Verner Panton
The Danish architect Verner Panton caused a stir in the 60's and kept on designing successful products until his death in 1998. Times they were a-changin’ and Panton’s innovative ideas and daring use of modern materials and lavish colors were an instant hit. Panton became synonymous with sensational textile, furniture and lighting design. Works like the "Cone Chair" and the "Globe Light" are eternal Scandinavian design icons.
Verner Panton designed the legendary textile pattern "Geometry 1" in 1960: Recently revived on porcelain from Menu - and more popular than ever!
Panton was an experienced artist in Odense; next, he studied architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Art (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi) in Copenhagen, graduating in 1951. During the first two years of his career, 1950–1952, he worked at the architectural practice of Arne Jacobsen, another Danish architect and furniture designe. Panton turned out to be an "enfant terrible" and he started his own design and architectural office. He became well known for his innovative architectural proposals, including a collapsible house (1955), the Cardboard House and the Plastic House (1960). Near the end of the 1950's, his chair designs became much more unconventional, with no legs or discernible back. In 1960 Panton was the designer of the very first single-form injection-moulded plastic chair. The Stacking chair or S chair, became his most famous and mass-produced design.
In the late 1960's and early 1970's, 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, one is now preserved in a museum. He is also known for a hotel in Europe that utilized circular patterns and cylindrical furniture. Additionally, Panton is well known for his innovative design work for Der Spiegel, a well-known German publication in Hamburg.