Celebrating 100 years of Verner Panton: 10 designs that changed modern design

The design that first announced Verner Panton as a radical new voice in Danish furniture, the Cone Chair challenged every expectation of what an armchair could look like.

Originally created in 1958 as a design for a Danish restaurant, the chair’s form is stripped down to one dramatic gesture: an inverted cone in steel, upholstered and perched on a narrow pedestal base. The design later evolved into the Heart Cone Chair, distinguished by its winged backrest.

Now produced by Vitra, the Cone Chair remains close to Panton’s original design.

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Before the plastic curves and cantilever forms that would define his career, Panton designed a chair almost entirely out of string. The Panton One was his very first mass-produced furniture piece, with its seat and backrest handwoven from cord around a bent steel tube frame. Stackable and lightweight, it was built to move easily between public and private spaces alike.

Relaunched by Montana in 2003, it remains in production today.

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Designed in 1969 and standing over two metres tall, the Living Tower discards the very idea of a chair entirely. It reads more like a sculptural landscape than a piece of furniture, its red-upholstered peaks and hollows spread across four different levels, built to be sat in, curled up on, or even climbed over.

Panton called it part of the era’s “Domestic Landscape” movement, using the full height of a room rather than confining seating to the floor. It was produced only in small numbers before Vitra discontinued it in the early seventies, only to bring it back decades later as a cult object.

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Named after the Flower Power movement that swept through the late 1960s, the Flowerpot lamp became a symbol of the era: colourful, optimistic, and unconcerned with taking itself too seriously. The lamp is made up of two opposing hemispheres, the upper one twice the size of the lower, concealing the bulb and letting only its reflected colour glow through.

First introduced in vivid orange and red, the Flowerpot is now produced by &Tradition in a wide range of colours and sizes.

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A serpentine backrest snakes across the Cloverleaf sofa, its undulating form creating alternating inward and outward-facing niches. Debuted at the legendary Visiona 2 exhibition in 1969, it sits on a pentangular base plate that is cut into a rounded, open pentagon.

Verpan has produced the sofa since 2011, over five decades after its debut.

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The Fun lamp is believed to have been influenced by a trip Panton made to Malaysia, where the shimmer of mother-of-pearl is said to have informed its design. Hundreds of translucent capiz shell discs are strung onto delicate metal chains, cascading from a single central bulb.

As the shells sway gently, they cast a soft, shimmering glow across the room. Its ethereal appearance earned it a place in the 1969 Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, hanging in Blofeld’s Alpine lair. Today, it is produced by Verpan.

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Panton designed the Panthella in 1971, its mushroom-like profile reflects Panton’s interest in organic forms. It was engineered so that both the shade and the base reflect light, the two working together to cast a soft, glare-free glow rather than a single beam.

Louis Poulsen continues to produce the Panthella, the only Verner Panton design in its catalogue.

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Ten curved aluminium rings, each individually adjustable, spiral concentrically around a hidden bulb. When illuminated, the rings scatter the light into soft, layered bands, creating a rippling pattern of light and shadow that foreshadows the visual language of the Op Art movement.

Originally produced by Louis Poulsen, the Moon Lamp has been made by Verpan since 2007.

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One of Panton’s most futuristic designs, the VP Globe turns a simple pendant into a study of light and illusion. Housed inside a transparent acrylic sphere, five aluminium reflectors hang from steel chains, their flashes of red and blue appearing to orbit the concealed light source.

Designed in 1969, the same year as the moon landing, the VP Globe has been produced by Verpan since 2003.

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