Welle

VERPAN announces the Milan launch of Verner Panton’s extraordinary Welle series, some of the most organic forms Panton ever created for the lounge. First introduced in 1969 – but never before put into serial production – Panton’s six seductive designs are now ready to redefine the landscape of the lounge for years to come. See them all in Milan, where the Danish design company also has a few other surprises in store.
To call Verner Panton’s Welle series “lounge furniture” is almost an understatement. Like so much else of Panton’s extensive oeuvre, these wildly imaginative organic forms land like a colourful bomb in the sleepy world of traditional contract furniture – and leave us anything but indifferent.
Panton first displayed the Welle series at the forward-thinking Visiona exhibition back in 1969 alongside the Fun lamp and Cloverleaf sofa, other visionary Panton works that have long since entered the cannon of contemporary design.
Why Welle never went into series production remains something of a mystery. Maybe the cold foam technology of the day wasn’t ready for such massive forms. Perhaps Welle got lost in the visual orgy that was Visiona, next to so many other soon-to-be Panton classics. It could also be that the design itself was simply ahead of its time. At any rate, VERPAN jumped at the chance when the Panton estate agreed that the time for Welle is finally here in 2014.
VERPAN’s managing director Peter Frandsen believes Salone del Mobile is the perfect place to re-introduce Welle’s funky forms. “We’ve had great success with Panton’s sophisticated but playful design in Milan,” he explains, “and il Salone attracts the kinds of people we know love Panton’s work – from Shanghai to LA and everywhere in between.”
VERPAN is launching all six of Welle’s original designs, including one-, two- and three-person loungers and several benches/footrests. On their own, each is a stunning statement of organic design beyond the ordinary. Together, Welle’s modular idiom encourages interior designers to reboot the landscape of the lounge with colourful forms beyond the ordinary.