Gilbert Rohde was an industrial designer and designer of modern furniture for Herman Miller Inc. He also consulted for the Heywood-Wakefield Company, Widdicomb and Troy Sunshade Company. He studied at the Art Students League and Grand Central School of Art in New York and was inspired by European modernism after a trip to France and Germany in 1927He was head of the WPA Federal Art Project Design Laboratory in New York. His work was exhibited in 1939 at the Museum of Modern Art in Washington DC. He is credited with designing the first examples of biomorphic furniture in the US.