10.6.09 | New York, NY | Humanscale’s Freedom, Liberty and Diffrient World chairs will be featured as part of the upcoming Design USA: Contemporary Innovation exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. A celebration of the first ten years of the prestigious National Design Awards, the exhibit will launch on October 16 and honor design legend Niels Diffrient, among other winners in the competition’s history.

Diffrient, creator of the Freedom, Liberty and Diffrient World chairs, received the National Design Award for Product Design in 2002, recognizing his significant and enduring contributions to American industrial design. The Cooper-Hewitt will honor Diffrient by displaying the Freedom chair “in use” at the Admissions Desk throughout the life of the exhibition. Meanwhile, six of Diffrient’s Liberty chairs will be displayed around a table in the Great Hall of the Andrew Carnegie mansion, transforming it into a reading room. The Diffrient World chair will be featured in the exhibit itself.

The Cooper-Hewitt has honored Diffrient’s designs in the past, most recently as part of its third National Design Triennial, which recognized the Liberty chair as one of the most innovative and forward-thinking designs in American culture from 2003 to 2006. Diffrient joined 86 other designers and firms that were honored at the Triennial exhibition, including Boeing, Nike, Apple and NASA.

The Design USA: Contemporary Innovation exhibition features outstanding contemporary achievements in American architecture, landscape design, interior design, product design, communication design, corporate design, interaction design, and fashion. Developed in collaboration with design firm 2x4, Design USA focuses on innovation through the lens of technology, material, method, craft and transformation.

The National Design Awards were conceived by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, to honor the best in American design. First launched at the White House in 2000 as an official project of the White House Millennium Council, the annual awards program celebrates design in various disciplines as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world, and seeks to increase national awareness of design by educating the public and promoting excellence, innovation, and lasting achievement. The awards are national in scope, as nominations for the 2009 awards were solicited from a committee of more than 800 leading designers, educators, journalists, cultural figures, and corporate leaders from every state in the nation.

The Design USA exhibition will be on display at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, from October 16, 2009 through April 4, 2010. The Cooper-Hewitt is located at 91st Street and 5th Avenue, in the Andrew Carnegie mansion, on New York’s famed Museum Mile.

For more information about Humanscale and its full range of ergonomic solutions, visit www.humanscale.com or call 800-400-0625.

About Humanscale

Humanscale is the premier designer and manufacturer of ergonomic tools for a more comfortable workplace. Our innovative seating, monitor arms, lighting, keyboard supports, and other ergonomic solutions are designed to improve the health, efficiency and quality of work life.

Humanscale products are based on the belief that when design solves a functional problem as simply and elegantly as possible, the resulting form will be honest and timeless. This philosophy has served us well: Humanscale was the only contract furniture manufacturer named among I.D. Magazine's top ten “enterprises that help push design forward” along with other design-driven companies including Nike and BMW. And our Liberty chair was the only task seating solution featured in the 2007 National Design Triennial at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Liberty joined the Apple iPod and Boeing's 787 Dreamliner jet, among others, as one of the most important design innovations in America.

Environmental Statement

Humanscale is committed to environmental sustainability and continually strives to design, engineer and manufacture products that:

• Weigh less, requiring less raw material
• Use fewer parts and manufacturing processes
• Contain a high percentage of recycled content
• Contain a high percentage of recyclable content

Humanscale is also a proud supporter of World Wildlife Fund, and our founder and CEO, Robert King, has served on WWF’s National Council since 1999.