“One sits more comfortably on a colour that one likes.” This is what Danish designer Verner Panton reportedly said about the “Panton Chair” he designed. The plastic cantilever chair from the 1960s is now available in a wide range of colours. However, anyone who thinks that the millions of examples of this design classic populating dining rooms worldwide only differ in colour is mistaken.

In terms of materials, the Panton Chair has been through a lot: from glass-fibre-reinforced polyester resin (which broke too quickly) to the polyurethane hard-foam version (which required too much post-production work) and a polycarbonate/acrylonitrile styrene acrylate blend (which turned out to be too expensive) to the now inexpensive, recyclable polypropylene version.

To keep up with the times, Swiss manufacturer Vitra has even tweaked the geometry of the 2021 version, to create an XL size. After all, we haven’t exactly become more petite in the past 50 years!