This cantilevered chair for children, made from a single piece of moulded polypropylene, was first made available by Vitra in 2008 – but it was a design classic more than 40 years before…

Designer Verner Panton first had the idea for the S Chair in 1960 after visiting a factory that produced safety helmets. He designed the chair to be made from a single piece of cantilevered plastic with no back legs. It was a definitive first of its kind. Many manufacturers refused to get involved, but Vitra took on the radical design, and in 1967 the S chair was in production. It went on to become a classic piece of Pop furniture, gracing the covers of magazine and being used to literally set the scene on various movie sets.

Three quarters the size of the Verner Panton’s original S Chair, the Junior Panton Chair has all the proportions perfectly pared down for little people and is adored both as a chair and as a plaything

At the time of the original S Chair’s production, Vitra and Panton discussed the possibility – and came up with the designs – for a child-size version, but it proved impossible to produce at the time for economic reasons. Finally, in 2008, Vitra started production of the perfectly scaled down cantilevered classic in a children’s size; it is now available in six colours.

The best bit… It might not have been the first thing on Panton’s mind when he was designing this chair, but the one curved piece of polypropylene makes for incredibly easy cleaning! Genius!

Designer Details Danish designer Verner Panton (1926–1998) worked from 1950-52 in the architectural firm of Arne Jacobsen before founded an independent studio for architecture and design in 1955. In the following years Panton created numerous designs for seating furniture and lighting. Panton’s collaboration with Vitra began in the early 1960s, when the firm decided to develop what became his best-known design, the Panton Chair.