MEET THE DESIGNER

Arthur Umanoff

Arthur Umanoff (1923–1985) was an American-born industrial designer, noted for his contribution to the American midcentury modern movement. Upon graduating from New York’s prestigious Pratt Institute and the American School of Design in the beginning of the 1950s, Umanoff began collaborating with Post Modern Ltd, a New York design company that produced and sold modernist wrought iron and wood designs. Throughout the 1960s, he worked closely with the furniture manufacturer Shaver Howard, who put many of his furniture designs into production. He also designed clocks for Howard Miller. Arthur Umanoff believed that design should not only be beautifully constructed and functional, but that it should also be attainable. Using natural materials and new methods to reimagine traditional furniture pieces, he created versatile designs for the home that were celebrated for their quality as for their simplified, functional forms and staying power. Reflecting warmth and practicality, his designs were often imagined in wrought iron, rattan, walnut and birch, imbued with functional details yet retaining a sense of natural elegance thanks to their slender, tapered lines.