Jerome Caruso

Jerome Caruso is an American industrial and furniture designer known for his designs for Herman Miller, Sub-Zero, and Motorola. He has won six Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) awards and holds more than 100 US and international patents. His Bi-Cast chair is in the American Arts collection at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Career While Caruso was in a graduate program at the University of Copenhagen, he began working at Bernadotte & Bjorn, founded by Prince Sigvard Bernadotte of Sweden. At 26 years old, he opened his own design studio in Brussels with clients in Belgium, England, France, and Germany. He later returned to the US and established a studio where his projects ranged from leading Motorola’s entry into the manufacture of LCD watch modules to designing and engineering the first completely machine-produced stack chair.

Caruso designed the Bi-Cast chair (prototyped and managed all tooling) for the first machine-produced stack chair for the U.S. market. His patent for the Bi-Cast chair has 21 separate claims and is featured in the American Arts Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. Another creation was "the invisible kitchen," which was made possible by his patented invention of an "internal hinge," allowing the appearance of perfectly seamless, customizable refrigerator doors and drawers. As a result, refrigerators could be made to "disappear" behind panels that matched the surrounding kitchen cabinets. It was named one of the 10 best products of 1995 by Time Magazine, which wrote, "This is the stuff that Martha Stewart's dreams are made of." BusinessWeek referred to him as "The Man Behind a Kitchen Revolution."

He also designed award-winning ergonomic seating for Herman Miller including the Reaction Chair and Celle Chair. Caruso’s invention of the Composite Spring Control, which he developed with his son Steven Caruso,

Awards Source: 1987 - IDSA Award, Sub-Zero 500 Series 1991 - IDSA Award, Attiva Seating System/Thonet Industries 1995 - Time magazine Year’s 10 Best Products, Sub-Zero 700 Series 1997 - IDSA Award, Sub-Zero 500 Series 1998 - Annual Design Review, I.D. Magazine, Reaction Chair/Herman Miller 1998 - Design Excellence Award, Design Journal, Reaction Chair/Herman Miller 1998 - Best of NeoCon Gold Award, Reaction Chair/Herman Miller 2001 - IDSA Award, Wine Storage Units/Sub-Zero Freezer Co. 2002 - IDSA Award, Reaction Chair/Herman Miller 2002 - IDSA Award, Convection Oven Line, Radiant Cooktop Line/Wolf Appliance Company 2003 - Good Design Award, Chicago Athenaeum, Convection Oven Line, Radiant Cooktop Line/Wolf Appliance Company 2010 - A &D Distinguished Alumni Award, School of Art & Design, University of Illinois

Personal life Caruso married Ruth Marie Beals in 1960. They moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, where he attended a graduate program in fine arts at the University of Copenhagen. They later moved to Arlington Heights, Illinois and then Lake Forest, Illinois, residing in a house Caruso designed himself.

Caruso established the Significant Design Award for graduating seniors at his alma mater, the University of Illinois, a scholarship that honors an outstanding junior or senior in the industrial design program who demonstrates the ability to create significant, sustainable designs that improve the quality of people's lives.