Description

Zoo Timers Wall Clocks

The Zoo Timers (1965) by George Nelson – wall clocks in the form of colourfully hand-drawn characters from the animal kingdom – offer children a playful and enjoyable approach to telling the time.

As a truly multi-talented designer, George Nelson was also successful as a graphic designer. His hand-drawn Zoo Timers – children’s wall clocks in the form of colourful characters from the animal kingdom – contrast sharply with his sculptural wall clocks from the 1950s. The Zoo Timers offer children a playful and enjoyable approach to telling the time.

George Nelson, born 1908 in Hartford, Connecticut (USA), studied architecture at Yale University. A fellowship enabled him to study at the American Academy in Rome from 1932 to 1934. In Europe, he became acquainted with the major architectural works and leading protagonists of modernism.

In 1935, Nelson joined the editorial staff of the ‘Architectural Forum’, where he was employed until 1944. A programmatic article on residential building and furniture design, published by Nelson in a 1944 issue of the journal, attracted the attention of D.J. DePree, head of the furniture company Herman Miller, Inc. A short time later, George Nelson took on the position of Design Director at Herman Miller. Remaining there until 1972, he became a key figure of American design; in addition to creating furnishings for the home and office, Nelson also convinced the likes of Charles & Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi and Alexander Girard to work for Herman Miller.

In 1957, Vitra founder Willi Fehlbaum signed his first licence agreement with Herman Miller to produce furniture for the European market. During the ensuing decades of the collaboration with Vitra, a close friendship evolved between George Nelson and Rolf Fehlbaum, who later said about Nelson: ‘No other prominent designer spoke as intelligently or wrote as coherently about design’. Nelson expressed his thoughts on design topics in numerous articles and eleven books; his seminal treatise ‘How to See’ was recently reissued in a new edition by Phaidon.

Zoo Timers Wall Clocks