Bursting Balls!

You’re shopping for a chair online and you want something different.  Something cool, like you’ve seen on design blogs and in trade show reviews.  Something innovative, comfortable and good for your posture.

It looms…

Then you run across a product called the Ball Chair.  Its various permutations are similar, but the one question running through your mind as you look at the attractive folks perched perfectly on their chairs is,

“Is this thing going to explode when I sit on it?”

That’s the first thing I thought, at least.  But never fear!  The Evolution chair is made with high quality anti-burst material, and direct from Evolution’s site:

Our anti-burst balance ball is eco-friendly and latex-free. It is also 6P-free, meaning it does not contain the 6 most harmful phthalates contained in some other balance balls or plastic products.

Good for the environment, good for the back.  What’s not to love?  Two of my co-workers sit on them, and we all occasionally do a little quick yoga in the office.  Only when the bosses are not here, catch my drift?

I’m going to have to put you on the grid, Kevin.

The folks over at Dornob never disappoint.  This time it’s with armchairs inspired by TRON: Legacy, designed by Dror Benshetrit.

I fight for the users!

Made from recyclable material, these chairs are certainly eye-catching, if not totally comfortable.  Each piece is designed with colors, angles and materials that call to mind the decades-old question: Are you a program, or are you a user?

meta-chair

Hey y’all — had a little break from blogging, but I’m back now. Here’s a chair I came across thanks to the fine folks at Dornob, what they like to refer to as a “literalist” chair. I like to think of it as a “meta” chair myself:

Designer Eric Ku created this flat-pack design, which assembles into a fairly nice-looking finished piece in the end, one you can actually sit in:

…although one could say, perhaps, that it resembles a high chair. Just a little bit. What do you think, chair enthusiasts?

orange you glad for neocon 2011?

A hilarious article in the Chicago Sun-Times documented a notable trend at NeoCon 2011 (office furniture’s biggest conference mecca, for those not in the know): the prevalence of a very particular shade of orange. One company referred to it by its Pantone Matching System number, PMS-716. A little research reveals that there are several variations on this hue:

My curiosity got the better of me, so I went looking for office chairs (many of which we sell) in this shade. Is it arancio, persimmon, oriole, Koenig orange, sunrise orange, cayenne, mango, papaya, pumpkin, coral, brick, or just plain orange? See for yourself and be the judge.

my favorite jimmie martin creations

ChairBlog‘s found another good one — the impossibly stylish chairs of Jimmie Martin. Like Julia at ChairBlog, I’ve gone through every single one of their jaw-droppingly awesome seating options until I had to hammer my mouth back together. But here are two of my favorite ones, which I’ve chosen because they’re so different from one another.

First, we have KABOOM:

So dynamic! This one blows me away, and I think it’s because of that matching ottoman. It really is like a comic panel come to life!

Then there’s the Edgar Allen Poe side of things:

This was a collaboration piece with jewelry designer/taxidermist Hannah Martin. Quoth the Raven, “Good likeness.”

mr. chair

Oh my! I had to repost this tantalizing bit of design from ChairBlog – the very masculine Mr. Chair, designed by Soojin Hyun for the Milan 2011 furniture fair. The chair seems to lend itself to innumerable goofy poses and would certainly be a conversation piece in an actual room. Can you imagine this as your office chair? I can!

risd students@international contemporary furniture fair

The ICFF is happening right now, and our local furniture designing-darlings from RISD will be making their mark there as well! A dozen graduate and undergraduate Furniture Design majors are showcasing their works there as we speak. Among them is MFA 2011 candidate Alexandra Snook, who created the Saddle Stool pictured above. In her own words:

Twintex® is a thread of sorts, so I initially examined the ways in which we use conventional threads and yarn – sewing, crocheting and knitting.

When I was six years old, my grandmother taught me to knit; I went to her house after school and we would knit together on an old grey wool couch. Knitting was always kept separate from my work as a designer, but working with Twintex® excited me to finally incorporate it into my furniture.  Since Twintex® has the unique feature of hardening through baking, I was able to use knitting in a more structural way than would otherwise be possible in creating Saddle Stool.

Learn more about the Furniture Design students at ICFF and see more examples of their work here.

varier gravity chair

This isn’t a new item, but it’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned our friends at Varier. Whenever people call up asking for a kneeling chair, it’s inevitably their classic Variable Balans (or Wing Chair) that I suggest. But they also have a very special model that’s more than just a kneeling chair: the Gravity Balans.

We have one of these in our showroom right now (it looks exactly like the model in the video!), and at a very good price. This beautiful chair draws comments from everyone — impressive to behold, it also tilts forward and backwards into four distinct positions, even a kneeling chair! And don’t be afraid to take your feet off the ground, because the floating sensation is very relaxing.

sugachair

It’s hard not to love core77, one of the many superb design sites I peruse for the purpose of enriching this blog. Today they’ve provided me with a very sweet chair that I am now passing along to you, gentle readers. I present: the Sugachair.

Why is it called the Sugachair? Because it really is made out of suga, I mean sugar. Designed by mad hatter Pieter Brenner (pictured below), the chair is fully consumable. My question is, will Pieter be paying for the dentist bills if you decide to “customize” his chair?

It’s only a prototype for now, on display at the Cologne International School of Design’s KISDshop. I like to try and imagine what would become of it should it go into some kind of mass production. Could it be made from organic cane sugar or is it a strictly high fructose deal? Would different factories around the world flavor it to match their cultures? Could there be a special candy cane edition in time for Christmas? The possibilities seem limitless…

spider chair

Benjamin Rollins Caldwell is a designer to pay attention to. He’s probably not for everyone, as there’s an almost “shock” value to his furniture that I could see some deriding as tacky. Me? It’s this very quality of his work that I dig. Take, for example, his Spider Chair:

I’m in love with this thing. At first glance, it might seem impractical and uncomfortable, seeing as the cushions are made entirely of recycled zippers and silk ties. But I’ve seen testimonials from other folks on the web (i.e. people who have actually sit in this or on the matching Spider Sofa at various trade shows) that it’s surprisingly cushy. And, of course, it’s just so very COOL. It’s edgy. Caldwell clearly makes furniture for rock stars. I like to imagine the whole Spider Collection inside Alice Cooper’s mansion in the deserts of Arizona; he seems like he’d be Caldwell’s ideal client. What do you think of this creepy design?