Florence Knoll for Knoll. Table in marble and chromed metal. Circa 1960.

Hans Knoll, son of Walter Knoll, a German furniture manufacturer, founded the Hans G. Knoll Furniture Company in 1937 in New York. In 1941, he created with Jens Risom a range of modern furniture made in particular with military surplus straps. He hired Florence Schust in 1943 after she studied at the Cranbrook Academy and the Architectural Association in London and met Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius. It evolves the rather Scandinavian style of the company towards the International Style with more modern materials and shapes.

In 1946, Florence and Hans married and founded Knoll Associates where they developed modern furniture with sculptural forms created by renowned designers such as Eero Saarinen, Isamu Noguchi and Harry Bertoia. In 1948, the company acquired the production rights to Mies van der Rohe’s models. In the 1950s, the visual identity of the brand was entirely developed thanks to the collaboration between Florence Knoll and the graphic designer Herbert Matter.

In 1955, Hans Knoll died but the company continued to enjoy great success thanks to Florence Knoll. She works a lot on space and on the integration of her furniture into the places where they are located. His great acuity and great sense of harmony allow him to perfectly combine shapes, colors and materials.

She resigned in 1965 and left the company to Cornell Dechert. The company underwent changes, particularly in the visual identity which became more graphic and colorful from 1967 thanks to Massimo Vignelli. Then the company’s sales gradually fell in the 1970s and 1980s, creating great financial difficulties.

Finally bought in the 1990s, the company became Knoll Group and gradually returned to the forefront with original creations by contemporary designers like Frank Gehry or by the reissue of old collections like the Krefeld collection by Mies van der Rohe or the foundations of Harry Bertoia. Today the Knoll company produces new creations and reissues always with this characteristic style of the company: modern, refined and elegant.

Sources:

A. BONY, Les années 50, Éditions du Regard, 1982, p. 194

C.&P. FIELL,Design du XXe siècle, Taschen Bibliotheca Universalis, 2018

P. KJELLBERG, Le mobilier du XXe siècle, dictionnaire des créateurs, Paris, Les éditions de l’amateur, 2000, p. 345-346

LUTZ Brian, Knoll Le design moderniste, Paris, ed. Oak, 2010, p. 160