Don Chadwick

Donald "Don" T. Chadwick^[1] (born 1936) is an American industrial designer specializing in office seating.

Early life

He was born in Los Angeles and developed an interest in furniture making from his grandfather, a cabinetmaker.^[2] He studied design at the University of California, Los Angeles.^[3]

Career

Aeron chair prototype, Victoria and Albert Museum

He worked for architect Victor Gruen, and in 1964 founded his own practice. As a young designer Chadwick gained recognition for his entries in the Pasadena Art Museum's California Design exhibitions.^[4] His 1968 prototype for cardboard furniture predates the easy edges cardboard furniture by Frank Gehry.^[4] He also experimented with industrial processes such as rotational moulding.^[5] He has designed the Chadwick modular seating system (1974) and, in cooperation with Bill Stumpf, the Equa 1 (1984) and the Aeron chair (1994), all for Herman Miller.^[3][6] Among his recent designs is the Chadwick chair and Spark chair for Knoll, and Ballo for Human Scale.

Publications

• Friedman, Mildred, Ed. A Serious Chair — Design Quarterly 126. Minneapolis and Cambridge: The Walker Art Center and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1984. ISSN 0011-9415
• Olivares, Jonathan, Ed. Don Chadwick Photography 1961–2005. Barcelona: Apartamento Publishing S.L., 2019 ISBN 978-84-09-11610-2
• Amy Auscherman, Sam Gawe, Leon Ransmeier, Eds. "Ergon Chairs 1976" in Herman Miller: A Way of Living. London: Phaidon Press, 2019. 460–481 ISBN 9780714875217

Further reading

• Fiell, Charlotte; Fiell, Peter (2005). Design of the 20th Century (25th anniversary ed.). Köln: Taschen. p. 155. ISBN 9783822840788. OCLC 809539744.
• Olivares, Jonathan (2011). A Taxonomy of Office Chairs: The evolution of the office chair, demonstrated through a catalogue of seminal models and an illustrated taxonomy of their components. Foreword by Benjamin Pardo [d]. London, UK; New York, NY: Phaidon Press. ISBN 978-0-7148-6103-6.
• Chadwick, Don; Olivares, Jonathan (19 December 2018). "A Life in Chairs with Industrial Designer Don Chadwick". Interview. New York City: Crystal Ball Media. ISSN 0149-8932. Retrieved 10 January 2026.

References

1. "The Collection | Donald T. Chadwick, William Stumpf. Aeron Office Chair. 1992". MoMA. Retrieved 2014-06-04.
2. "HKDI and Herman Miller Presents: A series of lectures by design leaders". Archived from the original on 2011-09-26. Retrieved 2011-09-26.
3. "Don Chadwick". Knoll. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
4. Auscherman, Amy (2019). Herman Miller: A Way of Living. London: Phaidon. p. 461. ISBN 9780714875217.
5. "Chair | LACMA Collections". collections.lacma.org. Retrieved 2026-01-10.
6. Industrial Designers Society of America. "Ergon Chair (1976)". Archived from the original on 2010-12-06. Retrieved 2011-09-26.