With its bright, cheerful colours and smooth curves, the Panton Chair has always been a favourite of children Ð both as a chair and as a plaything. This led Verner Panton to consider the the idea of producing a child-size version of the chair together with Vitra over 35 years ago. Proving impossible at the time for economic reasons, this aim was finally achieved in 2008 with the introduction of Panton Junior, a chair based on the designer's original plans. Identical to the regular model with regard to material and shape, the children's chair is approximately 25 percent smaller than the full-size Panton Chair. This makes Panton Junior, which is available in six different colours, an ideal chair for children in nursery and elementary school.
The Panton Chair is a classic in the history of furniture design. Conceived by Verner Panton in 1960, the Panton Chair was developed for serial production in collaboration with Vitra. It was the first chair to be manufactured completely out of plastic in one single piece. Since its market launch in 1967, it has advanced through several production phases. Only since 1999 has it been possible to produce the chair in accordance with its original conception Ð out of durable, dyed-through plastic with a lustrous matte finish. The comfort of this chair results from the combination of a cantilever structure with an anthropomorphic shape and a slightly flexible material. It can be used individually or in groups and is suited for indoor and outdoor environments. The Panton Chair has received numerous international design awards and is represented in the collections of many prominent museums. Due to its expressive shape, it has become an icon of the twentieth century.
Chairs take the most stress on their back legs, where they bear the weight of the user's upper body. The engineer, architect and designer Jean Prouv incorporated this simple insight in his design for the Standard Chair: while steel tubing suffices for the front legs, since they are subject to less stress, the back legs are made of voluminous hollow sections that transfer the primary weight to the floor. Standard is available in the classic version with seat and backrest in wood or as the Standard SP model with seat and backrest in robust plastic.