Modern furniture design, also referred to as midcentury modern for its popularity during the mid-20th century, was influenced by the idea that craftsmen and artists could work together to create functional furniture with a more artistic appeal. In the design sense, modern does not refer to the current day, but to a particular aesthetic.

Furniture designers were eager to try these new materials. They found they could use molded fiberglass to create chairs, or wrap a lounge chair around steel legs rather than a wood frame.

The modernist movement sought to reject the traditional design aesthetic while embracing a cleaner, less ornate design along with modern materials made available by technological advances.