Knoll By Any Other Name? The Trials and Tribulations of Transnational Expansion in the UK

This article considers how the US-based furniture company Knoll Associates (est. 1946) through its Europe-based global arm, Knoll International (KI; est. 1954), wielded two transnational expansion business strategies—subsidiaries and licensing—in the UK between 1957 and 1970. In 1961, after a trademark dispute barred it from conducting business under its name, KI and its local partner Meredew adopted an entirely new tradename: Interiors International. In addition to manufacturing, marketing, and distributing Knoll furniture, Meredew set up a design service modeled on the Knoll Planning Unit that advanced the early careers of several furniture, interior, and graphic designers, among them Elizabeth Goldfinger and Mervyn Kurlansky. But despite the partnership’s success, just six years later Knoll canceled the license in favor of opening a subsidiary. Led by Monty Berman, Form International, as the new company was named, initiated a series of design projects, employing the emerging designer Jane Young (Dillon) and commissioning the avant-garde architect-designer Max Clendinning for new lines, as well as exporting UK-made Knoll products into East Africa. If these two tradenames have served to obscure Knoll’s presence in the UK, this article argues that these autonomous identities made important and unrecognized contributions to local design culture. Along the way, it draws out many “unseen” Knoll collaborators.