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Studio 7.5 on the Design of Herman Miller's New Cosm Chair

"We think a chair should be designed more like a bicycle, not a car"

By Rain Noe - September 24, 2018

in Furniture Design

Herman Miller looks like they may have knocked it out of the seating park again, this time with their new Cosm chair:

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The Cosm was designed by the Berlin-based design firm Studio 7.5, the same firm behind previous Herman Miller hits the Setu, the Mirra and the Mirra 2. Studio 7.5 is a relatively small firm--just ten people--and the firm uses that small size to keep their designs grounded. "Even if you produce at an industrial scale, there is some craftsmanship involved," explains 7.5 co-founder Carola Zwick.

"We think a chair should be designed more like a bicycle, not a car," Zwick adds, explaining their desire to have transparent construction and exposed parts.

And as for those individual parts, "Each one of them is made so that if you would find something like that in the trash can," explains co-founder Burkhard Schmitz, "you want to take it out again."

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Here's a short talk featuring Zwick and Burkhard explaining Studio 7.5's design process for the Cosm:

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I like their philosophies, and wish more designers embodied them.

Here's the requisite PR stuff:

"Cosm is comfortable because of its Auto-Harmonic Tilt that instantly adjusts to the user's body, posture, and seated position. The chair automatically provides balanced support and movement, depending on your body and posture.

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"Cosm is made for the contemporary workplace, instantaneously and comfortably adjusting to whoever is sitting in it. Current chairs on the market with force-activated tilts achieve this simplicity by compromising the user experience—relying on systems that cause the user's body to follow the tilt mechanism, rather than directing the tilt. Cosm's Auto-Harmonic Tilt is able to understand how much tension to provide based on the downward force exerted by the user and can provide the same experience for anyone no matter their body type or seated position."

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"Cosm was designed through…inheriting the iterative design [used by] the practice of Charles and Ray Eames. Instead of designing primarily in the computer, Studio 7.5 used sculpting and 3D printing to bring each iteration into the physical world."

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"Its Leaf Arms are not just a Herman Miller first, [but] an industry first. The arm uses suspension instead of a solid material which cradles the user's elbows, so there are no hot points. They are titled so that they can slide under a desk or table without hitting the tabletop, and so the user can change positions without needing to adjust."

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"The chair is "dipped in color" meaning that it is completely monochromatic: the colors of the metals, plastics, and fabrics are an exact match. Attaining exact-matching colors between the metals, plastics, and fabrics that comprise Cosm was a technical challenge, and reaching the high levels of saturation on the see-through fabric suspension that could work with the opaque materials required a great deal of color engineering."

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Comments

Michael DiTullo

6 years ago

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this thing is gorgeous.

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Phil Warren

6 years ago

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As an industrial design and special effects model maker for more than 32 years in the UK . I love great design and although the price will probably be beyond me i really like these chairs. I wonder how long it will be before the home DIY'er will be able to 3D print these?

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Daniel Erwin

6 years ago

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So you're not labeling your advertising anymore, and just mixing it in with the design news and observations?

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  6 years ago
  
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  This is not a paid post
  
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  Idiot reply, Daniel Erwin.
  
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Luke Haney

6 years ago

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Wish I was sitting in that right now. Always loved their office chairs in college on campus and have sadly not experienced too many since. I had the same thought about coordinating the color space after watching.

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Emily Suzuki

6 years ago

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These photos are making me want to start coordinating with my office seating!

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Sean Horita

6 years ago

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Bravo, props, kudos, wow. What a great looking piece of equipment.

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