Sense Media Cabinet 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.

Daniel Korb

“What should be the purpose of new design? It should lead to a product that people will consistently value; a product that supports your way of work, both today and for tomorrow.”
— Daniel Korb

Daniel Korb was born in 1958 in Baden, Switzerland and began his professional career as an architect. His work in office furniture began in 1987 when, working for a leading interior design and furniture dealer, Daniel began to focus on office design. Founding Korb+Korb with partner Susan Korb a year later in 1989, Daniel embarked on the next phase of his career, designing innovative products for specialist office furniture companies in Europe.

“Everything starts with a strong product.”
— Daniel Korb

Teaming up with Herman Miller in 2007, Korb designed the Sense desk, in which all the components are assembled by snapping, twisting and locking — without using a single tool! It is a desk designed to be easily changed, to react to the ever-changing modern office environment. Components of the desk can be changed to create small, working clusters or larger, group environments to offer the right collaboration requirements.

Korb+Korb has earned more than twenty national and international awards for good design in Europe, America and China and has produced eleven key products for furniture companies worldwide.