In a competition that drew nearly 200 entries from around the world, Herman Miller's Aeron chair has emerged as one of 12 gold award winners for product quality.

The Design of the Decade awards scheme, sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America and Business Week magazine, named gold, silver and bronze prizes in a series of categories. Aeron was the clear leader in the Furniture competition, with silver going to Teknion's Ability system.

"The Aeron chair evolved to become a design classic," noted one judge. "It adds to the quality of work life."

Herman Miller acknowledged that the chair has had a significant positive impact on the company from every perspective - design reputation, brand recognition and of course sales.

In the Business Products category, the gold award went jointly to the new iMac and the PalmPilot, with silver recognition for Apple's PowerBook and IBM's Thinkpad.

Elliott Chase