Tag Archives: chairs

The Sova Lounge Chair is an ergonomic + comfortable chair built from sustainably sourced wood

Posted on by

We often underestimate the importance of a great chair! When in reality we really shouldn’t. We spend the majority of our day sitting on chairs, whether we’re working in our home office, enjoying a meal, or simply sitting and reading a book for leisure. Hence, this piece of furniture needs to be not only comfortable but ergonomic, and aesthetic as well. And, French designer Patrick Norguet created such a ‘unique and comfortable armchair’ for the Bosnian furniture company Zanat.

Designer: Patrick Norguet for Zanat

Called the Sova Lounge Chair, the chair showcases a strong character, and has the kind of endearing personality that instantly grabs attention! The highlight of the chair is its curved and elongated back. Featuring an ergonomic design, the Sova Lounge Chair is marked by a C-shaped, foam-injected back, which is guaranteed to provide user comfort. The lounge chair boasts a solid wooden frame – available in options of maple, walnut, and oak. While the seat and back cushions can be upholstered in a variety of leather and fabric options.

“Sova means owl in Bosnian, and it was chosen to describe a piece designed for daydreaming and thoughts of wisdom which owls have come to symbolize,” said the brand. Since the Bosnian word for owl is ‘Sova’, the chair has been named so, to signify the fact that it is meant to be a furniture piece that encourages relaxation, and quiet thoughts.

All the wood used to construct the Sova Lounge Chair comes from private fruit orchards or sustainably managed forests. Not only is the Sova Lounge Chair ergonomic and elegant, but it is also a sustainable design that plays its part in saving the planet!

The post The Sova Lounge Chair is an ergonomic + comfortable chair built from sustainably sourced wood first appeared on Yanko Design.

This rocking chair design concept is an odd ode to couch potatoes

Posted on by

“Form follows function” is one of the most famous principles of good design, one that is deceptively simple as the three words would seem to suggest. After all, it sounds logical enough for an object’s shape to be based on what it’s meant to do or that its design should at least not get in the way of its operation. It might not always work that way, though, especially when the form dictated by function would turn out to be something drab or even downright repulsive. Sometimes, however, it does result in quite a few interesting concepts, especially when designers take things almost too literally. This rocking chair, for example, has quite the appealing curves that might make you chuckle in amusement when you find out that it is inspired by a couch potato’s stereotypical favorite snack.

Designer: Pranay Patidar

Rocking chairs are famous for their soothing back-and-forth motion that often reminds us of our infancy. The core design for this chair is pretty simple, only requiring that it incorporate a way to use simple physics to rock the person back and forth. Typical designs attach curved bars or structures to the legs of the chair, but it isn’t really the only way to make a chair rock.

In essence, a rocking chair revolves around curved shapes to make that motion possible, and the Chipp concept design takes inspiration from a shape that is all too familiar to people who love to lounge around on chairs and couches. Potato chips, particularly of the Pringles variety, come in a rather distinctive curved form, and using it as the basis of a rocking chair is both poetic and comical. More importantly, however, it actually works, at least as far as the concept goes.

Chipp is actually composed of three potato chip-shaped parts in different sizes. The biggest forms the backbone of the rocking chair and is responsible for creating that rocking motion. Curiously enough, the actual seat isn’t built into this part of the chair but is yet another “chip” that curves in the opposite direction and is attached to the base with a single pillar. The third and smallest chip is on the back to prevent the chair from completely rolling backward.

It might be a bit questionable whether this potato chip rocking chair is structurally sound and safe, but it is definitely an interesting interpretation of an old furniture design. The chair could be made from different materials, including both wood and plastic, though it will probably score bonus points if it looks exactly like that snack, just to go along with your Loafa bread sofa.

The post This rocking chair design concept is an odd ode to couch potatoes first appeared on Yanko Design.

This modular lounge chair brings some of the comforts of home to the office

Posted on by

Attitudes about the workplace have shifted and changed over the past years. From cubicles to open floor plans and back again, office space often fluctuates between technical, efficient places for productivity and cozy, inspiring spaces for humans. This has become especially evident in recent months as people started going back to offices after having adjusted to the comforts and challenges of working from home. While it’s definitely not advisable to bring the entire WFH setting to a communal workspace, it might be possible to integrate some of those more favorable elements into office design. That’s exactly what this furniture collection, and especially this lounge chair tries to offer, helping people bounce back into work life while still enjoying some of the conveniences and privacy they had at home.

Designer: Anthony Chupp

When people around the world were forced to start working from home instead of the office, many struggled to adjust and cope. Over time, however, workers and their families have developed strategies and tools that helped them remain productive despite all the distractions and temptations at home. Now the pendulum swings in the opposite direction, and people are trying to re-adjust to working from the office while also yearning for the positive experiences they had from working at home.

“Rebound” is a furniture collection that tries to bring those traits to the office, focusing primarily on properties like privacy and personalization, something that has almost become rare in many open floor plans today. The Kona lounge chair is the most interesting member of this group, looking like something you wouldn’t expect inside an office. It’s a design that exhibits not only flexibility but also convenience and comfort that is more associated with home furniture instead.

Kona’s base is a short, cylindrical pouf that, on its own, is already an attractive piece in any room. It combines with curved backrests of different heights that add both back support as well as an accent to the chair. That back support is covered with wool felt that acts as a sound-absorbing material to create an acoustically private space around the person sitting on the chair. The back support can also stand on its own and be placed behind any regular office chair to serve as a privacy backdrop for video calls as well.

The collection also includes a modular shelf that brings a level of customization you wouldn’t normally expect from office furniture. There are also acoustic panels that are designed to dampen background noise while doing video calls. These pieces of furniture represent the changing needs of office workers, particularly with the prevalence of video calls as part of regular office life. It also reflects a growing desire to create more private spaces they can personalize, something that, ironically, the old cubicle-style workplace offered to some extent.

The post This modular lounge chair brings some of the comforts of home to the office first appeared on Yanko Design.

Frunchroom is a delightful furniture collection that looks like part of a dollhouse

Posted on by

Furniture is mostly seen as functional objects rather than just for show. After all, you sit on them or place items on them, and they feel like a waste of space if they remain unused for long periods of time. At the same time, however, furniture has always served a decorative purpose, which is why many antique pieces have ornate engravings or designs. Furniture has the ability to create a specific mood or atmosphere in a room. Even an interior filled with minimalist tables and chairs exudes a sense of cleanliness and tidiness. Others, however, prefer a livelier ambiance, especially in a living room, and this furniture collection definitely brings a whimsical spirit that feels like it came straight out of a dollhouse.

Designer: Adi Goodrich

The living room is one of the most important parts of the house, mostly because it’s a nexus of any and all sorts of activities. It’s often one of the first areas that guests see, and it is where they are first entertained. It’s also a place where family and friends gather for games or entertainment, and it sometimes even acts as a makeshift bedroom for someone crashing over. As such, it’s almost always where the majority of fancy decorations and furniture are located.

For those hailing from south-side Chicago, this area is also called the “Frunchroom.” It’s the front room of a house where homeowners keep their most prized possessions and where some of the best memories are made. It’s no surprise, then, that a furniture collection bearing that same name would be just as memorable and fun, calling to mind the whimsical forms of furniture meant to be used as toys, here supersized for actual human use.

The Sketti side tables, for example, have legs that look like they were cut out by children for an art project. The Reading Chair’s unusual ridged upholstery is a bit hard to wrap one’s brain around, and fortunately, it can also be removed. The Duality dining chair really does the part of evoking opposite images and feelings with its flat outer sides and scalloped underside. The combination of colors, pretty much the foundational red, green, and blue hues, strike a sharp contrast to the earthy tones of the furniture’s wooden surfaces.

Frunchroom puts a playful twist to your typical home furniture, one that is sure to enliven any living space. At the same time, the very origins of the set tell of different stories and people that the designer encountered, becoming a sort of personal diary given functional form. It makes for the perfect centerpiece of the house where memories are both remembered and made, hopefully, ones that evoke as much fun and whimsy as these furniture pieces.

The post Frunchroom is a delightful furniture collection that looks like part of a dollhouse first appeared on Yanko Design.

These delicious candy-like chairs are shockingly made from real balloons

Posted on by

Chairs, stools, and couches come in all shapes and sizes, but they are bound by a single hard requirement. They must be stable enough and sturdy enough so that people can sit on them with confidence that they won’t fall on their butts when they least expect it. Some seats put that requirement at the heart of their visual design, exuding that stability and durability simply by the way they look. Others, on the other hand, try to trick the mind by presenting what is almost like an optical illusion, making a sofa float in mid-air without making you crash to the ground. This striking collection of chairs and seats straddle the fine line between these two, offering furniture that seems to be structurally sound yet fragile enough to pop and burst at the slightest touch.

Designer: Seungjin Yang

There is something about balloons that bring out the inner child in us. Even grownups still find something fascinating about balloons twisted into different shapes and creatures. A balloon dog made of metal steel even became a famed designer Jeff Koons’ iconic signature. Balloons’ often shiny colors convey a sense of playfulness, while their round forms that encapsulate air almost give them an ephemeral character, two qualities you might not exactly associate with something that needs to be stable and sturdy, like chairs.

That, however, is exactly what the Blowing collection brings to the table, or rather to the floor. Made from different balloon sizes shaped into rods, circles, and spirals, the chairs immediately capture one’s attention because of their unusual shapes. Whether opaque or translucent, the bright colors and shiny surfaces will probably make one think of candies, which should probably be a cautionary note for parents with toddlers and babes.

Despite how whimsical they look, the chairs are all serious business when it comes to being chairs. Each balloon is blown up and shaped before being bathed in epoxy several times over. The multiple layers of resin are necessary to make them solid enough to support people of different weights. Once that treatment is done, the parts are assembled into a single eye-catching piece, turning several balloons into stools, chairs, or even couches for people of different ages.

The design allows for a variety of color combinations, whether going for a single chromatic theme or letting loose on the paintbrush. Admittedly, the fanciful visage of these chairs might not fit some interiors, but if you’re looking for something that will instantly spark interest and conversation, you can do no wrong with a chair that both looks charming and yet also a little worrying at the same time.

The post These delicious candy-like chairs are shockingly made from real balloons first appeared on Yanko Design.

These eight conceptual chairs represent Hong Kong’s urban landscape and density

Posted on by

Italian designer Andrea Ponti created a collection of furniture designs called ‘Shadows in the Windows. Comprising of eight colorful and clean variations, the collection captures and represents Hong Kong’s urban landscape through two symbolic elements – a window, and a seat. The intriguing collection was displayed at Superstudio Più during Milan Design Week 2017.

Designer: Andrea Ponti

Shadows in the Windows is meant to provide a sneak peek into the hustle bustle and powerful personality of Hong Kong. Each piece in the collection features a square-shaped window frame, as well as the structure of a chair. Ponti says that the window is the architectural element that best represents urban density – the exteriors of buildings are always enmassed by windows, and they create an opening into the interiors.

At first, the windows seem to be functional and practical, posing as sturdy grids and columns. Still, as you look closer, you realize they provide a glimpse into the lives of the people behind them, which is represented by the seat or chair element of the variations. The seat projects its shadow and contour over the window, portraying the story of the people living in the buildings. Clean lines, steel structures, and ABS seats define all eight variations.

Despite the familiarities all the variations share, they’re also quite unique, and each piece has its own different pattern, shape, and orientation. The pieces represent an interesting connection between the individual, product, and urban landscape while functioning as a metaphor for urban density.

The post These eight conceptual chairs represent Hong Kong’s urban landscape and density first appeared on Yanko Design.

This McDonald’s Gaming Chair looks so tempting and so wrong at the same time

Posted on by

We’re already nearing the end of the year, but you’d be forgiven if you felt we went back in time to April or moved fast forward to next year’s date. With gaming continuing to be a highly profitable market, more companies are trying to get their toes wet and claim a piece of the pie. That includes companies with totally no direct connection to video games, like fast food chains. Although not as ridiculous as KFC’s “KFConsole” gaming PC, McDonald’s UK office is apparently trying to get its game on with a similarly contentious product aimed at PC gamers. On the one hand, it might hit all the right notes for a gamer’s dream chair. On the other hand, it also checks all the wrong stereotypes and encourages a lifestyle that further paints gamers in a negative light.

Designer: McDonald’s UK (via Facebook)

Parents used to tell kids not to eat while using the computer, though that was probably more from fear of damaging the computer with spilled drinks or ruining keyboards with oils and crumbs. Eating in front of the computer does have such dangers, but it also develops an unhealthy habit of not eating properly or not drawing the line between personal life and work life. Unfortunately, that’s the kind of unbalanced lifestyle that most people have in mind when thinking of gamers, and McDonald’s isn’t doing this market any favors even as it tries to sell them its latest gimmick.

Formally called the McCrispy Ultimate Gaming Chair in honor of its newly-launched chicken sandwich, the chair adds dedicated compartments for gamers to enjoy the meal, complete with all the sides and drinks. On the right side, you have a container for fries, two dedicated slots for dips, and a hanger for a towel to wipe your mouth and hands with. On the left, there’s a hot box that will keep that McCrispy or any other food warm. There’s also a holder for a large drink, and it’s thankfully situated near the back, far away from potential accidents.

For avid PC gamers, it definitely promises the ultimate convenience of having your food within easy reach. It doesn’t have to be McCrispy meals either, as the containers and holders can be used for other food as well. That’s not going to help improve a gamer’s physical and mental health, not to mention it still runs the risk of ruining expensive gaming peripherals with oils from foods. It won’t harm the chair itself, though, since McDonald’s promises it uses stain-proof leather.

This is admittedly something that only a die-hard McDonald’s fan will probably want to grab, not that it’s available anywhere else except through a raffle. The chair is full of McCrispy branding with a gold and black motif that’s not exactly that appealing to many people. Then again, it could have been worse since the brand’s official colors are gold and red.

The post This McDonald’s Gaming Chair looks so tempting and so wrong at the same time first appeared on Yanko Design.

Driveable Volkswagen electric office chair for workaholics who never want to get up

Posted on by

Who on earth would have imagined a mobile office chair to come from the house of Volkswagen? Yes, this is not a gimmick, rather, a unique piece of furniture with a deep automotive connection at the functional level.

The all-electric chair is created by the German automotive giant’s Commercial Vehicles division (situated in Norway) in collaboration with creative strategy firm Try. They’ve rolled in as many features in an office chair, as one can think to have from the existing line-up of vehicles. Quite wittily, the VW press release says the creation is “to laugh at people who are stuck working an office job.”

Designer: Volkswagen and Try

It can drive and have LED lights, an infotainment system, and assisted systems too. Now, that’s too much for an office chair if you ask me. The user-friendly features are also adapted from the VW electric cars for a workplace on five wheels like none other. Months of work have been put into the making of this work-from-home furniture that isn’t yet road legal but looks absolutely wantable.

For a geeky automotive affectionate the VW chair drives at a top speed of 12.4 m/h and a maximum range of 7.5 miles. There’s a rear-view camera and 360-degree sensors to detect anyone hurling your way while driving in the hallway. To keep the occupant engaged, the entertainment system comes preloaded with feel-good songs, so that you’re glued to the chair all the time. When wintertime hits, the seat warmer keeps you cozy for binge-watching hours at a go. The chair has a storage compartment to keep all the gadgets handy and even a trailer hitch for all the paperwork.

For now, the chair is not available to buy, but still, it’s on the back of the mind of VW because they “always prioritize people who actually need a car for work.” The consolation though is the fact that the fully loaded electric chair can be test driven at local dealerships in the coming months.

The post Driveable Volkswagen electric office chair for workaholics who never want to get up first appeared on Yanko Design.

Nebula is a transforming chair concept that looks a tad uncomfortable at first glance

Posted on by

Furniture like chairs and beds are made for human comfort. After all, we place our bodies on them to achieve some physical rest, so it would make sense that these should not produce more discomfort in the body instead of reducing it. Not all chairs, however, have to be super comfortable, lest you regularly get tempted to sink into your office chair in the middle of the day. Some chairs specialize in one purpose or another, and few try to meet the wide range of needs that we have for these seats. This rather unorthodox design, however, tries to do exactly that, and it does so in a way that makes efficient use of space but also looks pretty non-ergonomic despite its stated design goals.

Designer: Lorenzo Spanu

Conventional chair designs have relatively flat seats and flat or slightly curved backs, sometimes cushioned with some soft materials. While this design is intended to help support the body in a seating position, it might not actually match the natural contours of the body. Our backs and posteriors, after all, aren’t flat, and our seats need to take that into account as well. The Nebula chair design concept, for example, tries to offer more ergonomic support for the body by using cylindrical pillows rather than rectangular ones with flatter surfaces.

Granted, it definitely doesn’t look comfortable, and some might question how ergonomic sitting on a round surface really is, but there is plenty of therapy and massage equipment that are designed in a similar fashion. More than just the shape of the pillows themselves, however, Nebula’s unique design is actually the way three of these pillows revolve around a central axis, almost like how planets revolve around a sun. This, in turn, allows the chair to take on slightly different arrangements that can support different seating forms for different occasions.

One such form, for example, is a kneeling chair where the person is half seated and half kneeling, a position that is seemingly becoming a fad. There’s a more traditional seat that has frontal support that may or may not get in the way of your typing. And, finally, there is the “comfort mode” that lets you lie on all three pillow cylinders, presumably for a more relaxing yet ergonomic posture. At the end of the day, you can also just “fold up” the chair and stow it away without taking up much space.

Admittedly, there might be some doubts on whether such a design is really ergonomic, not to mention comfortable. The Nebula design, however, does push the envelope and challenge traditional chair designs to accommodate changing work conditions. At the very least, this chair could force you to stand up and walk around every once in a while, which is always a good idea to prevent living a sedentary lifestyle.

1

The post Nebula is a transforming chair concept that looks a tad uncomfortable at first glance first appeared on Yanko Design.

Camber envisions chairs and benches made from a single sheet of metal

Posted on by

Furniture is so critical and so common in our lives that few of us probably give a second thought to how they’re made. As long as they serve their purpose and look good, tables, chairs, and other pieces of furniture might as well be made from alien material for most people. Unfortunately, the materials and processes used to make these essential products have started to chip away at the health of the planet for the sake of keeping humans comfortable. Designers have started to become more aware and conscientious of this problem, and they have started to put their creativity to work in solving it. In addition to using sustainable materials right from the start, another potential answer is to reduce the amount of waste that results from the manufacturing process, like a single sheet of metal that is then cut and bent to form a sharp-looking chair.

Designer: Paul Coenen

Even the simplest piece of furniture sometimes uses multiple parts. A table will be made of at least four legs attached to a tabletop, and those connections might require screws or other means to keep the table from falling apart with the slightest weight. With conventional furniture designs, these parts are often cut out or formed at different times from different materials, a process that often yields wastes bits and pieces that can no longer be used anywhere else.

Some furniture designs have become a bit smarter by attempting to utilize every inch of a single sheet of wood or metal, but those might still need extra parts to connect them together. A more efficient way would be to just use the whole sheet and nothing else, but it’s also more challenging to create visually appealing designs. You might think it’s a simple case of folding metal, for example, but making it usable while also looking good is actually harder than you might think.

Camber is an attempt to check all those boxes by cutting and bending a single sheet of stainless steel to form seats you’d want to look at as much as sit on. Rather than simply bending two ends to form legs, the design actually involves making two angular cuts where the folds would happen before actually bending down the legs. This creates not only a more interesting design but also adds some stability to the bench or stool’s legs.

Sanding gives the seats a reflective yet matte surface, removing the need for any harmful coating. It’s an almost perfect complement to the designer’s SST mirror, which uses the same single-sheet principle, except that the surface is polished to the point that it becomes more reflecting. Stainless steel might not be the most environment-friendly metal, but its longevity ensures that these chairs and benches should last far longer than other types. Camber is simple, almost brutalist in its appearance, but its appeal goes beyond looks, offering a design that isn’t only efficient but also, in some odd way, charming in its own right.

The post Camber envisions chairs and benches made from a single sheet of metal first appeared on Yanko Design.