When it comes to ergonomic office chairs, Herman Miller stands out as the industry leader. Its Aeron chair, designed by Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf and launched in 1994, has not only gained pop culture status (it was featured in an episode of the Simpsons, and is now part of MoMA’s permanent design collection), it has also become a retro icon with the younger generation, much like the Eames Aluminum Group chair is a classic with the baby boom architects and designers.
The company’s last big chair launch was back in 2018, when the company launched the Cosm chair, designed in collaboration with Berlin-based Studio 7.5, a chair that was in essence the opposite of the Aeron. But unlike the Aeron, with its many manual adjustments and breathable, stretchable fabric, the Cosm, which took a decade to design, is manufactured with an exoskeletal frame that uses passive ergonomics and adjusts to the sitter automatically, following the natural motion and pivot points of the sitter’s body.
During last month’s MillerKnoll Design Days, Herman Miller debuted the Zeph, an entry-level task chair designed once more in collaboration with Studio 7.5, and is a response to new ways of working. The chair marries good ergonomics with a nod to its mid-century modern classics — and all at an affordable price point. “Over the last few years, we’ve seen an increased demand for ergonomic solutions — a direct result of the pandemic that led to many people embracing hybrid work and learning what tools they need to work successfully both in an office and out,” said Ben Watson, Herman Miller president and MillerKnoll chief product officer. “With Zeph, we expanded our portfolio to include an eye-catching yet unobtrusive ergonomic chair that flexibly fits into a myriad of spaces in a colorful, thoughtful way. Its price point also makes it a perfect entry-level introduction into ergonomic seating.”
If there is one thing we learned from working from home during the pandemic, it’s that those who work from home need better ergonomic chairs. One study published in the National Library of Medicine found that 46% of people had more upper back pain working from home during the pandemic than they did pre-COVID from working in their offices.
Studio 7.5 had the challenge to design a chair that was to be more accessible than many of Herman Miller’s other products. The designers observed German students and noted that when they were sitting in cheap institutional chairs they would have problems sitting with flow moments, and get back pains. They turned to a classic Eames Shell chair as a jumping point, but the hard-shell molded plastic chairs don’t move, so the task became to design an entry-level chair with a hard shell that could move and pivot as you move back. “The Eames Shell Chairs are so attractive due to their simplicity,” said Carola Zwick, one of the co-founders of Studio 7.5. “And as other midcentury designs like the Nelson Swag chair, they exude a serenity that is mentally comforting. That’s when we decided to explicitly refer to this cheerful, optimistic idea of the future. It also inspired the color palette for Zeph, in particular the somewhat refreshingly quirky compositions of Alexander Girard.”
Four Years in the Making
During a year-long process, the studio created many prototypes and models, and surveyed complicated academic research, not only evolving the shape of the chair, but developing a hidden technology under the seat that acts like a spring-loaded seesaw using an individual’s movement in the chair. “This flexing structure also replaces a lot of mechanical pivot points, which reduces the number of components and simplifies the assembly,” said Zwick, who explained that MIT coined this new class of engineering, ‘compliant mechanisms.’ “We thought that this would be a great starting point for an affordable product: to make the whole chair a single, one-part, compliant mechanism.” The geometry of the design allows your body’s pivot points to create the right counterbalance for a proper sit that makes the user feel supported and energized as they move in the chair throughout the day. Once the team finalized their model and 3D-printed it, they spent three years working with Herman Miller to develop a production-ready chair.
Photo courtesy of Herman Miller
A Good Option for Working from Home
The trend of people working from home is not new, but the pandemic certainly accelerated it. “Herman Miller is as well known for its iconic, mid-century classics as it is for its industry-leading portfolio of performance office chairs,” said Watson. “Zeph bridges the gap. It is reminiscent of the Eames shell chair with the characteristics of an ergonomic office chair. It’s the latest addition to a powerhouse portfolio that meets a range of needs, preferences, and environments.
The company also wanted to make the Zeph chair softer and more colorful. “One of the things we wanted to pick up from Herman Miller’s mid-century era was the optimistic and delightful idea of the future,” said Zwick. “We wanted Zeph to be playful and happy.” The chair comes in eight colors and, taking cues from the Cosm chair, the chairs also have a dipped-in color on its bases, allowing customers to mix-and-match from an array of colors. Unlike many of the popular ergonomic chairs on the market that use mesh fabrics for a more industrial feeling, customers who purchase a Zeph have the option of specifying a removable and interchangeable 3D knit that easily slides on the shell, much like a “sweater,” and can be swapped for one of 20 textile color choices if their interior space needs a refresh.
Photo courtesy of Herman Miller
It was the first time that Studio 7.5 designed a chair without any suspension, so they wanted to learn everything they could about cushioning. “Upholstery provides an additional layer of comfort, tactility, and softer aesthetic,” said Zwick. “But we understood that upholstery is tricky from a design and choice perspective. This informed our ambition to design a shell that could be upholstered with a removable cushioned layer.” When the design team noticed that a cutting pattern to fit the shell’s organic shape as a sewn upholstery became really complicated and created a lot of waste, the designers knew they had to switch to a different technology. “So we investigated industrial knitting,” noted Zwick. “It’s a zero-waste process and you can engineer it. What amazed us is that you can integrate the padding directly into the knit, as well as all the features needed for shell attachment.”
Watson sees this chair as working in either a contract or work-from-home setting. “Zeph is a perfect balance of poise and performance, well-suited for both residential and contract settings,” he said. “For residential, its playful yet simple silhouette offers an ergonomic solution that blends well into the home environment. In contract settings, Zeph provides another nearly adjustment-free experience similar to the one Studio 7.5 introduced with Cosm, making it a flexible piece that works well in a variety of office floorplates.”
Exceptional Value
Good ergonomic chairs can easily cost a thousand dollars and upwards. The Aeron, is an investment at heart, and lists at $1695 at Herman Miller.com. But other ergonomic chairs from trusted brands can be just as pricey: Humanscale’s Diffrient chair goes for $1,034 and Steelcase’s Gesture chair is $1,381 at Steelcase.com. As Herman Miller’s cheapest task chair ever, the Zeph launches next month for $495 (the option to upgrade it to include arms and the “sweater” wrap will push up the price to about $645).
Every good chair designer knows that the one thing the best ergonomic chairs do is adapt to your body, and the Zeph seems to do just that. With the range of colorful options and the good price point, the chair will no doubt give other furniture brands like Allsteel, Humanscale, Knoll, and Steelcase a run for their money.
