Goetz Sofa by Herman Miller

Herman Miller History

Founded in 1923 and recognized today throughout the world as an innovator in office and residential furniture design, Herman Miller has been ranked since 1986 among the top ten in Fortune Magazine’s annual list of the 500 most admired companies. Their pioneering research into producing environmentally responsible furniture has earned them GreenGuard Indoor Air Quality certification for most of their products. Aesthetically, many of Herman Miller’s iconic designs, particularly from the 1940s and 1950s, are valuable collector’s items and on permanent display in museums such as the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1933, new furniture designs created by Herman Miller designer Gilbert Rohde exhibiting the smooth lines and unembellished shapes of the emerging mid-century modern furniture style were exhibited at the Chicago World’s Fair. In 1944, Rohde’s successor George Nelson designed such enduring icons as the Platform bench, and was famously responsible for teaming the company with such influential design artists as Alexander Girard, Isamu Noguchi and Charles and Ray Eames. Charles Eames, widely regarded as a genius in contemporary furniture design, produced one of Herman Miller’s most successful products in 1956, the elegant Eames Lounge chair. In 1994, Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf introduced a new office chair called Aeron (derived from the word aeration, which describes how the mesh suspension promotes comfort), which became an immediate worldwide success and earned a spot in the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) as well. Today, Herman Miller continues to attract world-famous designers like Jeff Weber, Jerome Caruso, the Studio 7.5 Design Team in Berlin, Yves Behar, Mark Goetz and many more.

If the purpose of design is to solve problems, and the relationship between design and business is synergistic, then Herman Miller today continues to be in the vanguard of design as a fundamental part of strategic planning.

Mark Goetz

“…my goal is to design furniture that fits into someone's life. I want even office furniture to feel as personal as any object someone has at home."”
— Mark Goetz

Mark Goetz was born outside of Pittsburgh and got his first experience in manufacturing working summers in his family’s plastic injection molding business. He then studied industrial design at Pratt Institute in New York, as well as furniture design and architecture at the Danish Royal Academy in Copenhagen. In addition to designing a wide range of consumer products (including children’s lunchboxes for Marimekko and tote bags for Crate and Barrel), in 1988 Goetz began designing one-of-a-kind furniture pieces for private commission.

In his career, Goetz has explored a wide range of design possibilities intended to further the ideals of the Bauhaus Movement. In 1990, he began working with Herman Miller on postural and ergonomic research aimed at discovering new ways of sitting in the workplace. One of the results was the ergonomic, efficient and 100% recyclable stacking chair he called the Aside chair, introduced in 1998 and awarded a U.S. patent.

In 1999, Goetz was commissioned by Herman Miller to create the first new residential sofa for the company since Charles and Ray Eames. The Goetz sofa celebrates Herman Miller’s long association with molded plywood, and uses the material both as a structural frame and aesthetic element, complementing contemporary lifestyles while reflecting Herman Miller’s classic heritage.

In addition to his professional career, Goetz has been an industrial design professor at Pratt Institute for over 14 years.