about
Alexander Girard was an American-born architect and designer. Born in New York City in 1907, Girard was raised and educated in Italy by an American mother and French-Italian father. Much of his most famous work emerged from his time as the director of fabric and textiles at Herman Miller, a position he held from 1952 to 1975. There, he collaborated with George Nelson and Ray Eames on designs that broke new ground for the industry in the US and well beyond. Girard's style was boldly colorful, incorporating geometric patterns and illustrative folk art-inspired imagery. Other notable works of Girard include the branding of Braniff Airlines, the design of New York’s La Fonda del Sol restaurant, and a huge mural at the John Deere headquarters. Today, Girard’s work is distributed by House Industries and some of his textile designs have been re-released through Urban Outfitters and other popular merchants. Girard died in 1993.
Things to Know
- Alexander Girard and his brother, Tunsi, communicated in a language of their own invention. In letters they outlined the details of fictional worlds and created maps featuring geographic features, countries, and cities.
- Uncomfortable with public events, at dinners Girard would take pieces of bread and under the table form perfect cubes, which he would drop in his coat pockets. At home he kept them in a bowl and would later construct objects and little worlds from them.
- Girard and Charles Eames remained lifelong friends after meeting in Michigan in the 1940s, when both men were designing radio cabinets for Detrola and bent-plywood furniture.
- In 1949 Girard designed and directed the For Modern Living exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Art, which included over 3,200 objects from around the world. The main criterion for selecting the objects was that they demonstrated “new values rather than depending only on the thought and effort of the past.”
- In the mid-1950s Girard created a line of neckties for Herman Miller. By Girard’s standards the thin stripes and dot patterns are quite conservative.
- Girard can lay claim to inventing the conversation pit—–as evidenced by his 1955 interior design for J. Irwin Miller’s Columbus, Indiana, home designed by Eero Saarinen.
- Girard teamed with Saarinen on the winning competition entry for the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, but by the time the project moved into development he had already turned his attention elsewhere.
- Girard created a nearly 180-foot-long sculptural mural for the Saarinen-designed administration building of the John Deere company in Moline, Illinois. He described it as a painting, “where the real things substitute the paint.” The 2,000 “real things” included buggy wheels, plows, a beehive, an apple peeler, and a cherry pitter.
- Girard created 17,543 design changes for Braniff International—–from the logo to waiting lounge furniture to swizzle sticks and sugar packets.
- La Fonda Del Sol was featured on three album sleeves: Curtis Fuller’s South American Cookin’, Bob Brookmeyer’s Trombone Jazz Samba, and Gary McFarland’s Soft Samba.
