Arthur Umanoff

Born in 1923, Arthur Umanoff was an American industrial designer, known for his contribution to the American modern movement of the mid-20th century. A graduate of New York's prestigious Pratt Institute and the American School of Design in the early 1950s, Umanoff began working with Post Modern Ltd, a New York design firm that produced and sold modernist wrought iron and wood furniture. Throughout the 1960s, he worked closely with furniture manufacturer Shaver Howard, which put several of his designs into production. He also designed clocks for Howard Miller.

Arthur Umanoff believed that design should not only be beautifully constructed and functional, but also feasible. Using natural materials and new methods to reinvent traditional furniture, Arthur Umanoff created versatile pieces for the home that were celebrated for their quality as well as their simplified and functional forms. Warm and inviting, his designs have often been imagined in wrought iron, rattan, walnut and birch, infused with functional details while maintaining a sense of natural elegance with their slender, tapered lines.