George Nelson

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George Nelson recalls the iconic design of the Ball Clock as being a result of a night of drinking with friends and associates, Isamu Noguchi, Bucky Fuller, and Irving Harper. "Noguchi, who can’t keep his hands off anything....saw we were working on clocks and he started making doodles. Then Bucky sort of brushed Isamu aside he said, “This is a good way to do a clock,” and he made some utterly absurd thing. Everybody was taking a crack at this...pushing each other aside and making scribbles. At some point we left - we were suddenly all tired, and we’d had a little bit too much to drink- and the next morning I came back, and here was this roll (of drafting paper), and Irving and I looked at it, and somewhere in this roll there was a ball clock. I don’t know to this day who cooked it up. I know it wasn’t me. It might have been Irving, but he didn’t think so…(we) both guessed that Isamu had probably done it because (he) has a genius for doing two stupid things and making something extraordinary… but, anyway, we never knew.”

George Nelson (1908-1986) was, together with Charles & Ray Eames, one of the founding fathers of American modernism. Born in Hartford Connecticut in 1908, George Nelson studied Architecture at Yale University, where he graduated in 1928. He also received a bachelor degree in fine arts in 1931. George Nelson was part of a generation of architects who turned successfully toward product, graphic and interior design. Based in Rome he travelled through Europe where he met a number of the modernist pioneers. A few years later he returned to the U.S.A. to devote himself to writing. He ferociously defended modernist principles and irritated many of his colleagues who as industrial designers made, according to Nelson, too many concessions to commercial forces.

By 1940 George Nelson had drawn popular attention with several innovative concepts. One of those innovative concepts, the storage wall, attracted the attention of D.J. De Pree, Herman Miller's president. In 1945 De Pree asked him to become Herman Miller's design director. During a uniquely successful time for the company, he set new standards for the involvement of design in all the activities of the company, and in doing so he pioneered the practice of corporate branding.

George Nelson was not only a creative artistic talent he was also a commercial genius. George Nelson established a corporation under the name George Nelson Associates, Inc. in New York City on October 26, 1955. George Nelson realised early on that successful people always get help from the best in their field. George Nelson Associates, Inc. had a lot of design talent. Designers who worked for the office included Irving Harper, George Mulhauser, Robert Brownjohn (worked to create movie sets including James Bond's Goldfinger), Gordon Chadwick, Bill Renwick, Suzanne Sekey, Ernest Farmer, Tobias O'Mara, George Tscherney (responsible for Herman Miller advertisements), Lance Wyman, John Pile. From the time George Nelson Associates, Inc. opened until it closed in the mid 1980's, it had developed a close relationship with many of the Fortune 500 companies.

George Nelson received several awards and accolades throughout his career and has a number of permanent collections of his work. Permanent collections can be found at Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Awards include the following: Lifetime Achievement Award - American Institute of Graphic Arts, Scholar in Residence - Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Design, Chairman - International Design Conference in Aspen, Good Design Award - Museum of Modern Art, Trailblazer Award - National Home Furnishings League, Best Office of the Year - New York Times, Gold Medal - Art Directors Club of New York, Prix de Rome for architecture.

View the George Nelson collection available at Heal's.