Eames Aluminum Group Management Chair

At the end of the year, I think about things that deserve my attention but usually do not get it. One of my favorite things - that I never think about is the chair I work on. It is the Eames Aluminum Group Management Chair by Herman Miller. It was designed in 1958 by Charles and Ray Eames - who, in my opinion, were decades ahead of their time in terms of usability, ergonomics and aesthetics.

The chair is simple and perfect. It has one knob  - and that is to tighten or loosen the tension while leaning back. That's it. I have never become fatigued or had a backache from sitting in this chair. While many in my field adore the Herman Miller Aeron chair, my feeling is that the Aeron chair suffers from over-design - and with so many options for vertical, lateral, fore, aft, pitch, yaw, etc - it is needlessly complex. Plus, it is really cumbersome, and honestly, rather ugly. Compare and contrast the Eames chair if you get a chance.

I got my chair on eBay and had the aluminum polished. It is from an IBM complex in North Carolina - circa 1978.

You think the Aeron is great? Check this from my pal Dack Ragus.




I love my chair.

Web design and the Aeron Chair
Whenever I look at an Aeron Chair, after I say to myself "why are there so many fucking knobs?" I realize that much web design is similar. It is almost as if the web designers completely gave up on the basic concepts like usability and legibility - instead they focus on things like over-designing a little corner of the screen with little ticks, marks, metallic patterns and shit to make it look like a late 1990's sci-fi movie. If it is in Flash - add to it the little computer sounds (when was the last time you heard make one of these sounds while processing information?) Or, what is equally bad is a page with too much information that makes it impossible to read. I wonder to myself - when was the last time one of these designers picked up a decently designed magazine and saw how the pages were laid out? I mean, web design has been around for about 15 years, but print design has been around for more than 2,000 years if not more. What I am getting at is that many designers say "forget Gutenburg, the ancient scribes and that old school shit, I know how to do this better in photoshop, man."

Thankfully, there are cadres of web designers who have taken this new art form and actually improved it. Using the ancient rules and sensibility of typography, they are creating an entirely new aesthetic. Thank you. If you are a web designer, take a step back - go to the library (remember those) or pick up TIME magazine. Do yourself, and the world at large, a favor.