VOXPOP

The season for new furniture launches is upon us, but while we all have to sit on something, some graphics folk deny any interest in furniture. What’s your favourite piece of furniture and why?

‘It could be Le Corbusier’s chaise longue, Marcel Breuer’s armchair, Mackintosh’s high back chair or even Granny’s sofa, but my favourite is the Churchill/ Roosevelt bronze seat in London’s New Bond Street, representing these two great men less formally than a monument. Passers-by look at it with bemusement – should they or shouldn’t they sit on it? It has wit, gravitas and comfort, sadly missing in most recent seating design.’

GLENN TUTSSEL, EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR, TUTSSELS

‘My favourite is an inflatable chair I encountered in a French swimming pool. I sat in it for hours, bobbing up and down in the sun. It was far more comfortable than the poncey stuff at furniture shows. I also like big bean bags because you can kick them when you’re tense.’

TIM RICH, WRITER AND FORMER EDITOR OF GRAPHICS INTERNATIONAL

‘We had a very simple 200-year-old oak bureau in my parent’s home. As a child, I loved the mysterious smell of the inside panels and the highly polished front. I only like simple modern furniture, of which Arne Jacobsen’s three-legged dining chair is my favourite, particularly in a plain wood finish. It is absolutely timeless and surprisingly comfortable. It is the ultimate in discreet style.’

RICHARD WILLIAMS, DIRECTOR, WILLIAMS MURRAY HAMM

‘My furniture of desire has for a long time been the red chairs that featured in the space station in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001. A collection in red came up for sale in TomTom recently, but rumour has it they were purchased by Dave Stewart. Instead, my girlfriend Cara and I bought a leather upholstered, rotating white plastic chair (by Joe Colombo), last seen in the film Dr No.’

MALCOLM GARRETT, DESIGN DIRECTOR, AMXSTUDIOS

‘My favourite is a chair I saw at the design graduates show in the Business Design Centre three years ago. Based on the principle of an enormous spider, the seat was suspended from huge bowed legs – which acted as springs. It worked as a chair, without getting bogged down in functionality. It makes sitting down an uplifting event!’

STUART MACKAY, PARTNER, ERGO – ID

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