Inspired By Ugliness

Konstantin Grcic was born in 1965 in Munich but was brought up in Wuppertal, a city in the industrial part of Germany. The city is considered to be one of the ugliest cities in the whole country. “Growing up there created an awareness in me that there is beauty in ugliness” as Mr. Grcic describes it. 

During the 1980s he studied cabinet making at Parnham College in British Dorset after which he continued studying Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art in London and worked for a while with Jasper Morrison. In 1991 Grcic went back to his home country to start his own design studio, Konstantin Grcic Industrial Desig, in Munich. Throughout his career Grcic has been fascinated by the industrial process following the footsteps of designers like Marcel Breuer, Vico Magiatretti, Gerrit Reitveld and Achille Castiglioni. 

The Chair One was designed for the Italian design company Magis in 2004 and is a great example of Konstantin Grcic’s approach to design. 

A True Design Victim

As much as it is a piece of innovative design the Up chair was also a political statement. The design was inspired by an ancient fertility goddess and the ball and chain symbolizes women being prisoners, not a victim of design. “Women suffer because of the prejudice of men. The chair was supposed to talk about this problem.”

Born in La Spezia in 1939 Gaetano Pesce went to study in Venice at the School of Architecture and then the Institute of Industrial Design. After graduating he worked with collective of young architects in Padua before focusing on design from 1962.

Endlessly researching and experimenting with new materials he started working with the trendiest material of the day, polyurethane. Standing in the shower in his Paris apartment in 1968 Gaetano Pesce got the idea to try and make a chair behave like a sponge. In his workshop he realized that polyurethane was a perfect material not only for comfort but he could actually vacuum pack his new design. Opening the four-inch-thick package his new chair would almost magically expand into its proper shape rendering its name Up. This extraordinary and irreversible performance was made possible thanks to the freon gas present in the polyurethane blend.

This easily packaged and shipped future of furniture design unfortunately didn’t last long. In 1973, after only four years of international success with the Up Chair turning up in everything from the James Bond movie “Diamonds are Forever” to photo shoots with Salvador Dalì, the producer B&B Italia removed it from its catalog. This was due to a recent ban on freon gas making the production as it was impossible.

It took until the year 2000 for the Up chair to to make its comeback. This time being made in cold shaped polyurethane foam and no longer inflating.

Be Our Valentine

Time to spread some love again! Actually, maybe it’s about time to spread some lovin’, not only on Valentine’s Day but keep spreading it every day of the year, to friend and foe alike. This year we let the beautiful Bocca Sofa designed by the Italian Studio 65 in 1972 symbolize the day.

However you celebrate it, have a Very Happy Valentine’s Day!

And remember to make Each Day Valentine’s Day!

Too High End For a Low-Cost Competition

The lounge chair was designed by Charles and Ray Eames for the Museum of Modern Art’s competition “International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design” in New York in 1948. The competition challenged designers to develop cost effective furniture designs to be used in smaller houses in the postwar era. The guidelines stated that the works “fit the need of modern living, production and merchandizing”. MoMa ended up receiving over 3,000 submissions from all over the world.

The sculptural design of La Chaise was inspired by the ‘Floating Figure’ a work made by sculptor Gaston Lachaise who gave his name to this icon of modern design. You can actually find the original ‘Floating Figure’ at MoMa so Charles and Ray didn’t have to travel far to get their inspiration for the competition.

The La Chaise didn’t win the competition as it was considered too large but it did get a mention for its outstanding form. It was intended to be released by Herman Miller in 1950 but was considered too expensive to produce and was never manufactured. This might have been another reason it didn’t win. It was a competition for low-cos furniture after all.

It took another 40 years until Vitra put La Chaise into production in 1991, first in fiberglass as the original from 1948 but since 2001 Vitra uses polyurethane.

In the same MoMa competition the legendary Art Director of Harper’s Bazaar, Alexey Brodovitch competed with his Floor Chair (model 1211-C). It was a plywood rocking chair that was described as “exceptionally simple and comfortable” made with inexpensive materials and a basic construction. With his Floor Chair Mr. Brodovitch was awarded third prize.

Happy Valentine's Day

Time to celebrate your loved ones whoever they may be. Friends, family, pets, corner shop employee, pizza delivery person, coffee shop barista, dog walker or stranger. Just spread some beautiful love and enjoy the design of the Verner Panton Heart Cone Chair from 1958.