Scooter Stand 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.

Jack Kelley

“You have to understand computers--and the people who depend of them--to design for today's offices.”
— Jack Kelley

Designer Jack Kelley uses his knowledge of computers as the driving force behind many of his furniture designs. Fascinated by computers since 1969, when he worked at the Stanford Research Institute with Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse, Kelley was inspired to design the world’s first mouse pad. As a researcher/designer for the Herman Miller Research Corporation throughout the 60s and early 70s, he played a pivotal role in the design of many Action Office system components.

In 1986, he designed the mobile, highly adjustable and ergonomic Scooter Stand for Herman Miller, a laptop support or keyboard/mouse stand for computer users that “scoots” out of the way and stores under a desk in its lowered position. The Scooter Stand went on to win the IDSA Design Award in 1987 and is widely used today in both business and home environments.