Dive into the Vivid World of Mid-Century Danish Design

Of the influential mid-century Danish design scene that included Poul Kjærholm, Børge Mogensen, and Hans Wegner, Verner Panton was known as the enfant terrible. He was labeled avant-garde and a misfit by his contemporaries—a reputation he did nothing to dispel. He embraced the bold and the eccentric, quipping that “a less successful experiment is preferable to a beautiful platitude.”

Many of those successful experiments are gathered in Panton: Environments, Colors, Systems, Patterns—a technicolor volume by Ida Engholm and Anders Michelsen. Among the highlights are rare sketches, including ones of the iconic S, or Panton, chair, which caused a sensation in 1967 for being the first in injection-molded plastic (he made a version of the S in molded plywood in 1956, but it took Thonet nearly a decade to put it into production). Most of chapter two is devoted to the S, but it also delves into such earlier trail-blazing seats as the Cone, Heart Cone, and geometricized version of the Cone called K4, all produced between 1958-1960. Photographs of completed projects and products, including the 1969 pool area at the Spiegel Publishing House in Hamburg, Germany, and the plastic wall panels produced by Horlacher for the 1970 exhibition Visiona 2, plus advertisements and family snaps are peppered throughout the pages.

The book’s images of the designer’s installations may look familiar to those who attended Milan Design Week last month. Capsule and Verner Panton Design overtook 10 Corso Como with “Panton Lounge,” an immersive, saturated environment that echoed his aesthetic and celebrated the launch of the re-edition of his Domino and Romantica rugs by Amini and Spiegel acoustic panel by Offecct.

Read About These Technicolor Saturated Designs