Research: George Nelson

After looking at Frank Lloyd Wright in depth, I realised how beneficial research is as I found several features in his designs that sparked ideas for my own project.

I decided to look at George Nelson's designs as I feel like I can benefit from them a lot too. Similarly to the previous research, I will be pointing out features that I like and what I can take from this research and implement it in my work as I am now in the developing process of my designs. 

Short Biography:

George Nelson was born in 1908 in Connecticut. He got a degree in architecture at Yale university and was hired by the architectural firm Adams and Prentice as a drafter during his first year. He graduated in 1928 and became a teacher’s assistant which doing his second bachelor degree in fine arts.

In 1932, he won the Rome Prize competition and started a fellowship to study architecture in Rome. He stayed there till 1934. He had the opportunity to work with Frank Lloyd Wright on an architectural forum. This attracted the attention of the chairman of Herman Miller which wanted Nelson to be the next Director of Design for the company. 

Nelson had no experience in furniture design, however, they wanted to see how Nelson would design innovative and useful furniture. He became the Design director of Herman Miller and stayed there until 1972.

Nelson also opened his design office in 1947 which was called George Nelson Associates, Inc. He worked alongside some amazing employees such as Ernest Farmer, Don Ervin, George Tscherny to create various innovative products.

George Nelson died in 1986 in New York.

Coconut chair (1956)

The design of this chair resembles a slice of coconut. The colour scheme also uses similar contrast in colours that the coconut has to create the same feeling. This chair made me realise smart and innovative ways of connecting your theme to your product. I will be looking into 3 themes (literature/ royalty and magic). I want my final theme to use a similar approach that Nelson did. He found a clever way to replicate the slice of coconut into a design. Many people probably wouldn't have thought that this resembles a coconut if the name was different. However, this is what I find beautiful. That Nelson used a very smart way to replicate a coconut into something unique. 

With my own theme, I want to find clever links to create unique outcomes. Taking royalty into consideration, I could perhaps find some gifts that were given to royal families and replicate those into products. This chair provides freedom of movement as it is wide and big enough to make sure that everyone feels comfortable. The use of no arm rests might increase comfort as it does not restrict the movement in any direction and is very spacious. I am definitely considering to not include any arm rests for this exact reason. 

Another feature of this chair that excites me include the inviting curves. It is curved and tilted in a certain way to increase user comfort. I really like that Nelson also prioritised comfort in his design to ensure that people will rest well on his designs. 

Looking closely, this design is only made up of triangles. The main body is a curved triangular shape and the legs are placed in a certain way that form triangles between them. I find this approach very unique and fascinating as it creates a very coherent image. 

Home Desk (1958)

The feature that stood out to me the most in this desk are the coloured dividers. Even though this is a small detail, I found myself amazed by this. I envisioned how colourful dividers in my cupboard would look and I feel like it is a good idea to take into consideration. Each shelf could be a different shade of purple to make it more colourful and cheerful. I will definitely explore this in my development stage.

It also uses very organic and curved shapes which make this design more natural. The glossy finish on the surface of the desk makes it more modern and aesthetically pleasing.

My tutor also recommended that I should explore more organic shapes and I am definitely planning on doing so in the development stage. 

Marshmallow sofa (1956)

The first thing I noticed was the circular shapes included multiple times. This made me realise that I did not explore a chair in a circular shape which is something to do during development as it is a very convenient shape for a seating area.

Just like the coconut chair, this is another example of how Nelson used a shape of a food and manipulated it to become a sofa. He used a simple marshmallow shape and used the basic shape of it to create a couch. 

Additionally, I like how this sofa uses only one shape and then multiplies it to form the whole design. Maybe I could use this approach instead of aiming to design multiple shapes. I could research and use one specific shape to dominate in all of my designs. This will make everything more connected to the other and make it look more neat.

Surprisingly, I dislike the colour scheme of this sofa. Even though it is playful and fun, I think that the colours do not look together. Nelson used complementary colours, however, the shade of the colours do not really complement each other which defeats the purpose. Perhaps lighter shades or different undertones would make this design look better.

I can also use complementary shades in my own designs and perhaps incorporate yellow or orange with the purple to make it more interesting.

Executive home desk (1950)

Looking at this desk at first, I thought it was a sofa. However, I quickly realised that it was a table. I really like how Nelson designed this in a way that it replicates a sofa as I feel like it is a very innovative method for furniture design. I like the different colour created and how they unite to form one final product. Additionally, I like that there are multiple different sized storage areas that the user can store things. This can be useful as they are presented with sufficient storage to add multiple things. Ideally, this is what I want to accomplish in my design too.

Wall Unit

What I like about this design is that the poles are in front of the shelves. The shelves are usually seen fixated in front of the poles. However, I like this approach of reversing the normal. It is a possibility to include poles in my cupboard, therefore, I could potentially approach it this way. The shelves are scattered randomly on the poles in various directions and each has a different size. This makes the unit more interesting and abstract.

If I decide to include poles and these kind of shelves, I could explore a more abstract idea. Especially if my general theme is symmetry, using abstract shelves would create contrast and would make it very interesting.

 

References:

George Nelson (1908-1986), USA: Biography and more (n.d.) Available at: http://www.georgenelson.org/georgenelsonbiography.html  [Accessed: 12/02/21]