Sayl Chair Black

Fewer parts, less material, and still everything a good chair should be

Yves Béhar <br>Herman Miller asked designer Yves Béhar to develop an affordable chair that combined all the hallmarks of Herman Miller: beautiful design, cutting-edge ergonomics, sophisticated engineering, and environmental friendliness.
Béhar began by exploring how to create a design that "produces the most with the least amount of materials." He then looked at the Golden Gate Bridge, the most famous landmark in San Francisco, where he lives. He wondered if the engineering principles of a suspension bridge could be applied to a chair.

So why is this chair called "Sail" and not, say, "Bridge"? Look at the chair from the side. Doesn't it look like a sail on a sailing ship? The name "Sail" evokes the sailing ships passing under the bridges that inspired these unique designs. We also chose to use a "y" instead of an "i" in "sail" to refer to the "Y" in the chair's innovative Y-tower structure. The concept of using suspension towers to support a frameless suspension back allowed the elastomer material to be tensioned to provide maximum tension where support was needed, and strength where it was not restrictive to free movement.

Design is about solving fundamental human problems
Founded in 1923 (its predecessor, Star Furniture Company, was founded in 1905), Herman Miller bet its survival on contemporary furniture during the Great Depression of the 1930s. This gamble was a huge success, and in 1945 Herman Miller stopped producing traditional furniture and focused its business on contemporary furniture, which would later be called modern furniture. In 1960, the company began exploring the true needs of office workers and the needs of companies and organizations. They realized that office productivity was a major issue in business. The "Action Office" that was developed in this way became the standard for subsequent office systems.
Herman Miller considers innovation to be the result of research, not a goal. Innovation comes from research into customer needs, exploration of materials and processes, and design in response to social and economic innovation. Of course, designers add inspiration on top of that. Charles and Ray Eames' plywood chairs, Robert Propst's Action Office, Bill Stumpf's Ergon and Aeron chairs, and Ayse Birsel's Resolve system are all born from such interactions. What connected them to Herman Miller is the shared belief that "design exists to solve fundamental human problems." It is the passion to create new designs from research into the human body structure and the environment surrounding humans, rather than designing for the sake of design.
The quality control department repeats the industry standard 100,000 seat tests 1 million times. The unparalleled research and development department develops from the material, and the manufacturing department realizes the most advanced manufacturing process. In all of these, Herman Miller never forgets its idea of ​​creating new designs by researching the human body and the environment. Herman Miller's products are the inevitable form that was born from researching the problems related to the act of sitting. In order to save global resources and reduce the environmental burden, Herman Miller's products strive to improve the durability and reliability of its products, and the product warranty period for work chairs is 12 years. Another aspect of innovation, "taking risks," is equally important. Herman Miller strives to always maintain a willingness to take risks. As the company expands and the responsibility for capital increases, the pressure to minimize risk has also increased. However, Herman Miller continues to take risks to bring out new products that it is confident will be successful - and sometimes products with revolutionary qualities that will change the times.