NELSON
1898 – 1986
George Nelson was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1908. He studied architecture at Yale University, graduating in 1928. Together with Charles and Ray Eames, he was one of the founders
of American Modernism. After traveling through Europe and meeting many pioneers of the
Modern movement, he returned to the United States where he dedicated himself to writing. It was through his writings that he introduced Gropius, Van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier to the American public and defended the principles of the Modern movement.
In 1946 he opened a studio in New York where he worked on architectural and design projects; at the same time he was also the artistic director of Hermann Miller Inc., an important design company.
During this same period Nelson made great contributions to the “storage wall”, the shopping center, to the multimedia presentation and to the “open-plan” office system. His creation ranges from product design and production to packaging and graphics, and large scale projects such as the American National Fair in Moscow in 1959.
His philosophy can be summarized as:
Whatever you make is important
The design is an integral part of a company
The product should be honest
You must decide what you want
There is always a market for a good design.
He died in New York in 1986.
