Egg Chairs | The Egg Chair

Apr 8, 20081

Arne Jacobson: Quotes

Here are some selected quotes attributed to Arne Jacobsen:

On Architecture

+ "Almost every time I make a building, some people will condemn it straight to Hell."

+ "With a painter or a sculptor, one cannot begin to alter his works, but an architect has to put up with anything, because he makes utility objects - the building is there to be used, and times change."

+ "If architecture had nothing to do with art, it would be astonishingly easy to build houses, but the architect’s task - his most difficult task - is always that of selecting.’

On Design

+ "The primary factor is proportions."

+ "That is the artistic task: To choose the best from these solutions."

+ "It may sound affected - but it is the act of creation itself, and it is equally exhilarating whether one is working on a teaspoon or a national bank."

+ "I do not feel certain until I have confronted my initial solution with other solutions - although in fact the first solution often proves to be the right one."

On Life

+ "But I think that parents who criticise their children too much are in fact better than parents who praise their children too much."

+ "Carrying out the thing, getting it to the point when one might say: There, now it is good - that point is hard to reach. Often, one sets very high goals for oneself. Perhaps too high."

On Furniture design

+ "People buy a chair, and they don’t really care who designed it."

-Arne Jacobsen

Apr 8, 20081

Arne Jacobsen: Tshirt

I stumbled across this product over at Cafepress and thought it might be a good gift idea for the modern furniture design freaks you might have in your life:

It runs at $22. Details HERE.

Apr 8, 20080

Arne Jacobsen: Print

An abstract print of Jacobsens City Hall tower in the city of Aarhus, Denmark. created by the artist Ashjom Lonwig, you can see more of Ashjom’s work HERE.

They sell the prints at ART.com and have them ranging from 8×10’s for $14.99 to 20×24’s for $39.99

Wikipedia article on the city,
Flickr search for more images of the tower.

Here is a photo of the tower courtesy of iznogut and a creative commons license.

Apr 6, 20081

McJacobsen: Mcdonald’s accused of stealing Arne’s Work

image credit: drewleavy

Fast food chain McDonald’s may have to change its plans for revamping some of its European stores after being accused of "piracy" by Frtiz Hansen.

From the TIME article
"McDonald’s approached us some six months ago to help revitalize and revamp their European restaurants," Fritz Hansen CEO Jacob Holm told TIME in Copenhagen. "We developed Arne Jacobsen chairs in special colors and began deliveries." In particular Avanzi and McDonald’s chose The Egg and The Seven chairs, two of Jacobsen’s most iconic creations. Jacobsen, who died in 1971, contracted Fritz Hansen to be the sole licensed manufacturer of his designs in 1934, meaning nobody else can make an original Egg (created in 1958) or Seven (1955). Approximately 2,500 of those chairs have already been sold to McDonald’s, according to Holm. "But," he says, "we discovered that terrible copies of our furniture were also being used in the U.K. That is unacceptable. We simply will not work with people who use originals where they have to and copies elsewhere, legal or otherwise."

According to copyright law’s in the United Kingdom, McDonald’s is technically doing nothing wrong. Since the U.K. rights on the designs of the chairs have expired, which holds that the rights on a design last a maximum of 25 years, instead of 70 as in much of Europe — British furniture stores and websites are legitimately selling copies of the Egg chair for a fraction of the original price.

28 McDonald’s in the U.K. that were refurbished in 2006 and fitted with all original Fritz Hansen chairs. By the end of this year, another 100 restaurants will have gone through a "re-image": some using all originals, some using reproductions and some using a combination of both. "While the reproduction chairs are naturally very similar to the original design, there are differences," says Homer. "No attempt has been made to ‘pass off’ reproduction chairs as originals in any references or labeling."

"The fact that McDonald’s has chosen to use pirated copies is even more surprising since the company itself is legendary across the world in pursuing trademark and copyright suits to safeguard its product and name," Mr Holm said.

McDonald’s admitted using chairs that were similar-looking reproductions of the iconic designs, but said the company had not acted improperly.

Additional Articles covering the story:

Telegraph.co.uk

TIME

NYTIMES

Apr 5, 20080

Arne Jacobsen egg chair: details and design

image credit:svanes

Basic Details:

Arne Jacobsen, 1958

Created for the the largest hotel in Denmark at the time the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, which was owned by the airline of the same name. and became the first skyscraper in the country’s history.

When it first debuted it was called the "glass cigarbox", the steel structure remains a monument to the Modernist movement to this day. This reputation not only has to do with the buildings desings but also because of what was held within. Jacobsen’s philosophy was described as "from spoon to city" and the Egg chair and the Swan chair all the way to the door handles, cutlery and martini mixers were designed as a singular unit. Each piece an important piece of the harmonious design.

Original Egg Chairs, made by the Danish company Fritz Hansen are priced at the $5,000 + range, and sell by the thousands pushing. Cheaper reproductions, priced at anything from $600 to $2,000, have been increasing in popularity (shopping guide). Original examples from the 1950s have sold at New York auction houses for up to $70,000.

Construction + Finish:

1,300 stitches are used to add the upholstery

Shell:
Created with of polyurethane foam with glass fibre reinforcement.

Tilt mechanism:
Made of steel sheet, steel tubing and spring steel. The adjustment handle is made of polished stainless steel. This tilt feature adjusts according to the users individual weight.

Base:
Consists of a satin-polished swivel centre part of welded steel tubing (dia. 38x 2 mm), a spindle of dia. 28 mm machining steel and a 4-star base in injection moulded aluminium.

Upholstery:

Fabric-Standard fabrics for the Egg include Kvadrat Hallingdal, Tonus, Divina, Topas and Fame and Comfort

LeatherClassic leather (5 colors); Natural leather (1 color); Elegance (3 colors) and White leather
+ 50th Anniversary Egg Chair

Dimensions:
Depth: 79 (95) cm
Width: 86 cm
Height: 107 cm
Total weight: 18.1 kg

Photos:
See our photo gallery of the Egg chair in the wild.

Videos:
Some Youtube videos on Arne Jacobsen and the Egg Chair

3d Models: Sketchup + 3dmax

Manufacturers:
Looking to bring the Egg chair into your store? Here is a list of Suppliers.

Shopping:
Looking for the best stores or cheapest price? We have browsed the web for you and have a list of stores that carry the Egg chair. Check out the Shopping guide.

+ Egg t-shirt

About the Designer: Arne Jacobsen