Jan Lutyk is a designer educated in applied design as well as cultural anthropology, photography, and ethnology. He focuses primarily on the process of design and on product development technology. In the case of Ribbon chair, the material and the method of production plays the key role, and thus determines the success of the whole project. Lutyk plays with plywood, giving it new life and bending it to seemingly impossible angles, whilst thinking of it in terms of its ecological and economic qualities.
By studying the material's properties, the designer experimented with it, enquired into its requirements and observed its response to bending to various angles. The process resulted in the least expensive product in production, which Lutyk had established as the priority – that is, using the smallest amount of material required to ensure the stability of the whole structure.
The confidently designed line of the stool resembles a Mobius strip. One may have an impression that the stool is composed of one intricately wrapped component. The Ribbon chair actually consists of three identical leg modules bonded underneath the seat. This kind of modular design further enhances its economic efficiency. For the production of the seat the designer used readily available and cheap beech wood.
The stool's lightness is also undoubtedly an advantage. It weighs less than 1.5 kilograms, making the Ribbon chair a mobile piece of furniture which can also be easily stacked, thus saving space.
The
Ribbon Chair has already been acknowledged at the Łódź Design Festival in 2012, where it was awarded first prize in the Make Me! competition. Since then, the stool has embarked on an international career, winning the Red Dot Design Concept Award and the DMY in Berlin in 2013. Lutyk’s project has frequently been shown at exhibitions of Polish design as an exemplar of the high quality and freshness of Polish design. The stool's bold structural lines have been so recognizable and memorable that the
Ribbon Chair has reached the position of an icon of the latest design from the Vistula region. It has a chance to join the array of stars of Polish seats, next to the organic shapes of Modzelewski's chairs and
Zięta's inflatable stools.
Author: Agata Morka, 02.12.2014, transl. GS