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Polyprop designer Robin Day passes away, leaves behind huge-selling legacy

By Rain Noe - November 23, 2010

in Object Culture | Design Business

Humble, simple, lasting, ubiquitous, flying out of the factories, and a monster seller: That's the Polyprop stacking chair designed by Robin Day, who passed away earlier this month. Inspired by the Eameses, in 1963 UK-based Day designed one of the first chairs to really take advantage of injection molding for mass markets--a single mold could crank out 4000 Polyprop seats a week, and since its inception over 14 million have been sold in 23 countries. (When licensed copies are tallied, the sales figures are estimated at between 20 and 50 million.)

Cooper-Hewitt Director Bill Moggridge wrote, about first regarding the chair, "I was immediately fascinated by the simplicity of the form combined with the deep understanding of the behavior of the material;" London Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic called it "one of those exceptional objects that can genuinely carry the burden of being labeled a humble masterpiece;" and Design Technology has termed it "one of the most democratic modern designs of the 20th century."

Now, ten years into the 21st century, the chair is still being produced; manufacturer Hille cranks out some 500,000 per year. Quite an impressive feat for an almost fifty-year-old design.

via ny times

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Brian Ward

14 years ago

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Dear, Dear Robin,
I am so sad to hear this.

I met him several years ago at the Milan Furniture fair. I was helping tend my MA ID course director's booth that had several Robin Day Polyprop chair interventions. As I sat there with my friend talking about the design, an elderly gentleman sat next to us. He asked: Who was the designer of the chair? We glibly replied in unison "Robin Day" as we had been prepped by our course director. As we continued our conversation, he stated in that oh-so British way "I... am Robin Day". Needless to say we squealed like two teenagers, which made him very happy, and we became friends. He took us through the process of designing the chairs and we gleaned advise from his wealth of knowledge and experience. We all took pictures together, and he told our course director he was impressed with us (how cool is that?). HE was truly kind and a gentleman, spending an hour and a half of his time with us.

Robin, I hope you are in a wonderful Studio upstairs with Leonardo and all the brilliant minds that came before us! But watch out for Charles Eames!

Brian
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tad toulis

14 years ago

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I dream a hubristically humble dream of designing something as enduring. For all the shouting that envelops design today, we'll see whose voices carry this test of time. :)
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