The metal wire chair is such a well established seating genre it is hard to imagine it is possible to do anything new with it. Far less anything exciting.
However......
Presented in context of the exhibition Meet My Project at the VIA gallery, the joy, nay, the deep satisfaction, of ArNO by London based studio Bright Potato a.k.a Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology graduates David Beirne & Diego Martinez Pereira, is the integrated pocket/storage in the backrest: a backrest pocket/storage that is as logical as it inspired, as functional as it discreet, as necessary as it is decadent.
But we'll get to that......
As a chair ArNO has a very welcoming width, provides for comfortable, secure seating with the armrests coming naturally into play, stackable, David and Diego refer to it as "lightweight", whereby if we're honest, we've met lighter, or at least had the impression in Paris that we had met lighter, maybe we were just being especially weak that day, but it's certainly not heavy and can be easily and conveniently transported around the garden.
Which is where we see ArNO's natural home, principally on account the pocket/storage, which is the defining feature, and for us the raison d'être of the object.
Or put another way, while we can well imagine ArNO in contract/office environments, for us it is in the garden, on the terrace, the balcony, outdoors, that the work should really come into its own, not least because that is where you are more likely to want/need such a storage option, for that book/magazine/tablet/whatever that you continually read, don't read, read, don't read, read, etc etc, etc
All you left-handers out there are going to have to brave but, the easiest access is with the left hand, meaning you can continue holding your gin in your right hand while retrieving/putting away your book/magazine/tablet/whatever. Which we're taking to be a deliberate and, and with apologies to all left-handers, a very nicely considered piece of product development. A left hand friendly version is presumably possible.
Structurally as simple as it is well considered, the flow of the line not only being used to effortlessly create both frame and pocket in one natural movement, but resulting in an essentially asymmetric object yet one which has a very natural symmetry and balance, which all added together means that while ArNO doesn't take the metal wire chair that far, it does take it to very pleasing new pastures.
Full details can be found at brightpotato.com
