The merger of Herman Miller and Knoll, finalized in 2021, produced MillerKnoll — a group that brings together under one roof the Aeron, Eames, Knoll Saarinen, Barcelona Chair, and dozens of other canonical references in office and home design. On paper, it’s an undisputed leadership position.
In practice, it’s also a period of redefinition for the market these brands serve.
The Office Is No Longer What It Was
The pandemic reshuffled the office furniture deck in lasting ways. Companies are rationalizing their office footprint. Hybrid remote work is entrenched. Furniture investment has partially shifted from the corporate office to the home office.
For MillerKnoll, this creates an opportunity and a challenge simultaneously. The opportunity: the market of professionals equipping their homes with ergonomically quality products is real and growing. The challenge: selling an Aeron to an individual working from their living room is not the same exercise as signing a 500-desk corporate contract.
The Residence as New Growth Frontier
Herman Miller was among the first to understand this movement. Its collaborations with companies like Apple (the Apple Park offices) gave it visibility with the broader consumer and tech audience. But residential distribution — through design retailers, platforms like Design Within Reach — represents the frontier to cross.
Knoll, for its part, built its residential legitimacy since the 1950s with collaborations with Florence Knoll, Saarinen, and Mies van der Rohe. Its “home” dimension has historically been more pronounced than Herman Miller’s.
What the Merger Changes Strategically
MillerKnoll now has to decide how to articulate two brands whose heritages are complementary but whose identities are distinct. Herman Miller = ergonomics, innovation, active workspace. Knoll = design, art, residence, architecture.
The exercise is delicate: merging too hard dilutes both brands. Maintaining too much separation prevents synergies. The likely answer is a dual brand architecture with convergence points on the hybrid workspace — a space where ergonomics and residential aesthetics meet. And that is precisely where both brands can be stronger together than apart.