Mid-Century MCM Square Facet Coffee Table by Friso Kramer for Ahrend De Cirkel, 1970s

The Life of Friso Kramer

Dutch designer Friso Kramer, born in 1922, belongs to the Netherlands' first generation of industrial designers and played a significant role in the development of the nation’s modernist aesthetic style from the 1940s until today. Kramer studied interior architecture at the Institute for Education in Arts and Crafts in Amsterdam, and went on to work at notable architecture agencies Bureau J.P. Kloos and the Frans Paulussen Bureau before being employed as a designer for Ahrend de Cirkel.

The Iconic Designs and Accomplishments of Friso Kramer

Friso Kramer conceived his most revered design, the Revolt Chair, in 1953 while employed as a designer at Ahrend de Cirkel. The chair’s steel plated frame is an icon of Dutch post-war design: its form undoubtedly inspired by the molded plywood chair designs of Charles & Ray Eames Charles and Ray Eames. One of the first chairs to be industrially produced, the top-selling Revolt Chair became a staple in classrooms, offices and homes in the Netherlands and worldwide. Instead of utilizing steel tubing, which was common for the day, Kramer used steel plated plastic for the chair frame, creating a low cost and essentially indestructible product. The Revolt is still available today, in a larger, redesigned form commissioned from Kramer by Ahrend around 1990. Kramer’s insistence on using high-quality materials and construction influenced countless Industrial designers.

In 1963 Kramer co-founded the Total Design group. The group consisted of professionals from other industries such as graphic design, spatial design and organization and finance, with the aim to "develop and execute ideas on design in all fields, in order, where possible, to achieve a unity of ideas, or 'total design' in these fields". Until this point, almost all major design commissions from Dutch clients were going offshore as there were no major agencies in the Netherlands at this time. Total Design aimed to fill this gap and took up a number of commissions and projects before Kramer left in 1967. The mixed skillset of the group allowed for clients from industry, trade, transport, and the government and cultural sectors such as Randstad, the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum, Schiphol Airport, De Bijenkorf, Steenkolen Handelsvereeniging, and the Stichting Arts and Business Foundation.

Friso Kramer in Later Life & Today

Kramer returned to the Ahrend Group in 1971 where he served as art director until 1983. In 1972 Kramer designed the popular and distinctive MEHES office furniture series for Ahrend/Oda Company. The MEHES name was an acronym for the needs that he had defined as essential within an office: mobility, efficiency, humanization, environment and standardization. The minimalist Tables in the series are constructed of thin, L-shaped legs, which support a worktop that appears to float, employing a minimum number of parts for maximum effect. In 1979 Friso Kramer received the title 'Royal Designer for Industry' from the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) in London.

Dutch manufacturer Ahrend De Cirkel is the union of two separate companies: Ahrend, founded by Jacobus Ahrend in 1896, and De Cirkel, founded by Jan Schröfer in 1934. In the postwar era, Ahrend De Cirkel produced furniture by some of the Netherlands’ most celebrated designers, most notably Friso Kramer and Wim Rietveld. Today, Ahrend De Cirkel originals remain highly popular on the vintage market.

In Amsterdam in 1896, Jacobus Ahrend founded Wed. J. Ahrend & Son and quickly established a niche in functional, ergonomic office furniture. In 1930, the company acquired a steel press and launched its steel furniture department. That same year, Jan Schröfer designed the Zitnrom-stoel (1931) for Ahrend. Later, in 1934, Schröfer founded the steel furniture company De Cirkel in Amsterdam, which later relocated with Ahrend to Zwanenburg. Somewhere between 1939 and 1941, Ahrend acquired a large stake in De Cirkel, and the furniture collections of each carried the stamp “Ahrend De Cirkel.”

In 1948, Friso Kramer (b. 1922)—son of accomplished architect Piet Kramer (1881-1961)—began designing for Ahrend De Cirkel. Kramer went on to become the Art Director from 1971 to 1983. Kramer’s work for Ahrend De Cirkel was crucial to its success, as he was an active member in many influential design associations and a driving force behind the development of the Dutch modernist aesthetic from the 1950s onward.

In 1953, Kramer designed the Eames-inspired, steal and plywood Revolt Chair—a true classic of midcentury Dutch design and arguably Kramer’s most famous work. An archetype of efficient industrial design, Kramer’s lightweight and affordable chair could be found in classrooms, offices, and homes around the world in the postwar era. The Revolt went out of production for decades but was reintroduced by Ahrend in 2004. The new polypropylene version won ‘Best Interior Design Product’ at the 2005 Dutch Design Awards.

In 1957, Dutch designer Wim Rietveld (1924-1985) in collaboration with his father, the legendary architect Gerrit Rietveld, designed the stackable Mondial Chair for Gispen—which was exhibited in Brussels at the World Fair in 1958. The prototype was realized in aluminum, but Gipsen preferred the chair to be manufactured in plastic. This prompted Rietveld to find a new manufacturer. In 1958, he left Gispen and moved to Ahrend De Cirkel, where he began a fruitful collaboration with Kramer that would last for many years.

Kramer and Rietveld produced a number of now-iconic designs for Ahrend De Cirkel, ranging from functionalist seating and tables, to storage and shelving systems. Kramer’s standouts include the Facet Table (1964); the ergonomic, modular MEHES office series (1972); AKD Chair (1973); and FKS Stackable Chair and Table (1998). Famous designs from Rietveld include the Result Chair (1958); Oase Chair (1958); Reply Drafting Table (1958), which received the prestigious Signe d'Or prize in Brussels in 1963; Pyramid Table and Chair (1960); and Revolve Chair (1961).

In 1967, Ahrend acquired the steel company ODA alongside De Cirkel, and the latter two became subsidiaries of Ahrend.  Today, Ahrend focuses on innovative office furniture and sustainable working environments, while still producing many of the classics from Kramer and Rietveld.

* Images courtesy of Ahrend