When the industrial designer Jonathan Olivares was appointed senior vice president of design at US furniture company Knoll last June, it felt like the turning of a tide. As an originator of American design since its founding in 1938 by Hans and Florence Knoll, with icons such as Marcel Breuer’s ‘Wassily’ chair (1925) and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich’s ‘Barcelona’ chair (1929) both under trademarks in its control, the once-pioneering company had endured several years of uncertainty, including being acquired by Herman Miller for an epic $1.8bn in 2021, and keeping a relatively low profile before that.
The shake-up (and wake-up) that Knoll supporters have been
