Australian artist, Erin Smith, is pretty much your average young woman. The 27 year old artist moved to melbourne from Queensland to study graphic design and only just moved back to her home state this year. Graphic design didn’t turn out to be the career for her – “I find it difficult to sit in a chair inside for any period of time…and I’m hopeless at deadlines so I wasn’t very good.”
It was during her studies, however, that the fascination with typography really began.
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I was in IKEA recently (yes, the second time in 2 weeks..) looking for a new desk chair amoungst other things (bookshelf, desk lamp, bath mat, you know, the usual)
I’d just sat on my what felt like 20th chair.. testing for back support, neck support, tilt, rotation, etc.. there’s a lot to think about when it comes to buying a chair.
It got me thinking of the thousands of differnet chairs out there and, perhaps a few blog posts on the more famous out there would make for good reading..
So, first under the microscop is, the Wassily Chair (Or model B3)
by designer Marcel Breuer —
“my most extreme work . . . the least artistic, the most logical, the least ‘cozy’ and the most mechanical.”
The chair was designed between 1925 and 1926 whilst Breuer was working as the head of a cabinet-making workshop (yeah I don’t get it either..) at the Bahaus.
Breuer worked as an architect, teacher and furniture designer, though it is certainly safe to say that it is the model B3 that he is referenced to, despite a number of famous works.
Although not made specifically for the painter, Wassily Kandinsky (one of my favourite painters, he even did my desktop background for me..) a replica was created for his private quarters and the chair was then coined the “wassily chair.”
The inspiration behind the lightweight steel tubing?
Well, Breuer was apparently an avid biker, he would ride his bicycle daily; noticing the strong, but lightweight handlebars and frame of his bike.
If it could make for good handlebars, then why not furniture?
The frame of the chair is in fact the same as say a stuffed club armchair but instead, has been stripped to it’s simple frame and draped together with simple black leather. Against the gleaming steel tubing it represents much of the modernist movement.
Like everything, the chair gone through, sadly, a mass reproduce — every man and his dog is now making a Wasilly chair.
Want one?
Try here… there is a Wassilly chair for every budget.
http://www.nextag.com/wassily-chair/search-html
A whole research article could be devoted to “choosing the right Wassilly chair for you”
The chair is now part of the permanent collection at the MOMA.
“pick_chair, noun”
1. Picture: art object hung from the wall
2. chair: pick it from the wall to sit
Studio Dror have come up with “the first foldable cantilever chair” that goes from modern art work to functional furniture.
Perhaps one day “we’ll pull up a chair” by simply grabbing it off the wall?
THe chairs really are ingenious, beautifully fashioned and exhibited, perhaps to nice to sit on?
“Studio Dror is an extension of Dror Benshetrit’s work. Being a multidisciplinary design company, founded in 2002, Studio Dror specializes in product design, architecture and art direction. Dror’s client list includes Puma, Rosenthal (Germany), Boffi (Italy), Levi’s, Bombay Sapphire, Surface Magazine, and Kiehl’s.”
Following my earlier post on the RGB glasses, I have been in contact with design Luis Porem and have some more of his impressive work to show,
In particular Porem’s newest addition to his already impressive folio, the Trico Chair
Wood, metal and textile, in three different colours, are the caracteristic that lift the Trico Chair. Joining the three materials it is possible to get a distinguishable simplicity and harmony.
The fact of being able of pile the chair and work with different materials make the Trico chair a functional, versatile object, with is own character.
I’m Very excited to present you with the Zaishu by designers Matthew Butler and Helen Punton. The Zaishu isn’t just a stool or piece of furniture, behind it’s lovingly painted slot together sides is an underlying philosophy. The Zaishu represents and reinforces a social understanding and awareness of cultures, how? well it’s designers have travelled the world and have approached over a thousand different people, to hand paint their design.. keeping the ever changing panels fresh and unique. Supplying buyers with their own individualized design.
The fundamentals principles for their design is simple,
“Creativity, participation, responsibility (environment and society) and evolution.”
