(smow) blog Design Calendar: February 13th 1926 – Happy Birthday Verner Panton!

It is almost certainly more by chance than design, but in the week that Verner Panton would have celebrated his 88th birthday the Vitra Design Museum Gallery opened an exhibition devoted to his inimitable Visiona 2 exhibition from 1970.

Presented as part of the warm up to the forthcoming “Panorama” exhibition from and by Konstantin Grcic, “Visiona 1970: Revisiting the Future” explores the background to and realisation of the Visiona 2 showcase, including an accessible, usable, sitonable recreation of the “Phantasy Landscape” element: arguably the best known component of Visiona 2, one of the clearest expressions of Panton’s ideas and one of the most enduring memorials to Verner Panton.

And as such one of the most fitting ways to celebrate the birthday of a designer and architect who has given us so many reasons to be thankful.

By way of our contribution to the festivities: a cake composed of miniature Panton Chairs as presented during the celebration of 20 years of the Vitra Design Museum Miniatures Collection at Hugo Boss Milan in 2012

Happy Birthday Verner Panton!

Happy Birthday Verner Panton (Cake courtesy of the Vitra Design Museum and Hugo Boss Milan)

Phantasy Landscape by Verner Panton as presented at Visiona 2, Cologne in 1970 (Photo: © Verner Panton Design)