Icon: Ox Chair by Arne Jacobsen

Arne Jacobsen designed this chair over a five-year period. Large, impressive, and extremely comfortable, when it was presented in 1966 it was met with surprise and admiration. “This is also how he can be: angular and with a touch of martial temperament that we could call Germanic or perhaps more properly Japanese in expression”
- Thau and Vindum, eds., Jacobsen.

Arne Jacobsen trained and practiced as an architect, and his evolution as a designer of furniture and objects was the consequence of his desire to achieve a complete harmony within his architectural projects. The range of his ideas is well-defined by two major projects in Copenhagen, those for the SAS Building (1955-1960), a hotel and air terminal, and for the National Bank of Denmark (1961-1971). The buildings reveal an evolution from the International Style minimalism of the SAS Building to a more expressive use of form in the National Bank. Here is the range of Jacobsen the designer, by instinct restrained, yet understanding the need to give character to his creations and ready to be a little playful, as with the anthropomorphic hints in his chair names.

Ox Chair, 1967, DKK 180,000.- (USD 33,000), by Arne Jacobsen, for Fritz Hansen
Available at Møbel Arkitekten

Up Series by Geatano Pesce now in Silver from B&B Italia

Geatano Pesce’s iconic Up lounge chair, designed in the 1960s it is now celebrating its 40th birthday. In honour of this event B&B Italia is making UP available in a new metalic silver upholstery, and in a numbered edition.

UP5 UP6 Silver, by Geatano Pesce, for B&B Italia

MC-1000 Vacuum Cleaner at The Panasonic Design Museum

Before the mid-1950s, vacuum cleaners weren’t in many Japanese homes because dusters, brooms, and floor cloths were considered adequate for cleaning traditional Japanese homes. But through extensive marketing efforts by manufacturers, Japanese-made vacuum cleaners gradually became household necessities by the 1960s – with the MC-1000 top of the list.

MC-1000, by Panasonic, 1965, Part a selection from the Panasonic Design Museum

Icon: Knotted Chair by Marcel Wanders

Knotted Chair was featured in the 1996 exhibition “Contemporary Design from the Netherlands” curated by Paola Antonelli at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, was presented in Milan in 1996 as part of the “Dry Tech” project initiated by Droog Design of the Netherlands and carried out in cooperation with the Aviation and Space Laboratory of Delft Technical University. Made from a macrame of carbon fibers and epoxy-coated aramid fibers, this chair is now part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Cappellini Knotted Chair, 1996, by Marcel Wanders

Icon: Bauhaus Chess Set by Josef Hartwig

Each piece is designed by Josef Hartwig to reflect the moves that it can make in the game. This Bauhaus product is a fine example of collaboration between the different workshops: Heinz Nosselt produced the corresponding chess table in the joinery workshop, while Joost Schmidt designed the accompanying promotional leaflet and posters. This example is from the developmental period of the Bauhaus chess set. It is the penultimate version to the one produced in Dessau.

Chess set, by Josef Hartwig, 1924, Beech Stained Natural or Black for Workshop for sculpture, Bauhaus Weimar

Brains and Braun, More on Dieter Rams

Interior Design has posted an article “Brains and Braun” by Larry Weinberg looking at influential product designs produced by Braun from the 50s and ’60s.

“order rather than confusion, quiet rather than loud, unobtrusive rather than exciting, sparse rather than profuse, and well-balanced rather than exalted.”
- Dieter Rams

Images: (top) T1000 World Receiver, 1963, (middle) Record player PS 45, (bottom) Pocket radio T-41, all by Dieter Rams, for Braun

Icon: Tac Tea Pot by Walter Gropius for Rosenthal

Many objects are beautiful; and many creations are functional. But only few achieve enduring status. Designed by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius in 1969, the Tac tea service is probably the most beautiful tea service ever produced.

“Our guiding principle was that design is neither an intellectual nor a material affair, but simply an integral part of the stuff of life, necessary for everyone in a civilized society.”
- Walter Gropius

Tac Tea Pot, by Walter Gropius, (1883-1969) for Rosenthal

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