Knoll: «Good design is good business» — Florence Knoll said it first

Knoll classics and office lines in a London headquarters

Long before design thinking had a name, Florence Knoll gave business its sharpest design maxim: «Good design is good business». Her house has spent 75 years proving it — publishing Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Chair, Saarinen, Bertoia and Risom, then renewing the bench with Lissoni, Barber & Osgerby and Antenna Design: a hundred years of design from thirty global architects, under one standing order — «Modern always». For UK offices, that means a rare thing: furniture that is both heritage and current.

La Mercanti supplies the full range — Knoll office systems and the living icons — with most production, notably, made in Italy.

FAQ

What did Florence Knoll mean by her maxim?

That design is strategy, not decoration: her «Planning Unit» designed offices around how businesses actually worked — the maxim «good design is good business» was a results claim, and the client list proved it.

Is Knoll a heritage brand or a current one?

Deliberately both: the icons stay in production while new work by Lissoni, Barber & Osgerby and Antenna Design keeps the catalogue contemporary — «Modern always» is policy, not nostalgia.

How to make design pay in an office project

Florence Knoll's maxim, applied: five business-first design moves.

Start from the work

Map how teams operate before choosing a single piece.

Invest where clients look

Reception and boardroom repay design spend first.

Choose enduring pieces

Icons amortise over decades, trends over seasons.

Keep a coherent language

One design culture across floors reads as strategy.

Measure the effect

Recruiting, retention, client feedback: design shows up in numbers.