Forever Modern

DECEMBER 30, 2009. Splashed across The New York Times is an image of Alan Heller holding his Bellini chair, accompanied by a story in which Heller publicly calls out Design Within Reach (DWR) for copying his design and details his lawsuit against the company.

John Edelman was poised to assume his role as CEO of DWR within the week, and his first course of action was getting in touch with Heller. After a conversation, Heller and Edelman became fast friends, all the knockoffs were pulled off the market and DWR became Heller’s biggest customer.

Thus began a lasting friendship that would change the trajectory of their lives, both personally and professionally.

HISTORY OF HELLER 

But the story of Heller furniture goes back much further, to 1971. Heller had been inspired a few years earlier when he saw stackable melamine dishes designed by Massimo Vignelli and approached the designer. The original Italian manufacturer of the pieces had gone out of business, and Heller (himself the son of a housewares manufacturer) saw the potential for collaboration. With a few design tweaks to better suit the American consumer—larger cups to accommodate coffee instead of espresso shots—the now iconic Heller dinnerware was born.

MASS SUCCESS 

Success followed, with more household items added to the company’s repertoire, like Lella and Massimo Vignelli’s benches and Sergio Asti’s ice bucket. Designers began approaching the company with ideas, including Philippe Starck’s cheeky 1994 Excalibur toilet brush. The nature of the molded plastic products meant they were priced accessibly, allowing many people to own and collect Heller designs.

The furniture division of Heller launched in 1998 and the aforementioned Bellini chair, designed by Mario Bellini, went public in 1999. It was featured in DWR’s first catalogue and sold thousands of units through the retailer over the years. In 2001, the chair won the Compasso d’Oro, the Italian design-equivalent of the Oscar. A collaboration with lauded architect and designer Frank Gehry further solidified Heller’s place in the modern design space.

The relationship between Heller and DWR continued through the 2000s, bringing Heller products to more customers than ever (although, according to Edelman, the smaller design company sometimes struggled to keep up with the larger retailer’s demand and didn’t fully capitalize on their potential). That relationship soured in 2009 when DWR began producing a shockingly similar-looking chair to Heller’s Bellini, for about $50 less. That’s when Edelman entered the picture.

A LIFE IN DESIGN

Edelman himself has been connected to the design world for most of his life. His parents owned a Newtown-based fine leather business, and after seven years working at his brother’s shoe company, Edelman joined his parents’ business and started making connections in the design trade. During this time, Edelman visited the 26th Street Flea Market in New York City every weekend. “I became impassioned about modern furniture,” says Edelman.

When he approached Herman Miller about supplying their leather, Edelman’s product was graded into the famed furniture company’s catalog as an upgrade. Edelman Leather took off and is now a lifestyle leather company, encompassing residential, hospitality, corporate interiors and private aircraft products.

In 2009, a business acquaintance tapped Edelman for his expertise in running and operating a company, which led to his assuming the role of CEO of DWR. What followed was a decade of repairing relationships with designers, restructuring, product launches and astounding growth. When Edelman sold DWR to Herman Miller in 2019, the brand was five times as large as when he started.

BEYOND DESIGN WITHIN REACH

After an intense few years in the corporate world, Edelman took some time off and experimented in the beverage industry, but his love of modern furniture and his friendship with Heller kept him close to the design industry.

Edelman had tried to buy the company multiple times over the years, but Heller himself was a bit of a tease, joking that he’d be buried with the molds of the company designs. Upon Heller’s passing in 2021, Edelman finally purchased the company.

“That’s the only company I wanted to buy,” says Edelman. Barbara Bluestone, Heller’s companion for the last 20 years of his life, told Edelman he was the only person she was allowed to sell the company to, per Heller’s wishes.

“My passion is modern furniture, so I just knew Heller was my fantasy business,” says Edelman. “I want to work with the design community, work with designers to create the next generation of modern design.”

The purchase of Heller Furniture included little else besides a brand, a collection of products and a single employee. There was no infrastructure, marketing team, sales force or customer service. The company hadn’t launched a new product in 25 years, and Heller’s poor health before his death meant many accounts and business affairs had fallen into disarray.

THE NEW HELLER

Edelman and his new business partner Andrew McPhee (son of Edelman’s longtime collaborator and friend John McPhee) immediately got to work, and the company has been in overdrive ever since.

Classics like the Vignelli Rocker and Hellerware were revived in the first year of business, in addition to a Bellini stool that complemented the chair that started Edelman’s Heller journey. New products, like Anna Dawson’s Swell Wall Catchall, Hylnur Atlason’s Bluff Chair and Limbo Chair (Edelman’s favorite piece), launched in spring 2023, to great acclaim.

By fostering both young and established designers, Edelman honors Heller’s legacy of mentorship, collaboration and telling the story of designers he believed in, in addition to bringing fresh ideas to market.

The push forward shows no signs of slowing down, and the latest development at Heller is perhaps the most groundbreaking: Starting this April, many plastic Heller products will be fully biodegradable. In collaboration with Worry Free Plastic, an organic enzyme will be embedded into Heller’s polymer material, and when left in an oxygen-free environment for three to five years, the enzymes are activated and consume the polymer, leaving behind nutrient-rich soil. All Heller furniture is already 100% recyclable through their closed-loop program, but Edelman thinks this new technology would have brought joy to the company’s founder.

“He was always obsessed with innovation,” says Edelman, “so I think this current partnership with Worry Free Plastics and making it biodegradable is something he would have dreamed of.”

The introduction of this cutting-edge technology serves Edelman’s ethos of doing good by being good to the environment and creating items that are built to bring joy and comfort every day.

Through it all, Edelman has upheld his four core beliefs of what makes “modern” design: “Modern is aesthetically pleasing, designed for a purpose, void of ego and it can go anywhere, penthouse to warehouse, and in this company, indoors and out,” says Edelman. “Modern is forever.”

BY COLLEEN CROWLEY