Emeco uses Tumblr for Chairvertizing – 111 Chair Project

I love it when an old family owned company like Emeco tries new venues. For its 111 Chairs Project it gave 111 influencers 111 type 111 chairs and interviewed them at the same time….The interviews can be found on 111 Navy Chairs, a Tumblr Blog.

I feature the Kirk Dina interview as it fits our Chairchez L’Homme series perfectly.

I retumblrd it an then use Press This to create the body of this post. It works fine now.

Director and Storyteller, Kirk Dianda is best known for his ability to intimately capture people and their story on film. With a passion for skateboarding, his first creative pursuit straight out of high school was 411VM, a skateboard video magazine. The success of 411, launched an industry of its own, producing films and videos, video game content, commercials, music and music videos, with Kirk as the Creative Director.

For a peek into his world, check out his avant-garde blog; OPP (Other People’s Posts), an ongoing collection of likable products and stories, stolen from throughout the web on a daily basis.

Kirk Dinda thanks Emeco here

via 111navychairs – Kirk Dianda.

Ice Cube Celebrates Eames

Ice Cube celebrates the Eames

In the late ’80s, before he became famous as a member of the Compton, Calif., gangsta-rap group N.W.A., Ice Cube studied architectural drafting at a trade school in Arizona. This biographical detail explaines the rapper’s appearance in a new video celebrating midcentury design icons Charles and Ray Eames

An excellent addition to our Chairchez L’Homme series.
Via the NYTimes.com.

Ball Chair in Moon Zero Two

Ball Chair in Moon Zero Two

Catherine Schell in the Eero Aarnio Ball Chair in Moon Zero Two, a sci-fi film released in 1969.

Via GESWEB Blog.

Einstein and Thonet

Albert Einstein leaning against a Thonet Chair in Madrid, 1923

Albert Einstein

leaning against a Thonet or Thonet alike bentwood chair in Madrid, 1923.

I received this photo today as a nice surprise for publication here from one of our Spanish readers, Álvaro de la Cruz-Dombriz. Thank you Álvaro!

The big question for me is now: “Is it a Thonet chair, and, if so, what model?” Note the leg ends resting in copper or zinc pods.

Excellent for our Chairchez L’Homme series.

Update

Álvaro suggests in a comment this is the Thonet no. 20. However, I’m not sure or just headstrong . My first reaction when seeing the photo was: “Not a Thonet”, because if you compare the diameter of the back with the body of Einstein, the bentwood back is almost arm thick. Usually a back of a Thonet Chair is much thinner. However it is very well possible: I’ve checked Swiss Thonet expert Dieter Staedeli’s gallery of Wiener Moebel: He comments:

Thonet no. 20

Thonet No.20 chair of Vienna, around 1872. The model went into production 1870-71. The early 20s are made in a very strait and not very comfortable back design. But this very chair form is exemplary for the first production models and are sought after collectibles. At about 1875 found in all models of Thonet chair gradually switching to ergonomic back forms

Update 2: A Thonet or not a Thonet?

Further to the comment of Geert, I found a nice Bentwood dedicated blog which featured a Thonet (Halb?)fauteuil no 20:

Thonet Fauteuil no. 20

Update 3: Chairvertizing

I’ve added this post to our Chairvertizing series. What is better than to use a famous person to make your chair (more) famous, or the other way around: Take a famous chair to become (more) famous yourself;-)

Last edited by Guido J. van den Elshout on December 15, 2011 at 5:36 PM

Thonet no 14 or 214 X 214

Thonet no 14 or 214 X 214 1
Thonet no 14 or 214 X 214 2
Thonet no 14 or 214 X 214 3
Thonet no 14 or 214 X 214 4
Thonet no 14 or 214 X 214 5
Thonet no 14 or 214 X 214 6

This is our post number 2,500. We’ve worked hard to reach this number before the 4th anniversary of this blog and I want to make the circle round. My chair fascination started with my fascination for the Thonet story, because I am mesmerized by the sheer size the company reached in its hey days around 1900, because of their influence on chair design and the fact that the story still evolves over several countries and continents and, last but not least, the fact Thonet made a chair affordable for everybody, which was not possible before they played their part in the industrial revolution: They truly democratized the chair.

The German branch celebrated the 150ieth birthday of their 214 model (they renamed the original number 14 into number 214) with a photo competition some time ago. Here my ranking of the first 6 of the photos they published.

Via Thonet 214 X 214 and the Galery