. “The people who work out there aren’t like the people we worked with in the past,” said Clark. “We could either watch somebody else develop products, or we could go out there and try to sell to these folks as well.”