Verner Panton – Official
1926 | born on 13th February in Brahesborg-Gamtofte on the island of Fünen, Denmark |
1944-1945 | Panton carries out his military service in Odense. |
1944-1947 | He attends the Technical University of Odense. |
1947-1951 | Studied and graduated as an architect from the Royal Academy of Arts, Copenhagen. |
1950 | Marriage to Tove Kemp, the step-daughter of designer Poul Henningsen. The marriage is short-lived. |
1950-1952 | Works for the renowned Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen. |
1953 | On a number of extensive trips through Europe in a VW van converted to a mobile draughtsman’s office he immerses himself in the international design world and establishes contacts with colleagues, manufacturers and dealers. The result is a large number of architectural projects and furniture designs. |
1955 | The prestigious Danish furniture manufacturer Fritz Hansen launches the first series production of furniture by Panton, the Bachelor-Chair. |
1955 | Fritz Hansen also produces the first series of the Tivoli-Chair. |
1956 | Panton participates in a furniture competition initiated by the WK/WKS group. Many of the models for his later series are based on these designs. |
1957 | A prefabricated weekend house designed by Panton, which can if required also be used as a garage, is produced as a small series. |
1958 | Panton creates a sensation with the extension and redesign of his parents’ inn, Kom-igen in the Langesø Park on the island of Fünen, for which he also designed the Cone Chair. |
1959 | Start of the cooperation with the Danish firms of Plus-Linje (Cone Chair series furniture), Unika Væv (textiles) and Louis Poulsen (lighting). |
1960 | Design of the Astoria hotel restaurant in Trondheim, Norway. Panton designs the first inflatable seating elements made of transparent plastic in furniture history. |
1961 | Panton presents his furniture, textiles and lamps in the legendary black book of the design magazine Mobilia and in the Pfister furniture showrooms in Zurich. |
1962 | In Teneriff he gets to know Marianne Pherson-Oertenheim. He resides in Cannes for a short time. |
1963 | His move to Basle sees the beginning of his cooperation with Herman Miller/Vitra. Panton receives the International Design Award, USA (an award which he receives once more in 1986 and 1981). |
1964 | He marries Marianne in Basle. The Shell Lamps are first presented on Lüber’s stand in Frankfurt. During the International Furniture Fair in Cologne, the Flying Chairs are the absolute sensation. |
1965 | In the form of the S-Chair (Model 275) by Panton the first cantilever chair made of moulded plywood is produced by Thonet. |
1965/66 | Design of a modular furniture system made of foam plastic sections, which is manufactured from 1967 by Kill, Metzeler and sold by the Kaufhof chain. |
1966 | Birth of daughter Carin.. |
1967 | The Danish design magazine Mobilia presents the Panton Chair to the public for the first time. Panton is awarded Denmark’s PH Prize. |
1968 | Design of the exhibition on the Dralon ship (later renamed Visiona 0) for Bayer on the occasion of the Cologne Furniture Fair. The Flower Pot lamp is produced. Panton is awarded Italy’s Eurodomus 2 prize. Design for the offices of the Spiegel publishing house. The Living Tower is presented at a joint exhibition with Charles Eames, Joe Colombo and others at the Louvre in Paris. Panton receives the Medal od Austria’s Bauzentrum. |
1969 | For the Spiegelverlagshaus, which moved into the modernized premises in 1969 in Hamburg’s Ost-West Street, Panton designed the entrance area with courtyard and lobby, the canteen and the bar areas, the swimming pool for the employees in the basement of the building, the rooms for the editorial conferences and the lounges, as well as the colour schemes for the hallways of the administration or editorial highrise buildings. |
1970 | Design of the Visiona II exhibition for Bayer on the occasion of the Cologne Furniture Fair, where the first Mira X collection is also on show. Redesign of restaurant Varna in Århus. |
1972 | The Pantons move to a villa in Basle Binningen where he designs a room-high live-in sculpture. |
1973 | Panton is awarded Germany’s «Gute Form» prize. |
1974 | Design of the Gruner & Jahr publishing offices in Hamburg.. |
1977 | Fritz Hansen produces the System 1-2-3 seating programme. |
1978 | Louis Poulsen launches the VP Europa lighting range. |
1978 | Colour and decoration concept of the passage to the underground parking lot at the University Hospital in Basel. |
1979 | Panton receives Denmark’s Møbelprisen. At the international Swiss Furniture Fair in Basle a special exhibition Pantorama is presented in his honour. |
1981-1984 | Panton receives Germany’s ‘Deutsche Auswahl’ prize five times. |
1984 | The circus building in Copenhagen is renovated on the basis of a colour design by Panton. He becomes a visiting professor at the Offenbach College of Design. |
1986 | Panton receives Denmark’s Sadolin-Farve prize and Germany’s «Gute Form» award. |
1990 | The Panton Chair is relaunched by Vitra, which is the occasion for famous designer colleagues to present their Hommage à Panton. |
1991 | Panton is awarded Denmark’s Dansk Designgråd Årspris prize. |
1992 | He receives Norway’s design prize. |
1994 | For Ikea he designs the Vilbert chair. |
1995 | Start of the collaboration with VS-Möbel. |
1995/96 | On the occasion of the Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta, Panton designed a Swatch Art Clock Tower in 1995. The tower was first set up on the lake in Lausanne in 1996. It consists of 63 individual, coloured rings and a large Swatch clock in the middle. Later, in summer 1996, it was exhibited in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne with 2 shortened floors. |
1996 | Panton designs a colour space installation “Farbräume” for Gallerie Littmann in Basle. |
1997 | Panton receives a commission to design the Erco offices in London. |
1998 | For his life’s work the Queen of Denmark awards Panton the knight’s cross of the Dannebrog order. In the form of the Panto-Pop and the multi-functional Phantom furniture Innovation Randers produces modified re-editions of two designs originally developed for the Visiona II exhibition. On 5 September Panton dies in Copenhagen at the age of 72. Light and Colours, the last exhibition to be designed by Panton, opens at the Trapholt Museum in Kolding on 17 September. |
2000 | Verner Panton’s extraordinarily comprehensive and diverse oeuvre, to which the Vitra Design Museum now dedicates an extensive Retrospektive, is with justification regarded as a major contribution to the development of design in the second half of the twentieth century. |
2012 | Weil am Rhein honours Verner Panton with own streetname |