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

The 1960’s saw an intense period of exploration in product design with many embracing the recent advances of industrial plastics. Verner Panton, Joe Colombo, Helmut Batzner and Sergio Mazza were amongst those who had chairs utilising modern plastics in production by the late 60’s. Helmut Batzner’s chair, produced in Germany in 1968, a year before the Selene was seen to lack the flair of its Italian counterpart.

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”