Vitra
Vitra was established by Willi Fehlbaum when he took over a shop fitting business in Basel, Switzerland in 1934. It was in 1957, though, when the company's furtunes really changed when Hermann Miller granted Vitra the rights in Europe to produce and distribute the extensive and highly coveted Eames and Nelson catalogue of furniture. This was followed in 1960 with the introduction of the successful Panton Chair by Verner Panton.
In the mid 1980's Vitra attracted huge attention with its Vitra Edition series of experimental chairs - these included Shiro Kuramata's 'How High the Moon' armchair made of steel mesh, Ron Arad's 'Well Tempered Chair' made in folded sheet steel and Frank O. Gehry's 'Grandpa Chair' made in glued cardboard. In the same decade Gehry also designed the building for the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, which houses a large collection of innovative chair designs and furniture.
Gehry's Museum is part of a long term programme that since the early 1980s has involved prominent architects designing distinctive buildings on the Vitra company site. These include Nicholas Grimshaw's Manufaturing Hall (1981); Zaha Hadid's Fire Station (1993) and Tadao Ando's Conference Pavilion (1993).
Designers who have collaborated with Vitra include Mario Bellini, Antonio Citterio, Jasper Morrison, Norman Foster and the French brothers Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec.
Vitra has an extensive division providing furniture, desking and seating for specialised office solutions. The main body of work, though, is the Vitra licence to produce the classic works of Charles and Ray Eames. The most iconic of these is, perhaps, the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman which Vitra produces in a range of wood finishes and leathers, including the white version launched in 2008.
In addition Vitra also produces, again under licence, the Eames range of plastic and wire furniture - including the DSR, DAW, RAR and DSW chairs. The Aluminium Group range of Chairs from Vitra lend themselves to both commercial and domestic environments and, give their build quality and exceptional design, Vitra offer a 30 year guarantee on all Aluminium Group models.
As well as the extensive range of furniture Vitra also manufacture a number of iconic home accessories. These include George Nelson Clocks - including the Ball Clock and Sunburst Clock, the Eames Hang It All, the beautiful Eames House Bird and the recent edition of the Eames Elephant, now reproduced by Vitra in polypropylene following the huge success of the Vitra Eames Plywood Elephant, launched as a limited edition in 2007.
Vitra is now run by Rolf Fehlbaum - one of the furniture industry's most inspired entrepreneurs who has been a major factor in establishing Vitra's pre-eminent position amongst Europe's furniture manufacturers.
Utility has had a long collaboration with Vitra and is proud to be a UK dealer for furniture, clock and accessories as well as retailers of the entire Vitra Miniatures collection - a range of miniature chairs from the Vitra Design Museum, cataloguing the chronology of chair design over the past 150 years.
Utility is also a Vitra on line dealer and the whole Vitra catalogue is available to buy on line on the Utility website.
