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The Design That Turned the Humble Office Chair into a Modern Grail

Made for the office, elegant enough for the living room.

office chairHumanscale

By Jack Seemer

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“It’s my intent to make design a more consequential endeavor, not a decorative endeavor.” Thus spoke the industrial designer Niels Diffrient in a 2003 interview with The New York Times.

Among Diffrient’s many creations, none proved to be quite as consequential as the Humanscale Freedom Chair.

office chair
The Humanscale Freedom Chair, first released in 1999, has been an workplace staple for 25 years.
Humanscale

Upon its release in 1999, the design quickly garnered attention for its innovative approach ergonomics. Time named it one of the best inventions of the decade. Today, it sits in the offices of everyone from Apple CEO Tim Cook to Barack Obama.

What makes the Freedom Chair special?

In the ’80s and ’90s, office chairs were big and bulky, equipped with all manner of knobs for manual adjustments.

So Bob King, the founder and CEO of Humanscale, teamed up with Diffrient to devise a chair that “people didn’t need a manual to use,” the company says.

The result would forever change how people thought about everyday ergonomics.

black and white photo of an office chair
An early prototype of the Freedom Chair.
Humanscale

The Freedom Chair debuted in 1999. It’s point of difference was that it could self-adjust, dynamically responding to the user and their seating position without the need for a knob.

Its signature feature is a counterbalance that handles all recline tension and tilt functionality.

Its signature feature is a counterbalance that handles all recline tension and tilt functionality with a weight-sensitive mechanism. A headrest also self-adjusts, while the synchronous armrests move in tandem, instead of one by one.

yellow office chair
The chair’s signature feature is its auto-adjusting counterbalance that handles all recline tension and tilt functionality without a knob.
Humanscale

If it all sounds somewhat standard today, that is only because the Freedom Chair made it so. Since its release, many of chairs have tried to adopt the same approach. None have done it more gracefully than Diffrient’s design.

Still sitting strong

For the Freedom Chair’s 25th anniversary this year, Humanscale plans to honor its design with a limited run of 250 examples upholstered in Vanir performance fabric or Elmosoft leather — customers have the option when signing up for the waitlist.

The Freedom 25th Anniversary Signature Edition also features aluminum detailing for the headrest support, handle and back adjust lever, as well an engraving of Diffrient’s signature. It costs $7,500.

To borrow Diffrient’s words, the Freedom Chair may not have been a “decorative endeavor” by design. But 25 years after its conception, it endures as a trophy worthy of the highest office.

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