One of the most successful chair designers of the last few decades who has, for example with his celebrated Panton chair, written design history: Verner Panton (1926-1998) was one of VS’ most important design partners. Significant chair developments have resulted from the close cooperation of recent years.

“A chair must be dynamic – one should sit on it comfortably.” Verner Panton’s programme: Chairs are to be viewed as autonomous objects which together form a kind of chair landscape in the room. The defined goal here is that they should restrict us and our desire to sit as little as possible.

Verner Panton wanted to set a counterpoint against uniformity. “The driving force behind my work is to challenge people to use their imagination.” This is demonstrated by the Panto Series, which he realised with VS.

The first member of the Panto chair family at VS was the PantoSwing. Here Panton took up the grand tradition of the cantilevered chair (even his legendary Panton chair made of plastic was already a cantilevered chair), but with one striking difference: on the PantoSwing the seat surface is inclined not to the rear but – an advantage in ergonomic terms – to the front.

“With new ideas and the use of new materials, I am immediately involved.” Panton was always interested in innovative, industrially produced materials. He thus took up among others in the PantoSwing Series a VS development: the seat/backrest shell of double-walled blown, structured polypropylene which offers a pleasant air-cushion effect thanks to fine perforations.

“My work is spontaneous.” The starting point for Panton’s spontaneity was often his playful handling of forms and of geometrical shapes. For the Panton chair family Verner Panton designed a striking, round backrest with a round grip hole and the seat/backrest shell was practically developed from two circles.

In addition to the PantoSwing, the Panto chair family includes the PantoFour four-legged chair, the PantoMove swivel chair and the PantoStack alloy chair.