George Nelson (1908–1986) was one of the founders of American Modernism, along with Charles and Ray Eames.

Writing about the trajectory of his extraordinary career spanning over 50 years, George Nelson described a series of creative “flashes”—moments of sudden inspiration “when a single individual finds himself connected to a reality he never dreamed of.”

One of the first flashes occurred in the 1930s while he was an architecture student in Rome. Before returning home, an idea struck him: he would travel through Europe and interview leading modern architects in hopes of publishing the articles in the US. He succeeded, and in the process introduced the American design community to the European avant-garde. This began a sequence of what he called “golden” career opportunities, which were nothing more than the inevitable effect of his brilliance as a designer, teacher, and author.

Nelson said that for a designer to deal productively with human needs, “he must first make a radical, conscious break with all values he identifies as anti-human.” Designers must also constantly remain aware of the consequences of their actions on people and society. Indeed, he declared that “total design is nothing more or less than a process of relating everything to everything.” Thus, he said that instead of specialization, designers must cultivate a broad base of knowledge and understanding.

Nelson did this as few others can, and, with the help of timely flashes, helped define modern and human design.

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