Eero Aarnio

Eero Aarnio sitting in his classic Pastil Chair 

Born in Finland in 1932, Eero Aarnio is world renowned for his innovative contributions to modern interior design. His furniture designs of the 1960’s, mainly his works in fiberglass, quickly gained mass appeal and eventually inspired a generation of furniture design that exists in a realm somewhere between minimalism and psychedelia.

A Scene from the Film Mars Attacks, featuring Eero Aarnio's Ball Chair 

The awe-inspiring originality of Aarnio’s works gained such pieces as the Ball Chair, Bubble Chair and the Mushroom Chair continuing mass appeal, and now, almost 50 years after these designs were conceived, they can be seen in all facets of mainstream pop-media. The simple but striking geometric nature of these designs made them ideal for use as props in sci-fi films during the 1960’s. Since then, they have appeared in virtually countless films, commercials, print ads, and the like.

New Production Ball Chair from Inmod.com 

Eero Aarnio attended Helsinki’s Institute of Industrial Arts, and opened his own studio in the early 1960’s. In 1963, Aarnio began designing his ‘room within a room,’ an experiment through which he hoped to create a chamber-like lounge chair that would isolate sound from the outside. After a chance encounter with the managers of furniture company Asko, a contract was signed, the Ball Chair went into production and was unveiled at the International Furniture Fair in Cologne in 1966.

New Production Bubble Chair from Inmod.com 

In 1968, Eero Aarnio took this design a step further, when he attempted a version to have light inside it. Using the interior negative space of the Ball Chair, a new mold was created, and this time, using Acrylic, Aarnio crafted the transparent hanging Bubble Chair.

To this day, Eero Aarnio continues his endeavors in furniture design, working mostly in fiberglass.