Verner Panton (1926 - 1998) is considered to be one of Denmark's most influential 20th-century furniture and interior designers.
In 1947 he attended Copenhagen’s Royal Academy of Arts undertaking an architecture degree and on completion worked for the architect Arne Jacobsen as his assistant.
Panton became well known for his innovative architectural proposals, including a collapsible house (1955), the Cardboard House and the Plastic House (1960).
However it was in 1955 that Panton saw the launch of his first mass-produced pieces of furniture: the Tivoli Chair and Bachelor Chair.
By the end of the fifties Panton’s designs were becoming increasingly unconventional and he began using a variety of innovative materials such as plastics in vibrant colours.
Throughout the sixties his creations were the quintessence of the free spirited counterculture movement with the first ever inflatable chair (1960), the S Chair (1965), and the Panton Chair (1968), which was the first ever single injection moulded chair, being prime examples.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Panton started experimenting with designing entire psychedelic environments that were an ensemble of his curved furniture, wall upholstering, textiles and lighting.
Still proving popular 30 years later the Panton Chair was put back into production by Vitra in 1990 with it gracing the cover of British Vogue in 1995.
In 1998 Panton died in Copenhagen 12 days before the opening of his Light and Colour retrospective at the Trapholt museum in Kolding, Denmark.