George Nelson

A key figure in American design, George Nelson (Hartford, Connecticut 1908 – New York, 1986) is one of the fathers of Modernism in the United States. Following a degree in architecture at Yale University and a further training at the American Academy in Rome from 1932 to 1934, Nelson dedicated himself to the design of home and office furnishings, crossing paths with some milestones of American mid-century design, from Charles and Ray Eames to Isamu Noguchi and Harry Bertoia. With the opening of his design office, George Nelson Associates Inc., from 1947 the designer embarked on projects for private residences in parallel with the creation of furniture: his objects, which combine creativity and functionality, are still largely the best-sellers of numerous brands — vintage design icons once again in vogue in contemporary interior design, such as the 1952 Saucer Bubble pendant lamp and the 1956 Marshmallow sofa — as well as being exhibited in design museums around the world. Towards the end of the ‘50s Nelson, who, during his career wrote eleven books on design, established a fruitful and long-lasting collaboration with famous brand Herman Miller, of which he was Design Director until 1972.

Meet the designers

Gio Ponti

Piero Fornasetti

Fratelli Castiglioni

Joe Colombo

Nanda Vigo

Ettore Sottsass

Marco Zanuso

Luigi Caccia Dominioni

Ico Parisi

Charles & Ray Eames

Gae Aulenti

Pietro Chiesa

Vico Magistretti

Giotto Stoppino

Tobia Scarpa

Carlo Nason

Marcello Cuneo

Vittorio Dassi

Paolo Buffa

Max Ingrand

Gastone Rinaldi

Pia Guidetti Crippa

Gaetano Pesce

Richard Sapper

Ingo Maurer

Gabriella Crespi

Paul McCobb

Paul Tuttle

Nendo

Alvaro Siza

Carl Jacob Jucker

Ernesto Basile

Sergio Mazza

Osvaldo Borsani

Oscar Torlasco

Le Corbusier

Willy Rizzo

Gaetano Sciolari

Carlo De Carli

Angelo Lelli

Gino Sarfatti

Marcel Breuer

Carlo Scarpa

Massimo & Lella Vignelli

Claudio Salocchi

Toni Zuccheri

Aldo Tura

Verner Panton

Giancarlo Piretti

Gianfranco Frattini

Guglielmo Ulrich

Franco Albini

Philippe Starck

Angelo Mangiarotti

Enzo Mari

Tito Agnoli

Kazuide Takahama

Eero Saarinen

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Carlo Ratti

Alessandro Mendini

Mario Bellini

Cleto Munari

Carlo Mollino

Bruno Munari

Hans J. Wegner

Studio BBPR

Giovanni Michelucci

Norman Foster