Overview

Designers

Alexander Girard

Product Designer Alexander Girard

Products by Alexander Girard

  • A Girard Environmental Enrichment Panel in Girls pattern. A Girard Environmental Enrichment Panel in Girls pattern. Select to go to the Girard Environmental Enrichment Panels product page.
    Girard Environmental Enrichment Panels Herman Miller
  • A Girard Color Wheel Ottoman upholstered in blue fabrics, viewed from the side. A Girard Color Wheel Ottoman upholstered in blue fabrics, viewed from the top. Select to go to the Girard Color Wheel Ottoman product page.
    Girard Color Wheel Ottoman Herman Miller
  • Girard Environmental Enrichment Poster, Palace - black and white poster with palace motif. Girard Environmental Enrichment Poster, Bouquet - black and white flowers with colorful overlay. Select to go to the Girard Environmental Enrichment Posters product page.
    Girard Environmental Enrichment Posters Herman Miller
  • A folded Girard Throw blanket. A folded throw blanket. Select to go to the Girard Throw product page.
    Girard Throw Herman Miller
  • A poster promoting Alexander Girard's Textiles & Objects shop. A poster promoting Alexander Girard's Textiles & Objects shop. Select to go to the Textiles & Objects Poster product page.
    Textiles & Objects Poster Herman Miller

Alexander Girard became director of design for Herman Miller’s textile division in 1952, a time when fabrics, especially in the office, tended toward the utilitarian, drab and pattern-less. “People got fainting fits if they saw bright, pure color,” Girard commented at the time.

At Herman Miller, Girard had the freedom to express himself. With primary colors, concise geometric patterns, and a touch of humor, he injected joy and spontaneity into his designs. During his tenure, he created over 300 textile designs in multitudes of colorways, wallpapers, prints, furniture, and objects. Girard’s work with Herman Miller continued until 1973 and included spicing up the Action Office system with a series of decorative panel fabrics.

“I have no favorite material; anything can be used to create beauty if handled well.”

- Alexander Girard

Born in New York City and raised in Florence, Girard was educated in Europe as an architect. He began practicing architecture and interior design in the late 1920s. The exhibition he curated for the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1949—“For Modern Living”—celebrated postwar modernism. Girard developed a friendship with Charles Eames in the 1940s when the two men realized they had coincidently designed almost identical modern radio cabinets and were both experimenting with plywood chairs.

Girard’s reputation soared in 1959, when his zestful interior design of the La Fonda del Sol restaurant in New York electrified the public. He designed the entire experience for the restaurant—interior, graphics, place settings, staff uniforms. Girard reprised the feat for Braniff International Airways in the mid 1960s, designing no less than 17,543 different items—from logo to lounge furniture.

Girard’s risky, sometimes iconoclastic fabrics were inspired not by a vision of the future but by a love of international folk art. His passion for what he called “toys” led him around the globe, amassing a collection of roughly 106,000 pieces. These colorful, whimsical objects inspired him, as his designs continue to inspire us.

Awards/Recognition

Gold Medal, Barcelona Exhibition, 1929

Fabric Competition, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1946

St. Louis Memorial Competition, Winning Team Member, 1948

Trail Blazer Award, Home Fashion League of New York, 1952

Silver Medal, Architectural League of New York, 1962

Elise de Wolfe Award, New York Chapter of American Institute of Interior Designers, 1966

Governor’s Award, Outstanding Contribution to Fine Arts in New Mexico, 1981

Designer’s West/Ray Bradbury Creativity Award, 1987

Distribution Rights

Herman Miller and Vitra are two independent companies with a common interest in the designs and legacies of Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, and Alexander Girard.

In 1956, Vitra became Herman Miller’s licensee for continental Europe. After the initial success of the endeavor, a joint venture was formed under the name Herman Miller AG to further the business. The cooperation was accompanied by a warm personal relationship between the De Pree family of Herman Miller and the Fehlbaum family of Vitra. For over two decades the companies successfully collaborated to establish a market for good design, and further the designs of Eames, Nelson, and Girard in Europe. When the partnership was dissolved in 1984, the rights to the designs of Eames, Nelson, and Girard were assigned to Vitra for Europe and the Middle East, while the Herman Miller name and program were retained by Herman Miller.

The two companies continue to have a friendly relationship and together with the descendants of Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson and Alexander Girard keep the spirit of these great designers alive.