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 had great fun searching through the Vintage Ad Browser website we recently discovered. With over 100,000 ads to choose from sorted into categories such as Beauty and Hygiene, Furniture and Cigarettes and Tobacco - there is something for everyone. We were pleased to find some vintage Herman Miller Ads in the mix, including the one above for a Herman Miller designed Vanity Wall from 1962 that begins with the heading "how to talk your wife out of a frou frou bedroom". We found some real crackers, such as this ad below circa 1970, for avocado green oak paneling (for women... finally!). What's more, many of them are for sale and also include their link to purchase them on ebay... happy browsing.

Herman Miller has a long association with museums and galleries. Some of you may not know that in 1988 we established the Herman Miller Consortium to share our historical furniture collection with a wider audience. This consortium collection is now held between 13 museums across the United States of America and comprises of over 750 pieces of furniture and a range of product documentation (such as the brochure above, from 1960). The good news for those of us outside of the States is that you can also browse through the collection and records online via The Herman Miller consortium online database. We thought it might be interesting to explore some museums that hold the consortium collction in the coming months as well as have a closer look at some of the ourstanding museums and galleries from around the Asia Pacific region. We hope you'll join us on our travels... stay tuned! 

Posted by Lauren Evans

A snapshot of a Herman Miller showroom in San Francisco circa 1967. Check out that fabulous cabinetry! 

We've found some interesting comparisons between Steve Jobs and Charles Eames recently. Over at the gigaom website, one of San Francisco's most influential tech websites, writer Om Malik suggests those who have read the Steve Jobs biography should see the recently released documentary Eames: The Architect and the Painter as an addendum to the book. He notes the similarities between Charles Eames and Jobs; "they both were very clear in distinguishing what is design and what is style. And more importantly both made simplicity their mantra". He references a review of the film that appeared in the New York Times that also references Jobs in its introduction questioning whether Jobs, like Eames was "primarily a designer, an engineer, a computer nerd or an artist? A benevolent guru or the center of a cult of personality?" The article is well worth reading, find it here.

The comparisons being made are certainly thought provoking and it will be interesting to see how Jobs legacy grows as time and technology moves on - will he will remain as revered as the Eameses still are today, half a century later?

Read the full gigaom article here.  The documentary Eames: The Architect and the Painter will be released in the Asia Pacific region this year but for those who want a sneak peek, it can now be viewed online in its entirety via flash or as an app at the PBS website, here's the link. 

Posted by Lauren Evans

We were fascinated to learn of the new Eames Exhibition that's recently opened in Los Angeles, California (News: Collecting Eames Exhibition Opens HM Lifework blog). The exhibition is by vintage retailer JF Chen, who has collected over 450 Eames pieces including, furniture, toys and even an Eames designed pavillion. It's the first time this many Eames pieces have been shown together in one place, which makes it very significant... and here's the clincher: every piece in the exhibition is for sale (at the right price of course). We would love to see it in real life but may have to settle for the accompanying book Collecting Eames, The JF Chen Collection.

 If you can't make it either, check out Cerentha's behind the scenes tour over at the Lifework blog and live vicariously like we did. We also enjoyed learning more about the intriguiing JF Chen and his collection, through a great article we found at the Eames Design website Shop Talk at JF Chen.

The Herman Miller Select series is inspired by the rich design heritage that we have to draw upon. Each year we release a piece of furniture that we have brought back from the archives, so for 2011 we have released a limited edition George Nelson tray table. The piece combines George Nelson’s 1961 tray table with a walnut and santos palisander inlay inspired by his 1955 Flock of Butterflies clock. We think Nelson himself would approve... what do you think?

Many of our Asian Pacific readers may not know that Herman Miller has their very own hotel! Marigold Lodge has been part of Herman Miller's heritage since we began restoring it in 1978. Situated on a point of Lake Macatawa in Holland, Michigan, it is a peaceful and picturesque setting. It was originally a private home built by Egbert Gold, a passionate horticulturist who purchased the land and began to build 1912, naming the lodge to honour his wife Margaret and daughter, Mary-Jayne. The lodge still houses a large portion of the Gold's furniture collection, including traditional Herman Miller furniture that was manufactured in the 1930's (prior to Gilbert Rohde's association with the company). Combined with various outbuildings, Marigold comprises of 21 guest rooms as well as meeting, conference and learning spaces. It is now a place for the customers, clients and employees of Herman Miller and in many ways embodies our ideas of 'home'.

Below are some photographs. For a more indepth look at Marigold Lodge's history, see our Lifeworks blog which includes a slideshow tour.

When putting together the Essential Eames Exhibition we went through our archives and discovered the above article about the Pope's fondness for the Herman Miller chairs used by his entourage and guests. A customised Eames soft pad chair was made especiially for Pope John Paul II himself, complete with papal seal. It's all part of the Essential Eames Exhibition, launched at Reach last month and still on show at the Hong Kong Design Institute until December 2nd, 2011.

For a closer look at the article, download the PDF version.