Chair Avatars
This is a display area for my spare chairs - my various Twitter avatars.
Why Chairs?
Chairs symbolize social interaction. They invite you to sit down and stay a while; take a load off. You're probably sitting right now. We sit down to digest news. We sit to think. We sit to be social. You might say chairs are the first social media. Okay, you wouldn't but let's pretend.
Some beautiful chairs are painful to sit on (talkin' to you Frank Lloyd Wright, and owners of Indian restaurants everywhere). Many comfy chairs can look quite ugly. Chairs can fit with all situations - from thrones to bean-bags. Lawn chairs say "relax, enjoy the weather." Kitchen chairs say "have a bite." Dentists' chairs say "sit down and scream a while."
As an early user of Twitter in '07, I began to explore a dynamic avatar idea – it was always easy to identify my feed based on the avatar's subject matter, but the actual image changed often. If you followed me and my meanderings, I hope you found the conversation fun and/or thoughtful. Pull up a chair.
The avatar history is captured below...
Mar 22, 2011
First One Piece Chair. The Panton Chair by Verner Panton from 1960 is iconic in both its form and materials. It was the first mass-produced, one-piece chair, and has a decidedly sculptural feel to it. I saw a recent design program from BBC which touched on this creation, and described the challenges with finding a manufacturer. Many wanted 
nothing to do with it. Various materials were tried, and ultimately those used held up reasonably well, though many surviving units show crazing and cracking, illustrating that the design pushes the limits of the materials available at the time.
This chair is also the grand-daddy of all our modern one-piece patio chairs, so next time you're sitting on a restaurant terrace in a one-piece plastic creation, raise a glass to Verner.
nothing to do with it. Various materials were tried, and ultimately those used held up reasonably well, though many surviving units show crazing and cracking, illustrating that the design pushes the limits of the materials available at the time. This chair is also the grand-daddy of all our modern one-piece patio chairs, so next time you're sitting on a restaurant terrace in a one-piece plastic creation, raise a glass to Verner.
