20th Century Best Designers: George Nelson

Today, BRABBU decided to speak up about George Nelson, one of the 20th century best designers. He is best known as one the big names of american modernism, who gave a huge contribute to modern home decor.

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Nelson’s Functional and human design built some iconic flavor to the most famous furniture during our lovely 20th century, and the prove to this great statement is farely seen in his professional life, as he was the Director for the Herman Miller furniture company – a modern decor design company – and for his design studio, George Nelson Associates, Inc..

Nelson was an industrial designer with a incredible sense of aesthetics and dinamism. The most funny about his path is that he didn’t want to become an achitecture in first place, however, a heavy rainy day helped him to find his true soul.

In order to stay dry and warm, e refuged himself in a building. Walking through the building, he came upon an exhibit of students’ works entitled “A Cemetery Gateway”. From that day on, George Nelson has truly given his heart to the art that he really was passionated about (without knowing).

He graduated with a degree in architecture in 1928, and by that time, modern home decor definition was about to change. During his final year at Yale Nelson was hired by the architecture firm Adams and Prentice as a drafter.

He also studied in Rome thanks to a fellowship. He interviewed avant-garde Europeans like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Gio Ponti and Le Corbusier, writing articles that introduced them to the U.S. design community.

He also worked as an editor of Architectural Forum, Nelson caught the eye of Herman Miller founder D.J. De Pree who asked Nelson to become his director of design. Nelson admired the pioneering company, once noting that Herman Miller was “not playing follow-the-leader,” and over the next 25 years, their creative partnership would advance modern design.