Page 63 - Designing Ways 258

Rolf’s own process. “They were very
experimental in taking advantage of new
technologies, “says Rolf Hay. “And they
were having fun.” Like their predecessors,
the Hays have always been motivated
by the certainty that good design is for
everyone — a founding principle behind
HAY the brand.”
“Since the inception of HAY, our goal
has been to provide our customers with
access to works by the best designers in
the world — designers who understand
that if you want to create high-quality
industrial design for the many, then you
need to find smart ways of producing,”
adds Rolf Hay. For that element, he
points to Herman Miller’s track record
of innovative manufacturing and
precision engineering: “If you look at
a product like the Aeron Chair, there’s
only one company that could develop a
chair with such complexity — and that’s
Herman Miller. It takes a strong passion
for design and a pioneering legacy in
production.”
HAY consulted the Herman Miller
archives for references that could help
modernise the company’s approach to
colour without recreating it directly. “Being
very familiar with the existing colour range,
my intention was to focus on looking
ahead, instead of looking too far back,”
says Mette Hay. Her research was further
informed by delving into Eames ephemera
catalogued by MillerKnoll archivist Amy
Auscherman; one-off furniture prototypes
listed on auction sites and in museum
catalogues; and out-of-production textiles
by Alexander Girard, archived at textile
brand Maharam’s New York studio.
The Eameses had worked closely with
Alexander Girard, who was the founding
director of the textiles division at Herman
Miller and became their close personal
friend and frequent collaborator. Girard’s
innovation within the textile realm — in
which he employed bold and unusual
colour combinations as well as subtle,
understated, and textural palettes —
offered the Eameses a wide array of options
when considering how to further enhance
their genre-defying mid-century furniture.
Rolf points to history’s many designers,
“who are great in terms of giving form
to industrial design, but are lacking in
[development of] colour and texture. That

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