![]() In 1987 he was appointed an Honorary Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) by the Royal Society for Arts (RSA) in London. ![]() In 2007, named Diffrient the "granddaddy of the ergonomic revolution" and one of ten "Tastemakers" in the field of industrial design. (magazine) Top 40 Design Innovators of 1996, the 1996 Chrysler Award for Innovation, the Smithsonian’s 2002 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Product Design, and the 2005 Legend Award from Contract magazine. He cited in more than 46 design and utility patents on furniture designs in America and abroad. In the field of furniture design, most notably ergonomic seating, Diffrient won a total of 24 awards, including two Best of Show and 10 Gold and Top awards. Īdditionally, Niels spent time as adjunct Professor of Design at UCLA for eight years and was a visiting critic at the Yale University School of Architecture for two years.Īrticles about him and his work have appeared in Time Magazine, Fortune, Business Week and The New York Times to name a few.ĭiffrient died on 8 June 2013 at his home in Ridgefield, Connecticut. He is credited with pioneering the use of ergonomics, or what he called human factors engineering, in dozens of office furniture designs. He has also been broadly published in the field of design and human factors, most notably as co-author of the three-volume publication, Humanscale, in 19. In his career, which lasted over a half century, Diffrient designed every type of equipment, as well as computers, exhibits, trucks, airplane interiors and corporate identity programs. In 1980 after 25 years with Henry Dreyfuss Associates, Diffrient left to start his own independent practice, establishing a design studio in Ridgefield, Connecticut which he shared with his wife, tapestry artist Helena Hernmarck. Upon arriving back in the United States in 1955, Diffrient joined Dreyfuss Associates in their Pasadena offices, and spent the next few decades revolutionizing American industrial design through his development of interiors and corporate identity for American Airlines planes, the landmark Princess telephone, the Polaroid SX-70 camera, and tractor seats for John Deere. While in Italy on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1954, Diffrient went to work in the studio of the great architect Marco Zanuso, where he assisted with the design of an award-winning Borletti sewing machine. He then attended Wayne State University, and finally Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in architecture and excelled as an outstanding student, winning the First Medal in Design three of his four years there. ĭuring the Great Depression his family relocated to Detroit, where Diffrient attended Cass Technical High School. ![]() Diffrient focused mainly on ergonomic seating, and his most well known designs are the Freedom and Liberty chairs, manufactured by Humanscale.ĭiffrient was born in 1928 in a farmhouse near Star, Mississippi. Niels Diffrient (6 September 1928 – 8 June 2013) was an American industrial designer.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |