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Verner Panton was born in Denmark in 1926. He studied at the Odense Technical School 1944-47, and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, 1947-51. Panton worked with Arne Jacobsen in 1950-1952. 1955-1962 he had his own architectural and design office in Denmark, then in 1962 in France, and then in 1963 in Binningen, Switzerland. Panton died in 1999, one of the most promenent and versatile designers of his era, famous for very wild pop designs.

Panton was famous particularly for his chairs, including the Panton side chair, the first single-piece stacking molded plastic chair. He was facinated by the concept of a chair with no legs or as few legs/pieces as possible. He's also famous for his 1958 "Cone" chair, and later his "Wire Cone" and "Heart" chairs. He was very well known as a designer with creative ideas, using innovative materials and methods and very bold colors and patterns. He created his now-famous series of lighting for Louis Poulsen called the "Flower Pot" lamps in 1968. He designed bold geometric fabric patterns, produced by Unika-Vaev. In 1968 and 1970 he created wild interiors, Visiona I and Visiona II, for the Bayer Chemical exhibitions of public spaces and interiors. He was commissioned to create the Cardboard house in 1957 in Fyn, and the Spherical house in Copenhagen in 1960. He received many design awards including three International Design Awards given by the American Institute of Designers (1963, 1968, and 1981) and his works have been seen in many museums.

sources: Design 1935-1965 What Modern Was edited by Martin Eidelberg.

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