Isamu Noguchi was born in 1904 in the United States but moved to Japan for his childhood years before moving back to the States again for high school. He began in design through creating playgrounds, stage sets, and gardens.
Isamu Noguchi began to work with Herman Miller in the late 1940s and produced the popular Articulated Table. With its glass top and two identical legs, it is considered a modern sculpture that radiates the tension characteristic of Surrealist paintings. He also created a popular series of lamps for Knoll but failed the patent them which led many people creating copycat designs of poorer quality. Despite this setback he continued to design lamps improving on paper lanterns he found in the Japanese town of Gifu, which resulted in a elegant series of lamps that look like glowing objects floating in space.