There is one other image of this object. See our image rights statement.
See more objects with the color goldenrod darkgrey grey dimgrey burlywood or see all the colors for this object.
Object Timeline
|
2012 |
|
|
2013 |
|
|
2014 |
|
|
2015 |
|
|
2025 |
|
Textile, Pinstripe
This is a Textile. It was designed by Elizabeth Whelan and made for Humanscale. It is dated 2012 and we acquired it in 2013. Its medium is 82% polyester, 18% nylon and its technique is plain weave with warp floats. It is a part of the Textiles department.
Textile designer Elizabeth Whelan has played a critical role in the development of ergonomic task chair design. Her sleekly beautiful mesh fabrics for Humanscale are integral to the structure and function of the chairs for which they were designed.
After their successful collaboration on Humanscale’s Liberty Chair, in 2009, Diffrient and Whelan began work on a new, lighter-weight task chair, with both a mesh back and seat. The advanced demands of this chair required a new mesh, one which was lighter in weight, more transparent, and yet provided primary support a 300 pound person, in keeping with the goals of the chair. To make the seat comfortable while it provided support, Whelan tested different types of elasticity in the monofilament stretch yarns. The final product uses yarns that have two different elastomer levels, one to provide support and the other recovery. The fabric conforms to the curves of the chair back, providing lumbar support, and the appropriate level of give in the seat relieves contact stress behind the knees.
Humanscale wanted a simple floating line of color, and Whelan found inspiration in the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge. The thicker, colored yarns mimic the role of the vertical ‘suspenders’ that hang down from the suspension cables. This sparing use of intense color in a transparent field uses 50% less dye than her earlier Monofilament Stripe mesh.
The World Chair, which wouldn’t function ergonomically without Whelan’s fabrics, has won numerous awards including the Best of the Best in the Red Dot Competition 2010, and Best GIO Design Award, 2012.
This object was
donated by
Elizabeth Whelan.
It is credited Gift of Elizabeth Whelan.
- Patent Model For Wire Rope-making Machine, Patent No. 2,720 (USA)
- brass, steel.
- Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Cat. 308790 .
- 14.2012.181
- Textile, Silver Check
- 74% polyester, 26% nylon.
- Gift of Elizabeth Whelan.
- 2013-45-1
- Liberty Ergonomic Task Chair Task Chair
- die-cast aluminum, injection-molded plastic, textile mesh (polyester, nylon,....
- Gift of Humanscale.
- 2008-12-1
Our curators have highlighted 5 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:
- Aeron Office Chair
- die-cast aluminum, molded glass-reinforced polyester, hytrel polymer,....
- Gift of the employee-owners of Herman Miller, Inc..
- 1997-73-1
- Print, Brooklyn Bridge, Plate 9
- etching.
- Gift of Arthur Cohen.
- 1983-21-4
- Poster, Aeron Chair
- digital print and screenprint on paper.
- Gift of Herman Miller.
- 2014-19-1
Its dimensions are
H x W: 304.8 x 124.8 cm (10 ft. x 49 1/8 in.) Repeat H: 0.6 cm (1/4 in.)
Cite this object as
Textile, Pinstripe; Designed by Elizabeth Whelan (American, b. 1961); Made for Humanscale (United States); USA; 82% polyester, 18% nylon; H x W: 304.8 x 124.8 cm (10 ft. x 49 1/8 in.) Repeat H: 0.6 cm (1/4 in.); Gift of Elizabeth Whelan; 2013-45-2
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Making Design: Recent Acquisitions.
