The Panton Chair is a design iconic found in homes, museums and restaurants across the world. Also known as the S Chair thanks to its cantilevered silhouette, Verner Panton’s eponymously named chair revolutionised modern furniture production.
Read on to find out everything there is to know about this statement chair and the designer behind it.
Behind the design
Verner Panton first designed the Panton Chair in 1959 alongside renowned manufacturer Vitra. Above all, as one of the most forward-thinking mid-century designs, the plastic cantilevered chair was an industry first.
A neatly stacked pile of plastic buckets reportedly inspired Panton to design a stackable chair made using plastic. He began creating sketches during the 1950s and the design immediately stood out because it rejected wood.
At the time wood was one of the materials favoured by Panton’s contemporaries. The chair’s distinctive silhouette also sets it apart from some of the most popular designs of the era. Its 19767 unveiling in the Danish design journal Mobilia caused a sensation and the Panton Chair subsequently became a staple in Pop Art interiors.
In the following years the Panton Chair featured in photo shoots and editorial campaigns across the world. For example, it most famously featured in a 1995 British Vogue shoot where it was sat on by a nude Kate Moss.
Choosing colours should not be a gamble. It should be a conscious decision. Colours have a meaning and a function. Verner Panton
How it's made
Given that Verner Panton’s aim was to create a lightweight, comfortable chair made using a single piece of plastic, it’s no wonder it took him several years to find the right manufacturer.
Finally partnering with Vitra in 1963, Panton and the prestigious manufacturer developed the Panton Chair over the next four years. Whilst Vitra’s original design was made using fibreglass, today’s model is crafted from injection-moulded plastic.
State-of-the-art machines shape each chair using a ten-tonne mould and heated thermoplastic. Once cooled, specialists hand-finish the Panton Chair so each one boasts the most refined finish possible.
About the designer
One of the mid-century designers who embraced colour with open arms, Verner Panton remains a revered name today. His unique sense of colour, shape and light led him to create designs such as the Panton Chair, Panthella Table Lamp and the Heart Cone Chair.
Having studied architecture at Copenhagen’s Academy of Fine Arts, Verner Panton’s career began working at famed designer Arne Jacobsen’s firm. Having spent just two years working under the master, Panton founded his own studio. The main purpose of my work is to provoke people into using their imagination and make their surroundings more exciting.
His work differed largely from that of his Scandinavian contemporaries thanks to his fascination with cutting-edge technology. In fact, it is this curiosity that led to the Panton Chair – the world’s first single-form injection-moulded plastic chair.
Experimentation with state-of-the-art technologies, techniques and materials allowed Panton to step away from the norm and truly experiment with design. He was also similarly fascinated with colour. Many of his most-celebrated designs boast bright primary colours, like the Panton Chair.
Today countless museums across the globe display his work with pride. Some notable institutions include the MoMA in New York, Copenhagen's Danish Museum of Art and Design and London’s Design Museum. Vintage Panton pieces can garner huge sums when sold and are incredibly sought after.
[ INSPIRATION ]
Behind the design
Philippe Starck and Eugeni Quitllet’s Masters Chair is one of the world’s most celebrated designs. As part of the Heal’s Icons series, we delved a little deeper to discover the history of this iconic design.
Behind the design
In 2005, Philippe Starck designed the Masters Chair in collaboration with Catalan designer Eugeni Quitllet. The iconic chair boasts the innovative features and detailing the industry has come to expect from a Starck design, and is consequently a standout piece in the Heal’s collection.
This contemporary chair is a powerful tribute to three iconic chair silhouettes. Its shape re-reads and re-interprets Arne Jacobsen’s Series 7, Charles and Ray Eames’ Eiffel Chair and Eero Saarinen’s Tulip Chair. Individual elements from these three chairs are interwoven to create a unique hybrid design that fuses classic and contemporary design.
The Masters Chair is renowned across the globe and, in addition to winning the 2013 Red Dot Design Award, received the prestigious Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum in 2010.
The lightweight, stackable design is crafted from moulded, ultra-strong polypropylene that allows it to be used inside and outdoors. Its ergonomically designed backrest and comfortably curved seat mean it’s the perfect chair for dinging spaces and offices alike.
About the designer
French designer Philippe Starck is renowned for using innovative and unusual materials to create his statement-making designs. Throughout the course of his career, Starck has designed over 10,000 pieces of furniture, buildings and interiors.
“We were not born today. We had some great predecessors. The Masters Chair brings to mind the lines of three great masters and three great masterpieces. With them all together, they create a new product, a new project, a reflection of our new society.” Philippe Starck
The belief that clever design is perfectly poised to change the way we live drives the thought process for each furniture and lighting piece. Furthermore, Starck passionately believes design can improve quality of life for a wide audience, rather than just the elite few.
As such, he combines an array of materials to create versatile designs that can be used in a multitude of places. Included in his repertoire are designs such as the Ghost Chair, the KTribe Lamp and the Dr Yes Armchair. He is also the brains behind iconic hotels and restaurants, such as the anthropomorphic building Nani Nani in Tokyo.
Shop the Masters Chair
As part of our ‘Sit Down, Stand Out’ exhibition taking place at our Tottenham Court Road store, we’re celebrating the iconic chairs that have shaped modern British design. One of those chairs is the 675 Chair by Robin Day (1952); a compact and supportive design perfect for any home office.
15 different versions are currently on display at our Tottenham Court Road store in an exclusive exhibition in support of The Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation. Read more below and click here to view the live auction.
Who was Robin Day?
Robin Day (1915-2010) was one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed British designers. Throughout a seven-decade career, he brought contemporary design to a mass market at an affordable price and alongside his wife, textile designer Lucienne Day, he produced work that has left him synonymous with post-war modernism.
Robin belonged to the idealistic generation of designers in the 1950s that truly believed in the power of design to enhance people’s lives. He wanted to make great design available to all the world at an affordable price, experimenting with new and inexpensive materials.
He showed a passion for design from a young age and went on to win a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London. He found the course lacked enough focus on three-dimensional design but it was here that he met his wife, Lucienne.
Lucienne was a successful designer in her own right and later went on to become one of Britain’s most famous textile designers. She notched up more than 70 patterns for Heal’s including her famous Calyx fabric for the Festival of Britain in 1951. While Robin and Lucienne never went on to collaborate in the traditional sense, they largely shaped each other’s work by suggestion and discussion.
The 675 Chair
One of those designs was the iconic 675 Chair. Originally designed in 1952, the pared-down sculptural form embodied Robin’s design style – elegant with a natural sense of proportion.
In 2014, Case sourced an original production of the 1950s chair and worked alongside The Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation (a design education charity set up by the couple’s daughter Paula in 2012) to develop a new model which had the same dimensions and proportions. Its lasting appeal is down to its elegant, minimalist designs which perfectly marries functionality, engineering and style.
The 675 Exhibition at Heal's
Nearly 70 years later, the 675 Chair yet again being reimagined but this time with the help of fifteen leading designers from the world of textile design. The selected participants have been invited to upholster the chair’s seat in their own original fabric to showcase some of the best British textile talents.
The aim was to help improve the future of young British designers by supporting the educational work of the Foundation through an exhibition at Heal’s, entitled ‘A Day to Remember’, and live online auction. The exhibition featured designs from recognisable names such as Eleanor Pritchard, Beatrice Larkin and Charlene Mullen to name just a few. Case also launched two new fabric options of their own which formed part of the exhibition.
Shop the 675 Chair
This International Women's Day, we're celebrating the talented female designers that have shaped and influenced the Heal's collection. We've always been passionate about championing women in design; our Spaces campaign in September last year brought together some of London's most pioneering women to celebrate the creative spaces in which they work, and we recently awarded Eleanor Pritchard our very first Heal's Award for Innovation. Meet some of the hardworking women behind some of our favourite pieces.
Mia Sarosi
Having worked with ceramics for over 15 years, Mia Sarosi is an established collaborator with Heal's Crafted exclusively in porcelain, Mia carefully hand throws and paints each individual piece for a unique finish. Her meticulous approach and eye for detail has won Mia international acclaim, and Heal's is proud to be an exclusive retailer of her beautiful work.
Mia Sarosi
Beatrice Larkin
A young contributor to the world of textiles is contemporary designer Beatrice Larkin. Determined to make a creative impact, she established her label in 2013 upon graduating from the Royal College of Art, with a passion to create design-led textiles for the home. Using inspiration from geometry, Bea pairs linear pattern with soft fabrics to offer an organic, contemporary approach to clean modernist design.
Beatrice Larkin
Eleanor Pritchard
Embracing the characteristics of mid-century design in her work, Eleanor Pritchard has an innovative flair which develops iconic styles for a contemporary audience. Her love of experimenting with colour, pattern and texture, delivers a modern twist to traditional fabric making, as she dares to mix neutral hues with playful pops of colour.
Working alongside well-respected weavers in West Wales, Eleanor strives to create beautiful, high-quality fabrics that enhance the ambience of a room within the home. Eleanor was the recipient of the very first Heal’s Award for Innovation last year.
Eleanor Pritchard
Laurie Maun
One of our most recent recruits is Laurie Maun, a contemporary textile designer based in Hackey. With an obsession for a true handmade process, Laurie focuses on the importance of traditional craft and workmanship within the UK. She has created an exclusive range of cushions and prints for us and decided to explore the use of digitally printed fabrics for her latest collection.
As part of our latest campaign, Designs That Stick, we invited three artists to take over an area of our Tottenham Court Road store. The brief was simple - design a space that features Japanese Washi Tape from Haru. What resulted were three very different installations which were true to each artists' unique design style. We sat down with our three collaborators to ask about their inspiration behind their spaces.
Christine Leech
Christine Leech is an avid crafter who describes herself as an "all-round creative type relishing in a weird patchwork career of author, maker, illustrator and stylist." She is the brains behind the beautiful Instagram account, @sewyeah, which documents her love of crafting and her latest projects.
Your window is an explosion of colour. Do you take the same approach in your own home?
My studio looks just like the Heals window - it’s really colourful and filled with all my craft materials. It even has a polka dot wall and teal green paintwork. The rest of my house is catching up! At the moment the walls are all grey but I’m planning on a spring clean and making everything white to make all my colourful accessories to really pop!
Was there anything particularly challenging about this project?
I found this project really fun to do. It was slightly daunting when I first saw the window and how big it was and I was concerned about how the different areas would tie together. But once I had a plan and had marked out the different areas then the sticking became very calming almost meditative process! I used most of my favourite colours in the confetti and every little rectangle was a joy to place.
What attracts you to the world of crafting?
I love that crafting means I can do so many varied and unusual things - from making tiny felt flowers to covering a shop in confetti! I’ve been making things all my life and to be able to continue to do so and make a living from it is amazing. Crafting enables me to not only have fun making things whenever I feel like it I also meet so many lovely people on the workshops I run. The crafty community is full of lovely souls.
Fiona Grady
Fiona Grady is known for her large scale, colourful artistic works that feature sequences of dispersing geometric shapes. She gave our windows her signature treatment, by cutting pieces of washi tape into triangles and layering them into a geometric pattern.
You have done many beautiful window installations. What is it that you enjoy about this medium?
I've been working with windows for around 3 years using transparent coloured vinyl and for the first time Haru washi tape. I prefer working in public spaces such as windows as everyone can see and enjoy the artworks. The Heal's storefront is a great platform, it's exciting to see my work alongside beautifully designed furniture to create a narrative between the window installation and contemporary design.
Was there anything particularly challenging about this project?
My work is very exacting! To create the symmetrical images it required me and my assistant, Ellie, to mask grids and cut the tape precisely to size testing our mathematical abilities. Usually, I design artworks for white wall gallery spaces or public venues such as cafes it was a fun challenge to think about the artwork in relation to showcasing the Heals products.
Have you ever worked with Washi tape before? Did you find it an easy material to work with?
This is the third time I've worked with Haru washi tape. In summer 2018 I designed an artwork for their headquarters which was a great way to explore their colour palette and learn about the material. Following this, I was commissioned to design an artwork for a family home in West London which was a real pleasure. I think it's a fun and flexible material to work with - what I love about the washi tapes is they are all a little translucent so you can find new colours by layering them so I feel like I'm painting with tapes.
Katy Welsh
Katy Welsh has been a close collaborator with Heal's ever since she designed an exclusive collection of cushions for us back in Summer 2018. She has even decorated our windows before so this time we decided to give her a new challenge - to create a mural on one of our 8-metre interior walls.
What was the inspiration behind your space? We noticed nods to architectural elements, what is it about these that inspire you?
when I was first asked to create a design, the brief was loose and very much open to how I wanted to interpret it. My original idea was to channel cubist still life paintings and create something like a still life that would extend out into the room but as I spoke more with the Heal's Visual Merchandising team, the idea developed into creating something more graphic. I found inspiration on a recent trip to Frankfurt when I saw an amazing installation of giant velvet archways. I also looked at the Hermès installation by Charlotte Macaux Perelman from last year’s Milan Design Festival and the work of Charlotte Taylor as reference points which made me want to start playing with perspective in the work which was something that was new to me. But really architectural elements, especially pillars, have always featured in my work, and it seemed like a great fit since I was working with an interiors brand!
How did you plan your wall art?
Designing my piece was quite hard. I made lots of sketches on the way to my final design. I sent one of these rougher sketches to Kevin and he really liked the quality it had so we tried to keep this original naivety in the work during the installation. Measuring and accuracy do not come very naturally to me so working out how big everything needed to be was a challenge, but we got there!
How does designing for smaller textiles differ from larger areas?
I kept the design process exactly the same for this project as I would for designing a textile. The only difference was thinking about the application - when you design for fabric, you are designing something 2D, but my wall installation came down onto the floor and so it was effectively like designing something 3D. It was definitely the biggest scale I’ve ever worked on too (8m!) and it was quite daunting, but once I had managed to scale everything up that was fine too. It’s really cool to see something you designed on a laptop screen become something so huge in front of your eyes!
Visit our Tottenham Court Road store to see the installations in person until 2nd March 2019.
Florence Knoll Bassett, design pioneer and the ‘guiding light’ of Knoll, sadly passed away on January 25th 2019 at the age of 101. Her designs for Knoll have been a key part of the Heal’s offering for many years and her influence on the brand's direction is undeniable. In our latest blog we take a look back at the modernist designer’s life and career.
Florence Knoll Bassett is widely regarded to have ‘furnished corporate America’ and played a major role in forging the US mid-century modern aesthetic. Her work still feels current and her groundbreaking approach to “total design” contributes to the interior design principles of today. However, her influence stretches far beyond that of interior design. “I am not a decorator,” she famously told The New York Times in 1964, “the only place I decorate is my own house.”
Known throughout her life by her friends as “Shu,” Florence was born in Michigan in 1917. Having tragically been orphaned at the age of just 12, she decided to attend Kingswood Boarding School for Girls, a decision that would prove pivotal to her future career as a designer.
Florence leading a meeting with the Knoll Planning Unit It was here that she developed a keen interest in architecture. The school itself was designed by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, who was quick to recognise Florence’s design capabilities. She became an extended part of the Saarinen family and formed a close friendship with Eero Saarinen who would later to go on to design a collection of ground-breaking furniture for Knoll.
Over the following years, she went on to study at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Columbia University’s school of architecture and the Architectural Association in London before finishing her degree in architecture at The Armour Institute of Technology. Throughout her travels she built friendships with some of the world’s leading architects, including Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. These early mentors, particularly Mies, and her exposure to these Bauhaus masters largely influenced her future work for Knoll.
In 1941, she moved to New York City with the aim to become an architect. It was here she met Hans Knoll, the third generation of a Stuttgart-based furniture manufacturing family who was beginning to bring European Modernism to a new audience. Florence was working for a design firm that was employed by Hans to drum up business for a new chair. However, Florence’s keen eye for design and connections to talented creatives meant it wasn’t long before she was taking on more responsibility at the business. Before long, the two were business partners, and went on to marry in 1946.
Hans and Florence Knoll. Photo: Johansen Krause Florence was instrumental in Knoll’s aesthetic development and was not only a talented designer but also a natural businesswoman. She conceptualised some of the brand’s most classic designs and also was able to identify key gaps in the market that Knoll was able to capitalise on. She established the Knoll Planning Unit, the business’ interior design service, which went on to set the standard for the mid-century modern interior.
It aimed to assess a client’s needs and patterns of use in order to shape a space, not just to decorate it. This “total design” approach was entirely unique and is widely recognised as ground-breaking. When it came to designing itself, Florence was able to blend the functional values of the Bauhaus movement with her own understanding of modernism. Her table designs for Knoll were oval rather than rectangular, allowing people to interact more freely at a meeting.
Image: Mies Van der Rohe Society
Sadly, tragedy struck Florence for a second time in 1955 when her husband was killed in a car accident. She was left as the sole owner of the business and continued to carry out her pioneering work until 1959 when she sold the company to Art Metal Construction Company. She remained as Knoll’s design director before retiring in 1965.
Even after its sale, Knoll continued to be inspired by her approach to design and rigorous standards. Drawing upon her rich background and natural talent for architecture and design, Florence Knoll Bassett was able to distinguish herself as an influential woman in a male-dominated industry. She will forever remain an icon and pioneer of the design world. And ultimately, the soul of Knoll.
HEAL'S DISCOVERS
HEAL'S DISCOVERS
Ed Heritage
As part of this season’s Heal’s Discovers initiative, we’re delighted to introduce Ed Heritage, an award-winning UK-based designer whose signature style of clean geometry and playful details is reflected in the beautiful lamp he created.
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