Ilmari Tapiovaara served as a department head at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and designed for Knoll, as well as Merva, Thonet, Schaman, Hackman and Olivetti. After studying industrial and interior design at the Taideteollisuuskeskuskoulu in Helsinki, he worked for Aalto, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. In 1937, he established his own office with Annikki Tapiovaara.
