PRODUCTS ROOMS Manufacturers & Designers Highlights Offers Info Store
Rocket Stool

Eero Aarnio

The Finnish designer Eero Aarnio was born on July 21, 1932 in Helsinki. From 1954 to 1957 Aarnio studied at the Institute of Industrial Arts in Helsinki, before subsequently establishing his own design office in the early 60s, and where he continues to work as an industrial and interior designer with a particular focus on furniture design. An early focus of Eero Aarnio's work was experimentation with fibre glass during his career; two particular successes being the 1963 Ball Chair, also known as Globe Chair, and the Bubble Chair from 1968. Both works helped establish Eero Aarnio's reputation and for all the Ball Chair became a cult object of the 1960s, featuring in numerous science fiction movies and magazine photo shoots - even making it into a fashion show by the Grand Diva of Swinging Sixties London, the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. Similarly the transparent Bubble Chair, hanging as it does like a bubble floating on the wind became a celebrated symbol of the spirit of freedom which arose in the 1960s and thus was an object which featured in numerous photo shoots and graced many magazine covers. And continues to. Self confident icons of modern furniture design, Eero Aarnio furniture is sold by manufacturers such as Artek and Adelta and thanks to their individuality and nonconformity is just as suitable for adding a new accent to a domestic space as a futuristic highlight in commercial settings. More recently Eero Aarnio contributed to the children's furniture series Me too from Italian manufacturer Magis with the dog Puppy: a colourful mix of baby chair and playmate, Puppy delights young and old alike. Eero Aarnio's furniture designs are in addition exhibited in many important museums, such as MoMA in New York, in London's Victoria and Albert Museum and the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein.

Eero Aarnio


Pingy from Magis


More about 'eero aarnio' in our journal

5 New Design Exhibitions for April 2016

If the etymologists are to be believed "April" has its origins in the Latin verb "aperire". To uncover, to open. Our ancient forefathers and mothers were unquestionably referring to nature's habit of "opening" at this time of year; our thoughts however turn...

(smow)offline: The art of faking it. Adelta helps customers spot copies

They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. They, however, have obviously never spent hours, weeks and years sweating over a project until it is perfect. And so whether it is furniture designs, web site concepts or literature, they simply copy...

new at smow: Ball Chair by Eero Aarnio

Students. We love em! But slightly better than students are poor graduates. For just as a man alone in a forest at night must rely on all his wit and inventiveness to find warmth and food, so must a designer taking his first tentative freelance steps rely on...


All 'eero aarnio' Posts