​3 Influential Mid-Century Furniture Designers Who Revolutionized The Industry

Get to know the creators of mid-century furniture pieces; from mid-century chair to famous sofas and tables

The mid-century era has played an important role for many years by being involved in creating new standards and designs packed with extraordinary features. This has required creative designers who have been the leaders behind these amazing movements. These designers have revolutionized the industry since those golden years and still continue to inspire new generations.

One of the most relevant elements related to the mid-century era is furniture design. This particular field changed a lot in this era and began to implement a couple of notable and common features between piece and piece.

The designers of that time focused on making pieces more affordable, practical, simple, elegant, and functional. Designing timeless pieces with a unique aesthetic and stylistic expression is not an easy task, so today we wanted to pay a kind of tribute by writing an article about the creators behind the most important pieces of furniture in the mid-century modern style.

Florence Knoll Furniture Collection

As a woman, every time I share another woman's triumphs it feels a little different and more enjoyable, since at this time especially women were classified as "unfit" for the industry. This is why I wanted to start with this mid-century female icon: Florence Knoll.

Florence Knoll was a women's interior designer, architect, furniture designer, and entrepreneur who has been related to the office design revolution.

She brought modernist concepts and features to office interiors. Among all this, she was also co-founder of Knoll Associates, together with her husband Hans Knoll. This particular company was a leader of furniture pieces for offices. What I found more inspiring is the fact that she worked in this field and had to deal with gender stereotypes.

Now that we present this inspiring icon to you, it is time to show you one of his famous collections, recognized for a very classic piece; the Florence Knoll armchair.

The Florence armchair was and continues to be a highly sought after piece due to its 3 main factors; the aniline leather in which it is upholstered, the astonishing aesthetics that create a visually welcoming appearance, and the height according to the most demanding users. It also provides very comfortable cushions filled with dense foam.

Alvar Aalto & its iconic forms

Alvar was a Finnish architect, urban planner, and furniture designer internationally recognized for his particular mix of styles, with a modernist appearance and indigenous materials. He evokes his personal expression in all his pieces of furniture in a very ingenious way. Such is the case with his very famous model 39 armchair, placed below:

Paul Evans

Paul Evans was an American born furniture designer, sculptor, and artist, who was also an important figure from the mid-century modern movement. He is recognized mostly for his work with the influential American manufacturer Directional Furniture.

He created different furniture pieces but the most wanted was and still is the vintage cityscape console table.