From Dries Van Noten to Vitra, the Danish designer continues to inspire the world’s most formidable creative forces.

From Dries Van Noten to Vitra, Danish designer Verner Panton continues to inspire the world’s most formidable creative forces.

His most iconic design, the Panton Chair, retains a shocking sense of sensuality even as it approaches its 60th year of production. It was the first chair to be made from a single piece of molded plastic and is widely considered the designer’s masterpiece, an icon of the 20th century. The chair’s status was cemented shortly after its creation when, in an editorial shot by Duffy titled “How to Undress in Front of Your Husband,” model Amanda Lear seductively performed a striptease upon a lipstick-red model. &nbsp;The final result was a series of now-iconic images intended to be cut up and made into a flipbook. 
 
Panton’s designs found a sympathetic audience in the world of fashion image-making from the beginning. Starting his career in an assistant position with Scandinavian functionalism pioneer Arne Jacobsen, he would be mentored in materiality and organic shapes, only to embrace the role of enfant terrible and pushed instead towards bright colors and psychedelic arrangements. It’s this contrast between minimalism and maximalism that makes Panton’s work as recognizable, relevant and stylish as ever. Look no further than Dries Van Noten Spring/Summer 2019 for proof. For his seasonal collection, the Belgian designer splashed Panton’s primary-hued, undulating lines on jackets, swim trunks and pants, yielding one of Van Noten’s most celebrated runway shows of the past decade.

These elements come together in a new installation at this year’s Milan Design Week during the Capsule Plaza takeover of the galleries at 10 Corso Como. Paying homage to Panton’s work in creating total environments, “Panton Lounge” is a fully immersive sensory experience curated in close collaboration with Verner Panton Design AG. Taking inspiration from some of Panton’s most visionary interiors, it doubles as a soundscape and social space, reflecting how he saw his designs as connected and relating to an experience of life. 
 
Many of Panton’s interior designs have been lost to time, yet some still exist, at least in part. His work for German publishing giant Der Spiegel’s headquarters in Hamburg is a testament to his innate ability to create immersive and visually striking environments that push the boundaries of convention. His deployment of color and shapes doubled as walls and furnishings. While the psychedelic employee swimming pool was destroyed by a fire shortly after its opening and the lobby underwent various changes in the late ’90s, the canteen remains in its original condition in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg.

Another notable design project was the Visiona 2. Commissioned by German pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG for the Cologne Furniture Fair in 1970, Panton was invited to transform a rented pleasure boat into his ideal of contemporary living. Panton's color-bathed, dreamlike creation moved away from traditional interpretations of space by telegraphing surroundings dedicated to well-being, communication and relaxation. The cavernous space where walls and floors came together delighted attendees, with the gorgeous hodgepodge of colors in each room intended to engage the senses in different ways.
“The main focus of my work is the overall result,” said Panton. “Interaction with the setting is far more important than interaction with a chair or an object. A room, a color, furniture, textiles and lighting must be considered as a whole. An attractive setting can only be created if all of its components are truly mastered.” Today, a blue and violet spatial installation in Visiona 2 is widely considered the apogee of Panton’s creative vision, known as the Panton Fantasy Landscape, or the living cave.

In many ways, the future caught up with Panton’s aesthetics, but the concerns of his designs—how we live, how we experience the world around us and how we can approach it with optimism—feel increasingly revelatory. It's why Dries, Vitra, Amini and Verpan still produce his memorable and revolutionary works. Simply put, Panton’s global influence shows no signs of waning. On the contrary, it's only growing.

Presented in collaboration with Capsule Plaza, Radical Design showcases iconic objects that revealed new ways of seeing. Discover the exhibit <a href="https://www.goat.com/collections/radical-design">here</a> and explore <a href="https://www.goat.com/editorial/radical-design-exhibit-memphis-group-ettore-sottsass">Memphis’ influential pieces</a> and <a href="https://www.goat.com/editorial/radical-design-futura-noguchi">Futura’s artistic philosophy</a>.

Verner Panton

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Verner Panton’s Dreamlike Universe Keeps Expanding

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