was,” Dowell said. “Even if they didn’t see it as a thing of
beauty, they understood that it had to look the way it did.”
Then they presented the chair to groups of facility managers
and ergonomic experts — the kinds of people who would
ultimately be responsible for making the chair a commercial
success.
This time the reception was downright chilly. “They didn’t
understand the aesthetic at all,” says Dowell. Herman Miller
was told to cover the Aeron with a solid fabric and that it
would be impossible to sell it to corporate clients. One facility
manager likened the chair to lawn furniture or old-fashioned
car-seat covers. Another said it looked as though it came from
the set of RoboCop, and another said that it looked as if it had
been made entirely from recycled materials. “I remember one
professor at Stanford who confirmed the concept and its
function but said he wanted to be invited back when we got to
an ‘aesthetically refined prototype,’ ” Dowell remembers. “We
were behind the glass saying, ‘There isn’t going to be an
aesthetically refined prototype!’ ”
Put yourself, for a moment, in Herman Miller’s shoes. You
have committed yourself to a brand-new product. You have
spent an enormous amount of money retooling your furniture