The collection celebrates the design talent of yesterday and
today, bringing together longtime Eames fans, Rolf and Mette Hay, and the designs that
inspired them.
ZEELAND,
Mich., Sept. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Herman
Miller, in collaboration with Danish design brand HAY, today
unveiled the Herman Miller x HAY Collection — a 21st-century
reinterpretation of eight beloved Eames mid-century classics.
Featuring new, inspired color palettes and updated materials, the
collection is a powerful combination of original, timeless design
with a contemporary point of view. It also serves as a full-circle
moment for HAY founders Rolf and Mette
Hay — lifelong admirers of modern design, Herman Miller, and
the Eameses.
"Herman Miller is built on a legacy of risk taking and creative
collaboration," says Ben Watson,
President, Herman Miller. "With this collection, HAY thoughtfully
reimagines Eames classics in a forward-thinking, first-of-its-kind
collaboration. A unique vision of color, the evolution of
thoughtful materials, and a beautifully interconnected story of
design partnership harnesses the enduring spirit of Herman
Miller."
In anticipation of HAY's 20th anniversary in 2022,
Herman Miller approached Rolf and Mette with a flexible
provocation: What could the two design brands do together that they
could not create alone? The answer: a fresh take on the original
color palette and material ingenuity of the Eames furniture
collection made by Herman Miller to deliver a group of pieces that
are both obviously Eamesian — and uniquely HAY.
Driven by curiosity and play, Rolf and Mette's philosophy, as
well as their intimate design partnership, this new collection also
aligns with their biggest influences, Charles and Ray Eames, whose unique synergy led
to iconic status in modern design. Mette cites the Eameses'
playful, yet rigorous approach to design as the model for her and
her husband Rolf's own process. "They were very experimental in
taking advantage of new technologies, "says Rolf Hay. "And they were having fun." Like their
predecessors, the Hays have always been motivated by the certainty
that good design is for everyone — a founding principle behind HAY
the brand."
"Since the inception of HAY, our goal has been to provide our
customers with access to works by the best designers in the world —
designers who understand that if you want to create high-quality
industrial design for the many, then you need to find smart ways of
producing," adds Rolf Hay. For that
element, he points to Herman Miller's track record of innovative
manufacturing and precision engineering: "If you look at a product
like the Aeron Chair, there's only one company that could develop a
chair with such complexity — and that's Herman Miller. It takes a
strong passion for design and a pioneering legacy in
production."
HAY consulted the Herman Miller archives for references that
could help modernize the company's approach to color without
recreating it directly. "Being very familiar with the existing
color range, my intention was to focus on looking ahead, instead of
looking too far back," says Mette
Hay. Her research was further informed by delving into Eames
ephemera cataloged by MillerKnoll archivist Amy Auscherman; one-off furniture prototypes
listed on auction sites and in museum catalogs;
and out-of-production textiles by Alexander Girard, archived at textile brand
Maharam's New York
studio.
The Eameses had worked closely with Alexander Girard, who was the founding director
of the textiles division at Herman Miller and became their close
personal friend and frequent collaborator. Girard's innovation
within the textile realm — in which he employed bold and unusual
color combinations as well as subtle, understated, and textural
palettes — offered the Eameses a wide array of options when
considering how to further enhance their genre-defying mid-century
furniture.
Rolf points to history's many designers, "who are great in terms
of giving form to industrial design, but are lacking in
[development of] color and texture. That was not the case with
Charles and Ray Eames — they had a
fantastic sensibility, and working with Alexander Girard was inspiring for both of them,
as working with his textiles has been for us."
Mette's vision of color in this collection pays homage to
Ray Eames's artistic eye and
Girard's world of boundary-pushing colors. The collection includes
seven spirited colorways meant for endless interplay and
combination, including colors like Toffee, Iron Red, and Powder
Yellow. Complementing the main color palette is a special edition
of the Eames Sofa Compact upholstered in a circa-1955 colorway of
Girard's Jacob's Coat textile, which Maharam has faithfully
reissued for the collaboration at Mette's request.
The collection's innovative material palette was expanded
elsewhere in the collection, including with the Eames Hang-It-All,
which sports cast-glass balls in place of the original painted
wood, representing a new play on color, tactility, and utility. The
Eames Wire Base Low Table and Universal Base Round Table, now with
cast-glass tops, bring artistic craft and dimension to any space.
As part of MillerKnoll's commitment to reducing its environmental
impact, the Molded Plastic Shell Chairs, both with and without
arms, contain 100% post-industrial recycled plastic available in
the HAY-designed six-color palette; and the Eames Wire Chairs are
powder-coated for outdoor use with optional cushions upholstered in
tone-on-tone outdoor fabric. Hay's reimagining of the iconic Eames
Molded Plywood Chair, now in an emerald green colorway ubiquitous
to HAY's additional best-selling collections, is a personal
favorite product of Mette and Rolf's; in fact, one of the original
Eames prototypes currently resides in the Hays' own living room in
Denmark.
The collection is available in North
America, South America,
Asia, Australia, and Africa starting September 21, 2022. Exclusive Collection retail
partners include MoMA Design Store in the U.S. and Inform Interiors
in Canada starting September 21, 2022; the Collection will also be
available via additional select retailers starting October 21, 2022.
For a full look at the collection, please visit our
website.
About Herman Miller
Since 1905, Herman Miller has
been guided by a commitment to problem-solving designs that inspire
the best in people. Along the way, Herman Miller has forged
critical relationships with the most visionary designers of the
day, from mid-century greats like George
Nelson, the Eames Office, and Isamu
Noguchi, to research-oriented visionaries like Robert Propst and Bill
Stumpf — and with today's groundbreaking studios like
Industrial Facility and Studio 7.5. From the birth of ergonomic
furniture to manufacturing some of the twentieth century's most
iconic pieces, Herman Miller has spent the last century pioneering
original, timeless design that makes an enduring impact, while
building a lasting legacy of design, innovation and social good.
Herman Miller is a part of MillerKnoll (NADSAQ:MLKN), a collective
of dynamic brands that comes together to design the world we live
in. For more information visit
www.hermanmiller.com/about/our-story
About HAY
Founded in Copenhagen in 2002 with the ambition of
creating contemporary furniture for modern living, HAY's continued
vision is to create high-quality and well-designed products in
collaboration with some of the world's most talented, curious and
courageous designers. Inspired by the principles of architecture
and the dynamic nature of fashion, the HAY brand has found an
enthusiastic international audience. Through our commitment to
sophisticated industrial manufacturing processes, we strive to make
good design accessible. For more information visit www.HAY.com
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SOURCE Herman Miller, Inc.