Verner Panton

Verner Panton

Verner Panton (1926-1998) was born to innkeeper parents in the small Danish town of Gantofte. Early in life he decided that he wanted to be an artist, though he showed no particular talent for painting or drawing.

He attended the technical college in Odense during World War II and was part of the resistance to the German occupation. He spent several months in hiding after weapons were found in his room.

After completing his studies at the technical college in 1947, he moved to Copenhagen to enroll in the Royal Academy of Art as an architecture student, where he met and became friends with Poul Henningsen, who introduced him to product design. In 1950 he married Henningsen's stepdaughter, but the marriage was short-lived.

From 1950-1952 he worked on several projects with Arne Jacobsen, including the Ant Chair, saying he learned more from Jacobsen than anyone else. In 1955 Fritz Hansen began production of the Bachelor Chair and the Tivoli Chair, but it was the Cone Chair in 1959 that brought Panton recognition. He had originally designed the chair for his parents' new restaurant, but a Danish businessman saw it and put it into production.

In 1962 Panton met Marianne Pherson-Oertenheim, whom he married two years later. She proved to be the love of his life, and the two lived happily together till his death 36 years later. They had one daughter named Carin.

In the early 1960s Panton began collaborating with Vitra, the European licensee of Herman Miller, who produced the Flying Chair and the Panton Chair, which was the first cantilevered single-form molded plastic chair and is probably the piece for which Panton is best known. The chair has a long history, as Panton first began experimenting with the chair in 1956. By 1959 he had constructed a full-scale model of the design, and in the early 60s he contacted Vitra about producing it. However, it wasn't until 1967 that the chair was finally introduced to the public.

After the Viet Nam war, Panton's lighthearted designs fell out of vogue. However, in the early 1990s, Vitra put the Panton Chair back into production, and in 1994 IKEA produced the Vilbert Chair, and the Panton revival took off. In 1998 Panton was invited to design the Verner Panton: Light and Colour exhibition in Denmark, and he died 12 days before it opened. Panton will be best remembered for his highly innovative and sometimes futuristic designs, his use of plastic and his use of vibrant color.

Enjoy some Panton designs in red for Valentine's Day. <3

From danish-furniture.com and designmuseum.org

Bachelor Chair, 1955
ledesign.fr

Cone Chair, 1958
danish-furniture.com

Cone Stool
dailyicon.net

Heart Chair, 1959
danish-furniture.com

Panton Chair, designed 1959/produced 1967
bonluxat.com

Panton textiles on wall and floor; Panton light fixture
yatzer.com

Pronunciation Guide