George Nelson & Charles Pollock

George Nelson & Charles Pollock

George Nelson was one of the great designers of mid-century American Modernism. He studied in Yale and Rome, where he became familiar with classical Modernism in Europe. Back in the USA he published an architecture magazine and in the following years worked for the American furniture manufacturer Herman Miller and later also for Vitra. Today, Nelson is popularly associated with the series of wall clocks he developed for Howard Miller, a collection which include the Popsicle Clock. However, the design of Popsicle was not by Nelson, but by one of his employees, which was customary at the time. The actual designer of the Popsicle Clock was the product designer Charles Pollock, who, among other things, developed a series of seating furniture for Knoll International after working with George Nelson. After presenting his portfolio to Florence Knoll, Vincent Cafiero, a member of the planning Department, became aware of him and encouraged Pollock to work on designing a chair, which was finally released in 1961 as the Knoll 657 lounge chair.