Our ongoing collaboration with the estate of Alexander Girard continues with Small Squares (1953), a print developed during his second year as Head of Fabric and Textile Design at Herman Miller. Created at a pivotal moment in his tenure, the design reflects Girard’s early efforts to define a new visual language for textiles within modernist interiors.

Within the print, an irregular arrangement of colored squares is set against a muted ground, balancing spontaneity with underlying order. This tension situates Small Squares within a broader mid-century context, where artists and designers explored abstraction through both reduction and repetition. Geometric forms and a restrained color palette reference Bauhaus and early modernist painting. Without any noticeable symmetry in the print, Small Squares appears particularly hand-made. As with much of Girard's work, these design characteristics support the idea that design 

Influences of Bauhaus and early modernist painting are both evident in its use of geometric forms and restrained palette, while the loose grid structure suggests a departure from strict symmetry toward a more dynamic, human-centered composition. As with much of Girard’s work, the design reinforces his view of textiles as active architectural elements rather than passive decoration.

To continue Girard’s emphasis on quality craftsmanship, we had Small Squares meticulously reengineered by our Italian partner mill on a summer-weight 100% cotton poplin. Each color was matched to its original Pantone, and extra care was taken to ensure pigments hold fast and resist bleeding, preserving the clarity and balance of the original composition.

Formal or casual, tucked or untucked, our easy-wearing shirts are an obvious choice for all occasions.