George Nelson is an American designer who was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1908. He went to Harvard with no intention what so ever to become a designer; he planned on devoting his life to academics. But, after a tour of Europe and being based in Italy, he found that he had a taste for design. With his ideas, he revolutionized what a designer is and does. He is well-known for two of his designs: the coconut chair and the ball or atom clock.

George Nelson believed that modern designers should focus their designs on making the world better since nature was already perfect; man only ruined it when he made things that did not follow the rules of nature. Because of his view on designs, he came up with new ways to improve the solutions that were needed to make every day life easier. One design that he came up with was the storage wall. This design made use of the space in a wall for something that a house never seems to have enough of. By utilizing the space in a wall, extra storage room did not take up any extra space.

The Ball or atom clock that was designed in 1949 and was a collaboration of Nelson, F. Buckminster, I. Noguchi, and I. Harper after a night of drinking and fun; it was the brainstorm of each of them adding a little of this and a little of that in fun, rather than trying to come up with ?the perfect design.? The design of this clock is of a clock with a circular face that has spokes radiating from each hour marking with a ball on the end of the spoke. The clock comes in a variety of colors?either in a single shade or in a variety of colors that complement each other.

The contemporary furniture design of George Nelson's coconut chair came from the natural shape of a coconut seed. This chair was designed in 1955 and consisted of a curving, triangular shell made from plastic. An upholstered foam pad in either fabric or leather sits is attached to the plastic shell. The chair sits upon a trivet of slim, chromed legs.

George Nelson is an American contemporary designer who had no intention of going into architecture or design while in school. But after interviewing and talking with several other well-known contemporary designers he found himself defending contemporary or modern designs to the general public so much that he began making designs of his own.