Vintage Verner Panton Photos

A set of vintage Verner Panton images have been unearthed, including one of the master himself.

Photographs, via: Does it Float

Icon: PK 91 by Poul Kjærholm

Many designers and architects have worked with the notion of folding, collapsible or adjustable furniture. A classic piece commonly known as the propeller stool was designed by Poul Kjaerholm, a functional design with slender, elegant steel legs, twisting 180 degrees.

PK 91, by Poul Kjærholm, for Fritz Hansen

Icon: Congo Teak Ice bucket by Jens H. Quistgaard

Inspired by the hull of a viking ship, this large staved teak ice bucket, incongruously called Congo is lined in orange plastic.

Danish-born Jens H. Quistgaad was one of Scandinavia’s leading designers with a vast product range that included furniture, kitchen equipment, tableware and more. He is most closely associated with Dansk International Designs, a company which he co-founded with American entrepreneur Ted Nierenberg. Their partnership lasted for 30 years, Quistgaard being responsible for the majority of designs produced.
He worked in a variety of materials including iron, steel, ceramic and wood. It is wood, and in particular teak, which most often springs to mind when Jens Quistgaard is mentioned.

Teak Ice bucket, by Jens H Quistgaard, 1955, for Dansk Designs

Icon: Space 1999 Duett Juicer by Carl Arne Breger

Carl Arne Breger is one of those designers that emerged in the fifties and sixties that served the industry exceptionally well by being both technically innovative and completely in tune with the expectations of the users. The Duett Pitcher and Juicer made a cameo in the cult series Space 1999.
Duett is now part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Carl Arne Breger was trained between 1943 and 1948 as a decoration painter and model maker at Stockholm’s Konstfack he started as a scene and billboard painter for Svensk Filmindustri. His design career started when in 1953 he joined Stig Lindberg at Gustavsberg.

Duett Pitcher and Juicer, 1957 (now out of production) by Carl Arne Breger, for Gustavsberg

Icon: Acrilica lamp by Joe Colombo

In his brief but brilliant career, Joe Colombo (1930-1971) produced a series of innovations which made him one of Italy’s most influential Italian product designers.
The Acrilica lamp design came about from Colombo’s work on a hotel project in Sardinia in which he utilized the perspective of a counter-ceiling to produce a particular mode of indirect lighting. It is this idea that ultimately gives birth to the Acrilica lamp which utilizes a curvature of methacrylate to diffuse light indirectly.
The Acrilica lamp is included in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Acrilica lamp, by Joe Colombo, for Oluce

Icon: Polaroid SX-70 Part II

In our first icon series on the Polaroid SX-70, the camera is described as an “instant design classic”. A film made by Charles and Ray Eames reveals in great detail how an image is made on the film, as well as getting inside the camera to show how “form follows function”. This film goes a long way to explain why the Polaroid SX-70 is a Design Icon.

Polaroid SX-70, by Edwin Land, for Polaroid
via: Midcentury Modernist

Icon: Joe Colombo Elda Lounge Chair

In his brief but brilliant career, Joe Colombo (1930-1971) produced a series of innovations which made him one of Italy’s most influential Italian product designers. Elda was the first large chair to utilize a self-supporting fiberglass frame. Its seven sausage-like cushions, rotating base and generous proportions provide a great deal of comfort. This is one of Colombo’s first furniture designed and named after his wife Elda
The Elda lounge chair is exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Louvre in Paris.

Elda Lounge Chair, by Joe Colombo, An Original 1967 Joe Colombo Elda chair is available at City Furniture

Icon: Royal Mail Design Stamps

A set of first class UK stamps are to be issued in January next year commemorating ten icons of British design. The Royal Mail’s new series offers up a discernably nostaligic look at some British Design Classics, largely culled from the 1930s and 1960s. A “prestige stamp book”, issued alongside the stamps, will provide a more extensive background and history of the designs.

Design Stamps, Issues on 13 January 2009, from The Royal Mail
via: Creative Review

Icon: Braun AB1 Alarm Clock

Ten principles defined Dieter Rams’ approach to “good design”:
Good design is innovative
Good design makes a product useful
Good design is aesthetic
Good design helps us to understand a product
Good design is unobtrusive
Good design is honest
Good design is durable
Good design is consequent to the last detail
Good design is concerned with the environment
Good design is as little design as possible
Back to purity, back to simplicity

In 1971 Braun introduced the AB1 Alarm Clock, designed to do what is required — keep accurate time and wake you up in the morning — no more no less. By adhering to design principles, Dieter Rams and Dietrich Lubs, created an icon of modern design.

For nearly 30 years Dieter Rams served as head of design for Braun until his retirement in 1998. He continues to be a legend in design circles and most recently designed a cover for Wallpaper* magazine. Many of his designs — clocks, coffee makers, calculators, radios, audio/visual equipment and office products — have found a permanent home at many museums over the world, including MoMA in New York.

Braun AB1 Alarm Clock, by Dieter Rams, Dietrich Lubs, 1971, for Braun

Icon: Mies van der Rohe Bauhaus Armchair

Designed by Mies van Der Rohe for the Bauhaus in 1927. The wicker-work for the chair was created by Lilly Reich, assistant to Mies Van Der Rohe. It is the Icon of Modern Furniture Design. This chair is one of the classics in the history of furniture. Bauhaus became a dominant force in architecture and the applied arts in the 20th century. The main theory was that all design should be functional as well as aesthetically-pleasing.

Mies B 42 Chair, Mies D 42 Armchair, by Mies van der Rohe, with Lilly Reich, for Tecta