Niels Diffrient called himself a generalist, and proved it

The autobiography Niels Diffrient published in 2012 is titled Confessions of a Generalist, and the record backs the confession: aircraft interiors for American Airlines, tractor operator cabs for John Deere, a telephone, a camera, computers, trucks and exhibits, across twenty-five years at Henry Dreyfuss Associates and three more decades in his own Connecticut studio. Yet the generalist kept returning to one question — how a working body actually sits — until ergonomic seating became his main subject and more than fifty patents carried his name.

That lifelong question produced the Humanscale chairs offices ask for by name: Freedom, Liberty and Diffrient Smart, which La Mercanti supplies to Indian workplaces along with the full range of the brand.