Aeron Chair Guide

Born and raised in Southern California, Don Chadwick has furniture design in his blood. From an early age, he developed a love for building things from his grandfather, a cabinetmaker. Throughout his childhood, Chadwick's grandfather taught him how to use the tools necessary to perform the craft of carpentry. Each tool required precision and patience – two skills Chadwick perfected long before he become an industrial design student at UCLA in the 1950s. Unlike most design students of his time, Chadwick chose to concentrate on furniture because he sought to construct innovative designs that could make a genuine difference in other people's lives.

Chadwick did just that. In 1964, he set up his own practice in California, and in 1974, he designed the Chadwick Modular Seating for the Herman Miller Company. The Chadwick Modular Design Seating was made up of five upholstered modules that could be combined in limitless ways to make sofas.

"Most industrial designers don't take furniture design seriously. They're not trained to get into that kind of detail," Chadwick has said. "It's too personal, too much like surgery. And besides, you have to be in love with this kind of work."

Chadwick's love for furniture and design is proven time and again in his many successful designs. From 1970 to 1976, Chadwick teamed up with designer Bill Stumpf to create the Ergon chair – the first work chair based on ergonomics – for Herman Miller. With its success Chadwick and Stumpf designed its predecessor, a lightweight ergonomic chair with a flexible back called the Equa.

Although both chairs were a success, undoubtedly the duo's most thriving ergonomic office chair was the award-winning Aeron Chair, introduced in 1994. The iconic Aeron chair, which was placed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, went on to be named the Gold Winner of the "Designs of the Decade" award by the Industrial Designers Society of America in the 1990s, as well as one of the best selling office chairs in the world . The unique shape of the Aeron chair, which does not incorporate any straight lines, sets it apart from every other chair on the market.

Chadwick enjoyed creating innovative office furniture for Herman Miller for over twenty years and appreciates how Herman Miller is not afraid to take risks, make mistakes, and create furniture that is out of the ordinary. "Herman Miller isn't afraid to take chances on new ideas," Chadwick said. "That's why the company's been successful for so long, and that's one of the reasons why it's challenging to work for them."

Currently, Chadwick serves as an advisor on the graduate student committee at his former university, UCLA.