Nelson™ Ball Bubble Pendant

GEORGE NELSON

Herman Miller®

George Nelson worked with Herman Miller® for over 25 years as they shepherded design into the modern era. Nelson helped to define modern, humane design.

Nelson said that for a designer to deal creatively with human needs, "he must first make a radical, conscious break with all values that he identifies as anti-human". Designers must also be constantly aware of the consequences of their actions on people and society. In fact, he declared that "total design is nothing more or less than a process of relating everything to everything". So he said that rather than specialising, designers must cultivate a broad base of knowledge and understanding.

Nelson had designed his first Bubble Lamp® (1952) by spinning a skeleton of steel wires on a turntable and shooting it with translucent plastic until it was covered in a smooth, washable film. “When you put a light in it, it glowed.”