Gilbert Rohde
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Gilbert Rohde (1894–1944), whose career as a furniture and industrial designer helped to define
Background
Beginning in 1932, and continuing up to the time of his death in 1944, Rohde advised Herman Miller's president, Dirk Jan De Pree on design, marketing, and production. Herman Miller was one of a dozen furniture manufacturers where Rohde initiated modern design, among them the Heywood-Wakefield Company, the Widdicomb Company, and the Troy Sunshade Company.
Rohde lived in New York City and its environs throughout his life. He was educated in New York City public schools, graduating in 1913 from
Advocate of Modernity
Rohde was a tireless advocate for modern furniture and interiors in American homes, apartments, offices, and commercial and institutional settings. He designed many lines of modular furniture, promoted for its flexibility, functionality, and suitability for apartments and small homes.
His Executive Office Group (EOG) line, launched in 1942 by Herman Miller, was the earliest example of a systems approach to office furniture. The line's 137 individual elements—drawers, drawer pedestals, tabletops, and other items—could be configured according to individual work requirements. It became the standard approach to high-end office furniture.
In addition to his design work, Rohde taught industrial design, first at the Design Laboratory (1935–37), a New Deal program in New York City sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, where he also served as director. He subsequently taught at New York University, and was a visiting lecturer at the University of Washington in Seattle. He participated in the founding of the Society of Industrial Designers (now IDSA).
Far Reaching
Rohde's work was publicized through hundreds of articles in design and architecture magazines, newspapers, and in popular magazines such as House Beautiful. His work was featured at several fairs of the 1930s, including the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago in 1933 and 1934,[1] and in the Decorative Arts Pavilion at San Francisco's 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. Consumers could purchase his furniture at upscale department stores in New York (Bloomingdale's), Washington (Woodward & Lothrop), Philadelphia (Wanamaker's), Cleveland (Halle Brothers Co.), and elsewhere.
By focusing on design for mass production, Rohde hoped to make modern design the national style of America and to bring modern design to the greatest number of consumers.
As part of its Pioneers of American Industrial Design series, the United States Postal Service issued on August 25, 2011, a commemorative first-class Forever stamp featuring a Rohde-designed clock.
References
- ^ a b c "A model home for the modern era: How industrial designer Gilbert Rohde helped Herman Miller become America's top producer of modern furniture". Curbed: Longform. Curbed. 23 May 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
Sources
- Gilbert Rohde: Modern Design for Modern Living by Phyllis Ross (Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 978-0-300-12064-6
- "A Bridge to Postwar American Design: Gilbert Rohde and the 1937 Paris Exposition," by Phyllis Ross in Paris-New York: Design Fashion Culture 1925-1940 by Donald Albrecht, ed. (The Monacelli Press, 2008) ISBN 978-1-58093-211-0
- "Merchandising the Modern: Gilbert Rohde at Herman Miller" by Phyllis Ross, Journal of Design History 2004 17(4): 359-376
Further reading
- "Exhibiting Modernity through the Lens of Tradition in Gilbert Rohde's Design for Living Interior" by Monica Obniski, Journal of Design History 2007 20(3): 227-242
- Livable Modernism by Kristina Wilson (Yale University Press, 2004) ISBN 978-0-300-10475-2
- "Gilbert Rohde and the Evolution of Modern Design, 1927-1941" by Derek E. Ostergard and David Hanks, Arts Magazine 56 (October 1981): 98-107
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