Grand Rapids, Michigan, designer Dan Grabowski grew up understanding the importance of problem-solving. “When my dad needed to create or repair something, he would design a solution and then we would go off together and build it,” he recalls. “We built everything from cabinets to apartment buildings. That’s how things were done in our house.”
Grabowski was also drawn to art and modern design. His best friend’s father was a car designer whose home was filled with modern art and contemporary furniture. “I decided I wanted to do something that combined my love of art and working with my hands,” Grabowski says. “I considered being a sculptor, but then when I was in college, I studied the work of Harry Bertoia (the artist and designer), and that’s when it clicked for me, the connection between sculpture and industrial design.”
After graduating from The Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, as Bertoia had done, Grabowski worked on lots of different kinds of projects—everything from power tools for the Sears Craftsman brand, to infant care products for Gerber. But his primary focus has always been furniture design. The overriding quality he strives for in everything he does is honesty—solving problems in smart ways using simple, clean, uncluttered lines. “I like the challenge of a good design project, the idea of making something that’s more than just a pretty object, incorporating intelligent details that people notice and appreciate.”
The Everywhere table line was one of those projects. Grabowski focused on every detail, including one little piece that wouldn’t even show unless you turned the table upside down. “To me,” he says, “a Herman Miller product needs visual continuity in every single detail, whether it’s on the top, the bottom, inside or out.”
“I like the challenge of a good design project, the idea of making something that’s more than just a pretty object.”
