verner panton

The reason I was interested in Panton was first, his wide variety of work, ranging from space to design to color to light, which are all highlighted on his website, which I also found quite nice. He's designed chairs and other seating, lamps, wall decorations, room designs, and fabrics, plus more, but his website is not complete yet. I'm very much into the use of colors, it seems he has a passion for every color. He was very much involved in experimenting in the design of "normal" things, such as chairs and lamps. He also indulged himself in various aspects of "design," not just architecture, which is where he began.

"You can sit in an idea"
The three images I chose represent basically what he did. The first wire chair I chose because he did a lot of variations using the wire-frame look. The red plastic chair he was known for using that form (and slight variations of it) over and over for his many chairs. The brown textile I chose to use because it highlights the fact that he overwhelmingly used geometric shapes to form his work, especially the circle.


































Biography:
Like many of his colleagues, Panton, who was born on the Danish island of FŸnen in 1926, found his way to design via architecture. After studying at the Academy of Art in Copenhagen, he worked from 1950-52 in the office of Arne Jacobsen, where he was involved in the design of the legendary "Ant Chair". Working as an independent architect and designer in many European countries from the mid-fifties onward, Panton first attracted international attention with furniture based on geometric forms and manufactured by the company Plus-linje ("Cone Chairs"). These designs are distinguished by their extravagant forms and a keen interest in new plastic materials produced industrially at the time. Simultaneously, they are evidence of an unfettered joy of experimentation, which can be regarded as a central characteristic of Panton's work. Over the following decades, numerous designs for seating furniture and lamps were produced together with renowned manufacturers such as Fritz Hansen, Louis Poulsen, Thonet, Herman Miller/Vitra, Royal Copenhagen, and Rosenthal, some of which are still in production. Among these are true "bestsellers" such as the "Flowerpot" lamp and design icons like the Panton Chair, which immediately garnered international accolades upon its presentation to the public in 1967 after a long and intensive development process. In addition, Panton distinguished himself as a textile designer. His close collaboration with the company Mira-X, for whom he designed an extensive collection of domestic textiles from the end of the Sixties onward, clearly exhibits his preference for intense colours and geometric shapes. Of central importance within the context of his oeuvre are Panton's room designs. His comprehensive design philosophy was already evident in early interior designs for the restaurants "Komigen" (Langsš, 1958) and "Astoria" (Trondheim, 1960). He was particulary skillful in fusing disparate elements - floor, wall and ceiling treatments, furniture, lighting elements, textiles, and plastic or enamel wall panels - into a consummate and indivisible spatial unit. The "Visiona" ships for the Cologne Furniture Fair (1968 and 1970), the offices of the Spiegel publishers in Hamburg (1969), and the restaurant "Varna" in Aarhus (1970) are the best-known examples of this.

Residing in Basle from the beginning of the Sixties and having received many international design awards, Panton remained active until his death in September 1998. Re-editions of his works and, in addition, an exhibition overseen by the designer himself in Kolding, Denmark, are evidence of the increasingly growing interest in Panton's oeuvre over recent years. In spite of its undisputed importance, until now it has neither been the subject of a design-historical retrospective, nor received comprehensive monographic treatment in a publication.

Hilman Curtis

Paula Scher:
The thing that interested me most about what she said was when she was talking about process, and that her best stuff comes to her really quick and that she is not a refiner. I think just about everything we've ever learned about designing and creating things is about the initial idea, but then refining, refining, and refining more until it's perfect. I like the fact that she can come up with something and it be gold without making adjustments...like the citi bank logo she drew on a napkin. A lot of people need those refinements to produce their best work. I can kind of relate it to poetry because in every poetry class i've been in, they want you to edit and revise and blah blah blah, but for me, when i write, my mind is editing at the same time, so most of the time its near perfect when i write it down...at least perfect for me. So I guess it just depends on the person, and the project, about how many times its going to need to be refined.

David Carson:
I think that it's really important to put yourself into your work, because especially if you're not as interested in a particular project, if you put who you are into it, it automatically becomes more interesting, and you want to become more invested in it, because human beings love themselves. And I have always believed that people's best work is done when they themselves are interested and into the subject, or project. I thought he made another good point about the starting point being to interpret, not to make it pretty, ugly, amazing, or anything. First you have to understand it, and determine how to interpret everything so the audience will see it too. That means, you have to understand it first. Way before you decide how its going to look.

Milton Glaser:
This one was kind of like a philosophical one, when he said that "art brings people together so they have something in common, which keeps them from killing each other" which I have to kind of agree. Art is its own special little animal that a lot of people don't understand. Someone has to keep it alive so that the world's cultures survive. Like he said art is the "gift." Everyone should embrace it, not just those who create it. The last point he said about if you can sustain interest in what you're doing for your whole life, you're lucky because a lot of people get tired, and bored. I think that's the goal and hope of everyone, to find something that won't ever dry up.