Designing Happiness

How Bruce Hannah sees the world

“My goal in life has been to make everyone laugh all day,” says Bruce Hannah, whose company we’ve unabashedly delighted in while developing the new release of the office chair he and Andrew Morrison designed in 1973. What follows are Bruce's words—assorted lessons for designing an amusing, or even bemusing, life.

"A lot of the things I do have personality. I like it when objects greet me and say hello. There's a lot of stuff that ignores me."

From flowers to balustrades, Bruce finds inspiration everywhere.

On wandering

“Andy and I would take long walks around New York City, and it was amazing what would happen during those walks that didn’t happen in the studio. We’d find inspiration everywhere—in the juxtaposition of materials, or how a street transitions into a park. Design is where something transitions from one thing to another, just like the transitions in life. To me, the most interesting things are transitions.”

Gallery

A Bird Chair by Harry Bertoia is Bruce's favorite spot to do crossword puzzles.

"Part of being a designer is learning how to make things in the most efficient way. If it takes four parts to make something, Andy and I would challenge ourselves to do it in three. It's like writing poetry. You try to get rid of everything that's irrelevant."

On thinking

“To be creative, you have to find ways to stop thinking about the thing you’re thinking about. Doing nothing is the hardest thing in the world, but the only time you’re doing something is when you’re doing nothing.”

On fishing

“I used to teach a class called ‘Fishing for Ideas’ where I’d expose my students to unconventional settings—even fishing trips—to show how crucial they were to creative practice. Although, I’d never want to design fishing equipment. It’s too complicated; you have two customers to lure.”

"Round is better than square," Bruce says.

On roundness

“The cushions on the Morrison Hannah Chair were originally square, but Andy and I were like ‘those corners are not happy. Maybe we should take the corners off.’ We just kept at it, making the curve faster or slower until the square became round. Since then, I’ve been on a personal crusade to round as many corners and create as much softness in the world as I can.”

On designing

“Being able to work on the chair again, all these years later, was an extraordinary experience. It was a happy chair in 1973, and after the recent changes we made to it, it’s even happier today. If someone says they finished a design, they’re not a designer. You never finish.”