15 Herman Miller Projects That Have Changed Our Way of Living

The regularity of Rohde’s pieces for the 1933 Chicago World’s fair would be a harbinger of the simple, linear modular designs that would continue to be produced by Herman Miller in the coming years. In 1944, Herman Miller replaced Rohde with designer George Nelson, who developed the Storage Wall and its subsequent iterations. The line was a step in a new direction, with standardized, prefabricated units that caused "an instant sensation" because of their simplicity mixed with unique, functional touches like a light-up mirror at a vanity, phonographs that were hidden away in cabinets that matched other credenzas and items in the same line, and trays that were integrated into coffee tables. These types of details became standard not only for Herman Miller, but for the industry at large, as their collections grew in popularity through the 1940s. In the Basic Storage Components line from 1949, for example, the phonograph was easily hidden away or opened up for use with a pull-down face panel.(George Nelson-designed room display featuring Herman Miller furnishings and Basic Storage Components, 1949.)