Herman Miller, the American furniture manufacturer known for mid-century modern designs, introduced a refreshed brand identity in January 2024, marking the first major update in 25 years. The new system was developed by Order, a Brooklyn-based design studio founded by Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth in 2017, and includes an evolved logo, a new wordmark, and an expanded color palette. The refresh followed the company’s 100th anniversary in 2023 and was designed to carry the brand into its next century. [1] [2]
Design and History
The central element of Herman Miller’s identity is the stylized “M” symbol, hand-drawn by designer Irving Harper in 1946. Harper created the mark after George Nelson, then Herman Miller’s design director, initially approached graphic designer Paul Rand for the project. When Rand backed out, the job went in-house to Harper, who was working in the Nelson Office. The first advertisement featuring the M appeared in 1946, printed in bold red against a black-and-white wood-grain texture. Harper later called his design “the century’s least expensive corporate branding project.” [3]
In the 2024 refresh, Order kept the M symbol largely intact but “freed” it from the red circle container it had occupied in the previous identity. The M can now be used flexibly as a pattern, standalone graphic, or brand device. According to Order design director Garrett Corcoran, “The M symbol has stayed consistent through every iteration of the identity since Irving Harper drew it in 1946, so changing it was never an option.” [4] [1]
The previous identity, which used the FF Meta typeface and a wordmark designed by longtime creative director Steve Frykholm, had served the company for 25 years. Herman Miller brand creative director Kelsey Keith explained that the old system “predated many of the touchpoints we now have with the customer of today,” including e-commerce, retail stores, and social media. The new system was designed to flex across these varied contexts. [1]
Meaning and Symbolism
Red has been the primary color of the Herman Miller identity since Harper’s original 1946 design, which featured a bold red M. The 2024 refresh retains red as the primary brand value while introducing a richer palette of 14 additional shades drawn from the company’s mid-century modernist history. Order studied archival materials, including work by Alexander Girard, founding director of Herman Miller’s Textile Division, to understand how colors were paired historically and to preserve what Corcoran described as the “bizarreness” of the original combinations. [1] [4]
Typography and Design
Order replaced the previous FF Meta typeface with Söhne, a font family designed by Kris Sowersby of Klim Type Foundry in New Zealand. Söhne is a humanist take on Akzidenz-Grotesk, the sans-serif designed in Berlin around 1957 that influenced Unimark’s subway signage for New York’s MTA. Order partner Jesse Reed described Söhne as “the next iteration of Helvetica,” noting it is more adaptable to today’s print and digital screens. The choice was also an homage to the period when John Massey played a key role in establishing Herman Miller’s corporate identity during the 1960s, when Helvetica was widely used. [1] [4]
Order also focused on how the scale and alignment of Harper’s M symbol could work in better harmony with the wordmark. The complete set of Herman Miller design guidelines is available at brandstandards.hermanmiller.com. [1]
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