Working in the Electronic Garden: The Visual Rhetoric of Herman Miller's Action Office

The image on the cover of this journal represents the intersection of two important architectural and technological changes to American offices in the 1970s: the growth of the open-plan office and the transformation of corporate computing. This advertising image shows how manufacturer Herman Miller promoted its Action Office furniture system as a means of facilitating and supporting these twin developments, portraying the modern office as a verdant electronic garden. Through a close reading of the imagery, the author argues that the representation of people, plants, computers, and furniture is designed to convey both the humanizing qualities of the open-plan concept and the system's technical and aesthetic aspects. The image is a rich primary source that reveals important aspects of the rhetoric of Herman Miller.