Vitra - Panton Chair Set miniature

On the occasion of the XIth Milan Triennial in 1957, Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni presented their first prototype for the Mezzadro. The stool went on show in its current form that same year in an interior setting displayed at the »Colori e forme nella casa d'oggi« exhibition in the Villa Olmo in Como.
The designers used a common tractor seat for the springy metal seat, fastening it with a wing nut to the spring-based arched steel strip utilized in tractors to absorb the shock of unexpected ground. They enhanced the stability of the cantilever structure by a wooden cross-strut that resembled the rungs of a wooden ladder.
Each of these parts clearly embodies its task as a part of a functional whole. And what strikes the eye is the recourse to an artistic method exemplified by Marcel Duchamp's found objects or Pablo Picasso's assemblages. The Castiglionis were considered a successful design only once they had managed to eliminate all the unnecessary components and an optimal formal expression had been found for this concentration on the essential.

Verner Panton

Verner Panton; (Copenhagen, February 13, 1926 - Basel, September 5, 1998) was a Danish designer. He studied architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, where he graduated in 1951. During these years he worked with Arne Jacobsen, although he soon started working alone. His architectural proposals are very innovative and in the early 1960s he designed some extremely original chairs, characterized by plastic materials and bright colours.Verner Panton was a forward-looking and innovative creator of the aesthetic and thinking revolution. Verner Panton's passion for bright colors and geometric patterns manifested itself in a wide range of products. His works are the exception confirming the rule, an exception to what, in the common mind and imagination, is labeled as Nordic design: the famous Less is more. His career as an industrial designer is characterized by an important date: 1960. The year in which he designed the series of Stacking chairs produced by injection moulding. This main project would later evolve into the S-Chair and then into the famous Panton Chair which would be produced by Vitra in 1967 and which remains, still  today, one of the most loved and well-known design pieces of all time.

Vitra

Vitra is a Swiss company that produces furniture and interior design. Known for producing the works of important designers and architects.The headquarters are located in Weil am Rhein, Germany, where the famous Vitra Design Museum is also located.This story starts in the post-war years, when two Americans, both architects, Charles and Ray Eames, decided to help a furniture dealer.The collaboration led them to design and then produce masterpieces for interior design, which are still very current today.