Herman Miller is heading into the new year with a changed branding identity inspired by its namesake founder’s 1960s-era experimentations with the Helvetica typeface, delivered by the Brooklyn-based design agency Order.

The move comes a year after Herman Miller’s 100th anniversary was celebrated with special exhibitions, a retrospective publication, and other programming. The prolific furniture maker’s signature ‘M’ logographic design from Irving Harper was preserved in the rebrand. The company says it is hopeful the refresh will help guide its next century of creative excellence.

“The last brand identity served Herman Miller well for 25 years, but that system predated many of the touchpoints we now have with the Herman Miller customer,” Herman Miller Creative Director Kelsey Keith recently detailed in It’s Nice That. “What we needed was an evolution of the brand, and a complete design system, one that could flex from a mobile phone screen to a physical space and everywhere in between, in all regions of the world.”

“I can think of no way better to jumpstart the next century, with a brand identity system that is timeless in its design yet carries through the boldness, rigor, joy, and tactility innate to the Herman Miller brand,” Keith continues.

Söhne, a typeface that the Klim Type Foundry describes as the "memory of Akzidenz-Grotesk framed through the reality of Helvetica," was then selected to more succinctly evoke the period in which the company grew to international acclaim thanks to collaborations with designers like Charles and Ray Eames, John Massey, Eero Saarinen, and others.

Herman Miller also acquired the rival company formerly known as Knoll last year for a reported $1.8 billion, bringing its portfolio of brands to a total of 19 with a presence in 100 different countries.