Verner Panton - sixties champion

The influence of a designer has at his contemporaries and future generations is a good measure of their talent. Verner Panton is a magnificent specimen of this with its influential forms. Panton is known for its revolutionary design in the choice of both forms of material. The characteristics of Panton's work is a sculptural elegance, striking shape, and above all color. Panton forms stood out from other contemporary design, the best possible way.

Panton grew up on the Danish island of Funen, where his father ran an inn. Panton began to study architectural line in Odense and his interest in design took him on to Copenhagen, where he continued studying at the Royal Danish Academy. Then he was hired at Arne Jacobsen's architectural office, where he stayed for two years. It is rumored however that Panton was one of the best staff, when he would rather prefer to spend their time on developing their own ideas.

Panton represents several unique and cult classic design. The most famous and beloved is Pantonstolen. Chair is made ​​of one large space piece and produced currently by Vitra using a more advanced plastics (injection-molded polypropylene) than the first Pantonstolarna. Today, there are plenty of cheap Chinese copies of the model on the market. Despite damage to the artist's reputation by inferior quality, it is a sure sign of an attractive design. I believe that there is little point in buying a copy, not if you Eventually if want to sell at a profit. It also saves you normally only about 30% of the price of the real thing. Vitra currently offering an orange limited edition of Pantonstolen in shops, so no excuses!

Another one of Panton's classic chair is Cone. Cone is available in different variants, K1, which is fully padded and K2 with a steel wire construction provides the same shape. These seats were amazing at the time of their entry in the design market. The chairs single rotating point was a major departure from the three or four bones that normally expected in a chair. I clearly remember my first meeting with the chair and I still have not gotten over the optical illusion it creates. It just seems to stand, perfectly balanced, without taking into account the laws of physics. It is important to remember how early this design was considered. 1959 had both already Panton Cone and Panton in production. The unique seats, combined with Panton's famous interiors and exhibitions had a great influence on the coming decade. Today, they are classified as two sixties icons. The kitsch stigma, they have over the next forty years, has slowly disappeared, revealing that these two are true classics.

1973 Panton created yet another new design classic. This time the series 1-2-3 System for Fritz Hansen. Identification System 1-2-3 gets you might think of grouping during a failed 'seven-a-side' football match, but it's actually an incredibly well designed chair with the flexibility, production, and comfort in mind.

Although these three design classics, it is more likely to encounter Panton's extraordinary work in the form of a lamp. Flowerpot (both desktop and ceiling light) is well known and immensely popular worldwide. The explanation is that the cost of production is relatively low, they are small, come in a variety of colors, bearing the name of a great designer and above all, the original and classic shape has been hard to miss.

Panton was an extremely prolific designer and I could spend days to write about his work. In his time, Panton's design barrier-breaking and surpassed everyone's expectations. Panton's work has certainly survived the psychedelic stigmatization of the sixties and his design is rightfully its place among the timeless modern classics.

Some useful links:

• When the stars came to the village
• 60th century sittare
• Inspiration on Klikk.no
• Culture Cannon

Other blogs: Danish furniture , furniture , Møbler københavn , Verner Panton

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