Altering the landscape

If you are looking for another handsome volume filled with 20th century furniture to place on the Nelson slat bench near your Eames 620 lounger, keep searching. Although it has its fair share of lovingly photographed modern room settings, this coffee table book is actually a compelling history of the Zeeland, Mich., furniture company and its philosophy: “Never to create anything without a purpose but to make everything they create attractive and interesting.”

The purpose of this attractive and fascinating book, it seems, is to illuminate the contributions that Herman Miller and the great designers who worked for the company (Gilbert Rohde, George Nelson, Charles Eames, Isamu Noguchi and Don Chadwick) have made to the home and workplace. Over the last 75 years, Herman Miller produced furniture that responded to the needs of the changing American landscape, including urbanization in the 1930s and the 1990s’ move toward ergonomics, which led to the 1994 Aeron -- the office chair that became a corporate status symbol -- and its lower-priced cousin, the 2003 Mirra.

John Berry traces the legacy of Herman Miller as case studies in the relationship between good design and smart business, which include chapters on the company’s innovative corporate communications and labor management policies. More than just a self-congratulatory compilation of challenges that were met and mastered, “Herman Miller” also includes projects that have yet to be realized, such as Metaform, a system of furnishings that would allow the aging to live independently.

For design disciples, this is a detailed history brimming with anecdotes about great designers of the modern era; for those in the business of design, it should be required reading.

- David A. Keeps