Irving Harper (July 14, 1916 – August 4, 2015) was an American industrial designer.
, metropolismag.com; accessed August 5, 2015. While working for George Nelson Associates, Inc. on designs for

Herman Miller Herman Miller, officially MillerKnoll, Inc., is an American company that produces office furniture, equipment, and home furnishings, including the Aeron chair, Noguchi table, Marshmallow sofa, and the Eames Lounge Chair. Herman Miller is al ...

furniture, Harper became one of the most prolific designers of the

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

style. Among his important designs is the Herman Miller company logo, and the company's

Marshmallow sofa Marshmallow Love Seat #5670, commonly known as the Marshmallow sofa, is a modernist sofa produced by the American furniture company Herman Miller, that was originally manufactured between 1956 and 1961. It is considered the most iconic of all mod ...

Early years

Harper was born in New York City in 1916. After attending

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

and

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

, Irving Harper worked as a draftsman for the Gilbert Rohde's office during the 1930s.George Nelson Design Archive website
accessed August 5, 2015. While there he was responsible for the creation of the Plexiglas Exhibit, the Anthracite exhibit, and the Home Furnishings Focal exhibit at the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchas ...

. Leaving Rohde's, he worked as an interior designer for noted industrial designer

Raymond Loewy Raymond Loewy ( , ; November 5, 1893 – July 14, 1986) was a French-born American industrial designer who achieved fame for the magnitude of his design efforts across a variety of industries. He was recognized for this by ''Time'' magazi ...

at the Raymond Loewy Associates office, designing interiors in the company's department store division. Born Irving Hoffzimer to David and Rebecca Hoffzimer. Oldest of three children He had two sisters, Phyliss and Sophie.

George Nelson Associates, Inc.

In the 1940s Harper met George Nelson. In 1947 he was offered a job as an interior designer by Nelson and joined George Nelson Associates, Inc. Initially Harper was mostly responsible for designing trade advertising for the Herman Miller furniture account. In 1947 Harper designed the logo for Herman Miller, Inc. Never trained as a graphic artist, Harper based the logo around a large letter "M", for Miller. At first the logo was in wood-grain, since wood figured prominently in Herman Miller furniture. Harper stated, "I continued to use the M and refined it as the ads went on. The Herman Miller logo was something they got for free, and they loved it." He chuckled. "There was no project to do a logo. It was probably the cheapest logo campaign in advertising history." Harper also was responsible for the textile prints used by Nelson's studio.

Clocks

Later Nelson got the Howard Miller Clock Co. account, and Harper was given the responsibility of handling it. Harper decided to create clocks that were a piece of sculpture. "To omit numbers and have an abstract object that moved on the wall was something no one was doing at the time". He would design a group of about eight clocks once or twice a year, which were sent to Howard Miller Clock Co. Most were put into production. Many of Harper's wall and desk clocks are now being manufactured by Vitra.

Marshmallow sofa

In 1954, Harper was introduced to a salesman from a Long Island plastics company. The salesman offered a product that created 12 inch diameter self-skinning discs. George Nelson embraced the idea as a way to manufacture low-cost furniture. Over a weekend Harper designed a sofa incorporating 18 of the discs in a whimsical pattern. The salesman's product didn't live up to expectations, but Harper's design was put into production by Herman Miller as the Marshmallow sofa.

Controversy

Harper worked for George Nelson Associates, Inc. for 17 years. During his time with the firm most of Harper's designs were attributed to George Nelson, as was the company's practice. John Pile, a designer for the firm in the 1950s, explains, "George's attitude was that it was okay for individual designers to be given credit in trade publications, but for the consumer world, the credit should always be to the firm, not the individual. He didn't always follow through on that policy though."

After George Nelson

Harper left George Nelson Associates, Inc. in 1963. Together with Phillip George they started Harper+George, a design company. The firm created iconic designs for

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania Railroad ...

in 1965,

Braniff International Airways Braniff Airways, Inc., operated as Braniff International Airways from 1948 until 1965, and then Braniff International from 1965 until air operations ceased, was an airline in the United States that once flew air carrier operations from 1928 un ...

from 1967 until 1982,

Jack Lenor Larsen Jack Lenor Larsen (August 5, 1927 – December 22, 2020) was an American textile designer, author, collector and promoter of traditional and contemporary craftsmanship. Through his career he was noted for bringing fabric patterns and textiles to ...

, and

Hallmark Cards Hallmark Cards, Inc. is a private, family-owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce Hall, Hallmark is the oldest and largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was award ...

, among many others. Harper retired from Harper+George in 1983, and resided in

Rye, New York Rye is a coastal suburb of New York City in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is separate from the Town of Rye, which has more land area than the city. The City of Rye, formerly the Village of Rye, was part of the Town until it r ...

, in a 19th-century farmhouse filled with modernist furnishings, and over 300 of his paper sculptures. In early 2001 Harper teamed with textile designer Michael Maharam to re-introduce Harper's original 1950s era Herman Miller textile prints as part of Maharam's "Textiles of the 20th Century" line. Harper's print "Pavement fabric" was the first to be re-introduced in 2001, followed by "China Shop" in the fall of that year.

Death

Harper died on August 4, 2015, aged 99, in Rye, New York.Notice of death of Irving Harper
lohud.com; accessed August 5, 2015.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harper, Irving 1916 births 2015 deaths Businesspeople from New York City American furniture designers Modernist designers Brooklyn College alumni 20th-century American businesspeople Cooper Union alumni