Vico Magistretti’s Selene was one of the first commercially produced chairs pressed from a single sheet of plastic.

The Selene was first conceived by Magistretti in 1961 but it took several years working alongside the technicians and model makers at Artemide to produce the first production model in 1969. It was the S shaped cross section that solved the issue with lateral strength of the legs for Magistretti.

“ It cannot be drawn. To draw it I’d have to have drawn at least a hundred cross sections”

The Artemide chair was made from a single sheet of 3mm thick Reglar, a new glass reinforced polyester (GRW). It was first shown in white at the 1968 Triennale di Milano. Production of the Selene started in 1969 with white, red and black models shortly followed in orange in 1970. In 1984 came a new inspired pallet of yellow, light blue and pink for the aesthetically radical Los Angeles Olympics. Artemide’s production of the chair ceased in the 1990’s then Heller reissued nylon and polycarbonate (colour dependant) injection moulded versions in 2002.