Bernhardt Design Charles Pollock CP2 Chair

Originally founded by John M. Bernhardt in 1889, Bernhardt Furniture Company has evolved and expanded for more than 125 years, adding Bernhardt Design for the commercial and contract market in 1983.

Under the leadership of Creative Director and now President Jerry Helling, Bernhardt Design has commissioned designs by top global design talent and some of the most creative minds in the business.  Reaching beyond the elite design world, Bernhardt Design is also known for cultivating emerging designers across many disciplines, including art, industrial design, textile design, music, and cinema.

Created with meticulous attention to both aesthetic beauty and functionality, Bernhardt Design furniture is equally at home in a residence as it is in an office space or hotel lobby.

Born in Philadelphia, Pollock began his design education at Cass Technical High School in Detroit where he was considered a star student and won numerous art and design awards. He later won a scholarship to study at Pratt Institute, from which he graduated in 1953. After serving in the United States Army for two years where he was art editor for INFANTRY Magazine, Pollock worked with George Nelson at Herman Miller.

In 1958 he left Nelson's office and seeded a fruitful relationship with Florence Knoll through her retirement in 1965. Knoll Planning Unit Member Vincent Cafiero saw great promise in the young designer and early prototypes of his 657 Lounge, an elegant essay in leather, steel and plastic. Pollock's 1250 series, an innovative collection of management chairs with a structural aluminum rim, was an immediate classic and is still sold today as one of Knoll's most iconic designer collaborations and a visual symbol of the modern workplace.

In 2012, at age 82, Pollock introduced new products commissioned by Bernhardt Design to the American market for the first time since introducing his executive chairs for Knoll 47 years prior. His CP Lounge collection beautifully embodies his enduring design principles, continuous lines, aesthetics, and functionality.