Deconstructing Product Design

Diamond Chair

Harry Bertoia for Knoll, 1952

1. The Diamond chair, one chair in a collection of wire-frame chairs, was created in a converted studio-barn under a Medici-like arrangement with Knoll, which gave Harry Bertoia complete artistic freedom to explore art and sculpture with the hope that the some of the fruits of his labor would have commercial potential. The investment paid off. The wireframe line of furniture earned Knoll international acclaim and ensured that Bertoia could continue creating (and eating). Harry Bertoia comments: “In furniture, as in sculpture, I am concerned primarily with space, form, and the characteristics of metal. In the chairs that I had designed for Hans and Florence Knoll, many functional problems had to be ...