Welcome to part two of our museum series, where we will be looking at various art galleries and museums from around the Asia Pacific region. Our first post was on Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art and today we're off to Shanghai.

The Shanghai Museum of Glass was established by a the Shanghai Glass Company, a privately owned company that was inspired to create the museum after witnessing the industrial development of glass in Shanghai and preserving and recording 100 years of glass history and culture. The Museum building was in fact originally a glass factory, transformed to suit its new identity by the creative team Coordination Asia. The brief for the building was to juxtapose the past and present and their striking realisation of this is made of glass itself, integrating the original structure and character of the factory within the new functional contemporary space.

(above) The Shanghai Museum of Glass exterior interior

The museum only opened in June last year and is drawing crowds with its ancient and contemporary permanent collections as well as an ever changing program of contemporary exhibitions. The hot glass demonstration hall, where visitors experience first hand the art of creating glass is very popular and also providing a space for glass artists to experiment creatively. Long term there are further plans to develop a glass theme park, sculpture yard and science and business parks to the museum. 

The Museum seeks to bridge communication between Chinese and Western cultures and celebrate the rich history, culture and art of glass. It's certainly one museum worth bookmarking for your next trip to Shanghai.

if you'd like to learn more, there's a great article with some fantastic images of the museum over at the coolhunter blog we can highly recommend.

Posted by Lauren Evans

(above) Two of the exhibits from the Ancient Collection

(above) A piece from the upcoming exhibition by Zhuang Xiaowei

The above ads are from the late 1940's (above left) and 1954 (above right). They're a good example of the strength of a simple red, black and white colour scheme, which is very distinguishable throughout our early advertising. Herman Miller have always had a strong focus on the commercial workplace, as these ads clearly show.   

We like the concept of the website Slashies, a web series of videos devoted to telling the stories of passionate creative Australians who have the courage to follow their dreams. The name derives from the multiple careers/creative avenues each person pursues in the making of their dream. So you will find the fabulous graphic designer/paper engineer Benja Harney (below) and his wonderful paper creations, the intricate and colourful murals and artworks of fashion designer/street artist Shannon Crees (above) and the stunning surf photography of graphic designer/surfer/photographer Eugene Tan, with more people being added all the time. Each video offers a glimpse into each creatives life and how they juggled their various roles to triumph in ultimately pursuing the one they love the most. Inspiring stuff indeed for anyone who's ever aspired to be a slashie themselves, a common theme amongst creatives. We'll aim to bring you a little more on some of the people we admired most... stay tuned.

Posted by Lauren Evans

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec are the well known designers behind the Osso Chair by Mattiazzi that has recently become part of the Herman Miller collection. For those of you who aren't familiar with the chair, here are five things that are good to know about Osso.

1. Mattiazzi's fine craftmanship and sophisticated machining skills were the inspiration behind the chair. Erwan says their aim was "…to let the sensuality of the wood express itself" and that “The chair invites people to touch or even caress it, as it is extremely sculpted and polished.”

2. The high-tech assembling system of geometrical wood panels allows a quite singular strength while preserving a design balance of the object. The chair is comprised of just eight pieces (see image below).

3. Erwan and Rowan were particularly impressed by Mattiazzi's environmental credentials. All the equipment used to manufacture the Osso chair is solar powered and the timber locally sourced, without the use of any chemical treatments.

4. Osso means bone in Italian. The chair is highly sculptural and polished like it's namesake.

5. A sophisticated palette of colours in various timbers complete Osso - it comes in black, blue, green, dark grey, pink, white, natural ash, natural maple, and natural oak.

Posted by Lauren Evans

The documentary Eames: The Architect and The Painter debuted in New Zealand last week (see our previous post) and to pay homage to the film our New Zealand dealer Matisse held a fabulous party which also marked the launch of their Eames inspired pop-up shop. Fans of the film will find all sorts of Herman Miller goodies available at the store which will stay open until the 29th April. New Zealand readers can head on down to 254 Broadway, Newmarket and snaffle up a little piece of Eames history for themselves.

That's the time it takes for us to build an Aeron Chair at our American based production line. FastCompany were so impressed by this that they recently profiled us as a model of modern American manufacturing and featured this video of the Aeron's production on their design blog. Aeron used to take 82 seconds to come off the line, today we're down to 17 due to the little changes we make to the assembly process every year. We're really proud to be recognised for the level of efficiency we've achieved as we work very hard at it. Check out their video to see for yourself.

David Rowland's 40/4 chair for Howe is a cult classic and referred to as the archetypal stackable chair. Since its debut in 1964 over 8 million have been sold and can be found furnishing everything from offices to schools and even cathedrals. It is also featured in most design museum collections around the world. We're pleased to announce that the 40/4 chair will now be available at Herman Miller stores throughout Asia and to mark the occasion we thought we'd share with you five facts about this remarkable little chair;

1. Designer David Rowland was inspired to create the chair after serving time in the air force in World War II and being forced to sit in "beastly, uncomfortable seats" on his many campaigns. Once the war was over, comfortable, ergonomic seating became his mission.

2. Rowland studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, the same school which Charles and Ray Eames, Florence Knoll, Harry Bertoia and Eero Saarinen attended.

3. The chairs name comes from its ability to be stacked quickly and neatly into piles of 40 chairs that come to a height of just 4 feet - thus 40/4.

4. It can can be linked in rigid rows of 4 to be assembled and disassembled easily in auditoriums and halls.

5. The 40/4 comes in many variations: a side chair, armchair, bar stool, lounge chair, swivel chair, chair with write pad and a chair for outdoor use.

Posted by Lauren Evans