Herman Miller and HAY Unveil Fresh Take on Classic Eames Collection
A collection that celebrates the design talent of yesterday and today, bringing together longtime Eames fans, Rolf and Mette Hay, and the designs that inspired them.
21/09/2022
The collection celebrates the design
talent of yesterday and today, bringing together
longtime Eames fans, Rolf and Mette Hay, and the
designs that inspired them.
Zeeland,
Mich: Herman Miller, in collaboration with
Danish design brand HAY, today unveiled the
Herman Miller x HAY Collection — a 21st-century
reinterpretation of eight beloved Eames
mid-century classics. Featuring new, inspired
color palettes and updated materials, the
collection is a powerful combination of
original, timeless design with a contemporary
point of view. It also serves as a full-circle
moment for HAY founders Rolf and Mette Hay —
lifelong admirers of
modern design, Herman
Miller, and the Eameses.
“Herman Miller
is built on a legacy of risk taking and creative
collaboration,” says Ben Watson, President,
Herman Miller. “With this collection, HAY
thoughtfully reimagines Eames classics in a
forward-thinking, first-of-its-kind
collaboration. A unique vision of color, the
evolution of thoughtful materials, and a
beautifully interconnected story of design
partnership harnesses the enduring spirit of
Herman Miller.”
The Eames Wire Base Low Table and Universal Base Round Table, now with cast-glass tops, bring artistic craft and dimension to any space.
Herman Miller and HAY Unveil Fresh Take on Classic Eames Collection
In anticipation of HAY’s
20th anniversary in 2022, Herman Miller
approached Rolf and Mette with a flexible
provocation: What could the two design brands do
together that they could not create alone? The
answer: a fresh take on the original color
palette and material ingenuity of the Eames
furniture collection made by Herman Miller to
deliver a group of pieces that are both
obviously Eamesian — and uniquely HAY.
Driven by curiosity and play, Rolf and Mette’s
philosophy, as well as their intimate design
partnership, this new collection also aligns
with their biggest influences, Charles and Ray
Eames, whose unique synergy led to iconic status
in modern design. Mette cites the Eameses’
playful, yet rigorous approach to design as the
model for her and her husband Rolf’s own
process. “They were very experimental in taking
advantage of new technologies, “says Rolf Hay.
“And they were having fun.” Like their
predecessors, the Hays have always been
motivated by the certainty that good design is
for everyone — a founding principle behind HAY
the brand.”
The collection includes seven spirited colorways meant for endless interplay and combination, including colors like Toffee, Iron Red, and Powder Yellow.
“Since the inception of HAY, our goal has been to provide our customers with access to works by the best designers in the world — designers who understand that if you want to create high-quality industrial design for the many, then you need to find smart ways of producing,” adds Rolf Hay. For that element, he points to Herman Miller’s track record of innovative manufacturing and precision engineering: “If you look at a product like the Aeron Chair, there’s only one company that could develop a chair with such complexity — and that’s Herman Miller. It takes a strong passion for design and a pioneering legacy in production.”
Blurring the lines between art and furniture.
HAY consulted the Herman
Miller archives for references that could help
modernize the company’s approach to color
without recreating it directly. “Being very
familiar with the existing color range, my
intention was to focus on looking ahead, instead
of looking too far back,” says Mette Hay. Her
research was further informed by delving into
Eames ephemera cataloged by MillerKnoll
archivist Amy Auscherman; one-off furniture
prototypes listed on auction sites and in museum
catalogs; and
out-of-production textiles by
Alexander Girard, archived at textile brand
Maharam’s New York studio.
The Eameses
had worked closely with Alexander Girard, who
was the founding director of the textiles
division at Herman Miller and became their close
personal friend and frequent collaborator.
Girard’s innovation within the textile realm —
in which he employed bold and unusual color
combinations as well as subtle, understated, and
textural palettes — offered the Eameses a wide
array of options when considering how to further
enhance their genre-defying mid-century
furniture.
Rolf points to history’s many
designers, “who are great in terms of giving
form to industrial design, but are lacking in
[development of] color and texture. That was not
the case with Charles and Ray Eames — they had a
fantastic sensibility, and working with
Alexander Girard was inspiring for both of them,
as working with his textiles has been for us.”
As part of MillerKnoll’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact, the Molded Plastic Shell Chairs, both with and without arms, contain 100% post-industrial recycled plastic available in the HAY-designed six-color palette.
Mette’s vision of color in this collection pays homage to Ray Eames’s artistic eye and Girard’s world of boundary-pushing colors. The collection includes seven spirited colorways meant for endless interplay and combination, including colors like Toffee, Iron Red, and Powder Yellow. Complementing the main color palette is a special edition of the Eames Sofa Compact upholstered in a circa-1955 colorway of Girard’s Jacob’s Coat textile, which Maharam has faithfully reissued for the collaboration at Mette’s request.
The collection’s innovative material palette was expanded elsewhere in the collection, including with the Eames Hang-It-All, which sports cast-glass balls in place of the original painted wood, representing a new play on color, tactility, and utility. The Eames Wire Base Low Table and Universal Base Round Table, now with cast-glass tops, bring artistic craft and dimension to any space. As part of MillerKnoll’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact, the Molded Plastic Shell Chairs, both with and without arms, contain 100% post-industrial recycled plastic available in the HAY-designed six-color palette; and the Eames Wire Chairs are powder-coated for outdoor use with optional cushions upholstered in tone-on-tone outdoor fabric. Hay’s reimagining of the iconic Eames Molded Plywood Chair, now in an emerald green colorway ubiquitous to HAY’s additional best-selling collections, is a personal favorite product of Mette and Rolf’s; in fact, one of the original Eames prototypes currently resides in the Hays’ own living room in Denmark.
The collection is available in North America, South America, Asia, Australia, and Africa starting September 21, 2022. For more information visit: https://www.hermanmiller.com/en_afr/products/portfolios/hmxhay-collection/