By Jeff Britton

The chair. It’s the ultimate user interface. We use chairs to relax and to work. We use them to nestle, curl up, wait for bad news, find out good news, study, and stare out the window. They contact us in all the right spots, from the cervical curve of the neck to the primal vestige of the tailbone — and allthe spots in between.

Form follows function is the concept around which all modern design orbits. For example, if we set out to design an efficient automobile, we will eventually arrive at an egg shape. But people don’t want to drive an egg. There is more to the decision to buy a car than efficiency. A short preview of automobile advertising quickly reveals that emotion drives the consumer purchase to buy a particular make and model.

Likewise, designing the right chair takes a genius combination of materials engineering and recognition of the intimate nature of seating. To design a chair, we must consider the essential shape of human anatomy: the sinuous contour of the spine. To ignore the human form when designing seating is to miss the point.

From Thrones to Potty Chairs
Human form has not always been a primary consideration when designing a place to sit.

From the tree stump (or the caveman boulder) to the excessively decorated dreadnought of the Victorian age, seating was never a casual product. Form was king during this time. Function took, ahem, a backseat. And this is interesting because few products have as many variations. The names themselves, from thrones to potty chairs, reflect an endless choice of functions. But the materials, philosophy, mission and artistry made up form. These chairs illustrated that the demonstration of power (the throne), or lack thereof (the torture chair), was the objective.

It took the crystal clarity of the Bauhaus movement (which was founded in 1919 by German architect Walter Gropius) to strip away this artifice. The designers exploited new materials in order to create “machines” for sitting. The form-follows-function maxim of the Bauhaus movement helped define the modern age. It was the age of designers, not just decorators. Decorators can pose you next to their creations, but you can’t actually sit in them (or at least not comfortably) for more than a few moments.

Decorators decorate. Designers solve problems. Inspired designers solve problems in compelling ways.

Charles and Ray Eames
American designers Charles and Ray Eames were at the center of this modern movement, and successfully so. These two legendary innovators solved problems, they did it beautifully, and man, did their stuff sell!

The 1940s and 1950s revealed new methods for molding plywood and creating curved fiberglass shapes and foam construction. By embracing these new technologies, the Eames Office was able to fit materials to the actual shape of people instead of force-fitting them into the limitations of materials.

Nowadays, we might pass over these wonderful creations as a common sight, but that would be like rejecting Shakespeare because it was full of clichés.

Function — If You Can’t Hide It, Put a Frame Around It
In design, it is important to remember that simple need not be synonymous with boring. The commercial value of a simple essential form can be multiplied many times over with inspired design. As advertising guru David Ogilvy once said, “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.”

Designers create value by wrapping function in the correct form. To a designer, form over function is a self-indulgent waste. The function must remain, but be brought to life with the intangible emotional value. Design respects essential function and will defend it.

Because design is founded on the respect for the material, the motto for many modernists was also simple: If you can’t hide it, put a frame around it.

The Chair as a Metaphor
And if you don’t put a frame around it, make a statement about it. The chair as a metaphor has such deep cultural resonance that it is often used as social commentary. In 1997, artist Mark Wentzel’sXLounge reinterpreted the iconic Eames lounger and stood in for the excess and obesity of American culture. One look and we get it. In a Washington Post interview, Wentzel said, “I thought of using a La-Z-Boy. But you can’t easily make a La-Z-Boy any fatter than it is. You can just make it bigger.”

And yes, chairs do have a deep emotional impact. Think about it. There aren’t many products that you spend more time with. And if you doubt their ability to elicit emotions, go pick one out with someone and see how long it takes you to disagree.

When it comes to selection, there is usually more (although sometimes less) than meets the eye. To a designer, a chair is a something to be used, be it for working, waiting or relaxing. To a pragmatist or an industrialist, the essential chair is an important commodity. And regardless of whether they are for sitting or looking at, they come in an innumerable amount of styles.

Arguably The World’s Most Perfect Chair Design
For example, this is as good as it gets: the one-piece polypropylene plastic chair. Since the first molded plastic chair made its appearance in the mid-1960s, it is the most popular chair of all time. One version or another is always being made around the world. Why? It is practical and cheap and meets a basic need. It is the ultimate commodity. Its commercial value is based on volume and a cost-plus-pricing strategy. Is our work here done?

Decorators
Other chairs aren’t so popular, not when it comes to sitting. To a decorator, a chair just needs to look good; comfort and support for a specific task are secondary. The chair is just a prop to pose by. It’s OK, unless you need to use it for real, or unless you’re a cupcake.

Agitators and Artists
There are also the numerous agitators and artists who are creating chairs. They push the envelope of form, without taking into account function, and perhaps sometimes take the human shape a bit too literally.

Postmodernists
And of course we must leave room for postmodernists, who are addicted to style for its own sake. Usefulness be damned! They live in a world of their own choosing, just don’t make us sit there!

Goofballs
Oh, and the goofballs. Let’s not forget that where most people see a simple wrought-iron patio chair, the goofballs see a wrought-iron patio chair with a built-in charcoal grill.

The Moral of the Story
When looking at the vast array of chairs available, there is something to remember: Charles and Ray Eames were a commercial success because they set their sights on the essential function. They became 20th-century design icons because they avoided boring commodity by playing with form, but not at the expense of purpose. In comparison, the rest of this stuff is just a footnote.

There is a lesson, and a choice, here for any of us involved in design, whether a decorator or a designer: Do we capture the moment or just become someone’s footnote?

Jeff Britton
President
BMDG

The differences between Jeff and Sue Britton and Charles and Ray Eames become obvious.

Photos: BMDG, Medievality, Design Is Fine, Google Images, ArchiExpo, Design2Share, Washington Post,Wikimedia.org, BluePigeons, Hermanmiller.com, 3Bp.Blogspot.com, EpicFail, Home Design Lover

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