Verner Panton

Verner Panton (13 February 1926 – 5 September 1998) is considered one of Denmark's most influential 20th-century furniture and interior designers.

During his career, he created innovative and Futuristic designs in a variety of materials, especially plastics, and in vibrant and exotic colors.

During the first two years of his career, 1950–1952, he worked at the architectural practice of Arne Jacobsen, another Danish architect and furniture designer.

Panton turned out to be an "enfant terrible" and he started his own design and architectural office.

Near the end of the 1950s, his chair designs became much more unconventional, with no legs or discernible back.

From 1950 to 1952, Verner Panton worked for the architect Arne Jacobsen, who became another important mentor.

While at Jacobsen's office, Panton worked primarily in furniture design- specifically, the development of the ‘Ant’ chair.

Following his employment with Jacobsen, Panton took a number of extensive trips throughout Europe over the course of three years.

During this time, he establishes a number of international contacts with design colleagues, manufacturers, and dealers.

Panton was already an experienced artist in Odense when he went to study architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Art (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi) in Copenhagen, graduating in 1951.

He became well known for his innovative architectural proposals, including a collapsible house (1955), the Cardboard House and the Plastic House (1960).

From this, Panton is given a large number of architectural and furniture designs including the Bachelor Chair and Tivoli Chair commissioned by prestigious Danish furniture manufacturer Fritz Hansen in 1955.

In the mid-Fifties Verner Panton for the first time occupied himself with the idea of a chair made from one single element.

In 1956 the Neue Gemeinschaft für Wohnkultur (WK-Möbel) organized a competition in which Panton participated.

His entry was an entire furniture collection, which also included a stackable chair in which the seat and backrest formed a single unit.

This is the project from which the so-called 'S-Chair' is derived.

The competition entry itself was not successful, with his designs failing to win a prize.

In 1957, a prefabricated weekend house is produced as a small series called the All Round House.

In 1958, Panton redesigned his parents’ inn, Kom-igen in the Langesø Park on the island of Fünen, for which he also designed the Cone Chair.

The Kom-igen inn was one of Panton's first major commissions.

Panton designed the interior as well as a one-floor extension with a roof terrace.

He used five different shades of red for the interior to give it warmth while including dark colors for the table linens.

Panton developed a flexible system made of fabrics with geometrical patterns to hang from the ceiling to divide up the room.

From this, began the start of the cooperation with the Danish firms of Plus-Linje (Cone Chair series furniture), Unika Væv (textiles) and Louis Poulsen (lighting).

His style was very "1960s" but regained popularity at the end of the 20th century.

In 1960 Panton was the designer of the very first single-form injection-moulded plastic chair.

The Stacking chair or S chair was mass-produced and became the most famous of his designs derived from organic shapes echoing curves of the human body – in this case the tongue.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Verner Panton experimented with designing entire environments: radical and psychedelic interiors that were an ensemble of his curved furniture, wall upholstering, textiles and lighting.

He is perhaps best known for a series of interior designs for Bayer's yearly product exhibition, held aboard excursion boats.

Panton designed the Astoria Hotel restaurant in Trondheim, Norway in 1960 which included the entry area with the cloakroom, the day restaurant with the wintergarten, an evening restaurant with dance floor as well as a self-service restaurant.

Panton used textile design for floors, walls and ceilings in order to give the room a uniform image.

The chairs were various versions of the cone chairs.

During this time, Panton also designs the first inflatable seating elements made of transparent plastic in furniture history.In 1961, Panton presents his furniture, textiles and lamps in the legendary black book of the design magazine Mobilia and in the Pfister furniture showrooms in Zurich.

The Shell Lamps are first presented on Lüber's stand in Frankfurt in 1964.

During the International Furniture Fair in Cologne, the Flying Chairs are the absolute sensation.

In 1965, Thonet produced the S-Chair (Model 275) by Panton which became the first cantilever chair made of molded plywood.

This stackable chair was made of plywood which the edge of the seat was slightly tilted upwards.

There are two different versions of the S Chair: Model 275 and Model 276.

In 1965/66, the design of a modular furniture system made of foam plastic sections, which is manufactured from 1967 by Kill, Metzeler and sold by the Kaufhof chain.The Danish design magazine Mobilia presented the Panton Chair to the public for the first time in 1967.

As of 2004, Panton's best-known furniture models are still in production (at Vitra, among others).