DEANO DESIGNS
VERNER PANTON
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Pecha Kucha
This talk was just a practice run for another Pecha Kucha style presentation I will be doing later this year but I wanted to use it to look at Verner Panton's work. The Pecha Kucha aspect of the presentation meant that I had 10 slides and 10 seconds per slide (not an easy task!)
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The Swinging 60s
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The majority of Verner's work, that I want to focus on took place in the 60s. A time of real cultural and political change. This cumulated in a time when people felt free to express themselves, often through bright colours and copious amounts of drugs. Slogans like "make love not war" really show what it would have been like to live at that time. These are the kind of things that come to my mind when I think of the swinging 60s:
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So, where does Verner fit into this?
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To see where Vernor's impact on 60s design culture comes in I think all we have to do is look at a few of his designs, so why don't we start with his most famous one... The Panton Chair:
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This is an absolute interior design classic! Probably up there with the Eames chair in terms of importance!
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Not only is it an interior design classic, but it is a 60s design classic. I think it just screams "60s". The bright colour and free-flowing form show that Vernor embodied the 60s sense of freedom and individuality. It is a physical example of just doing what you want and not caring what others think, taking a wee risk every now and again. Is that not what the 60s was all about? I mean just look at some other Panton designs and tell me this was a man who designed in a conventional and boring way:
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Are they not the wackiest designs you have ever seen. I think Verner might have really embodied the 60s attitude when designing by also taking copious amounts or drugs. But individually, each design is intriguing, bold and incredibly colourful. That last point on colour is what I love about Verner's designs the most. His use of colour. Yes his designs are bold and sometimes quite obtrusive but they are certainly eye catching, I believe this stems from the colour choice Vernor uses. Just look at some examples of modern interior design:
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Boring. That's what I think about these. Boring!!!!
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Simple hard edges shapes. Minimalist spacing and a complete void of any interesting colour! Just plain boring design. Lets get back to the non-conformist, interesting interior designs that Verner produced. Let's take some risks and design with purpose and most importantly... a bit of colour!