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1969

  • Work on this object began.

2017

2018

2024

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Sample, Decor I Series, Circle, 1969

This is a Sample. It was designed by Verner Panton and manufactured by Mira-X International Furnishings, Inc.. It is dated 1969 and we acquired it in 2017. Its medium is cotton and its technique is screen printed on supplementary warp pile (velvet). It is a part of the Textiles department.

Verner Panton believed that color played a greater role than form in design. Fascinated by color theory and the physics of light throughout his life, he published a book, Notes on Colour, in 1997.
Decor I, Panton’s most successful textile line for Mira-X, was marketed as a total interior concept, whereby color would transform space. Released in 1971 at the Heimtextil show in Frankfurt, Decor I was a collection of cottons and cotton velvets printed in eight colors: orange, bright red, deep red, aubergine, mauve, violet, and turquoise. A ninth colorway utilized the entire spectrum. The collection included five patterns, based on the checkerboard, circle, curve, square, and stripe, each of which was produced in three scales. In each design, the color appears in eight degrees of saturation, from 15% to 100%. The large number of monochromatic variations empowered the consumer in the creative process, while transforming any space into an unmistakably Panton interior.
Although not commercially available until 1971, Panton designed Decor I in 1969 and used it in the 1970 Visiona 2 exhibition in Cologne, commissioned by German chemical company Bayer. Panton upholstered both walls and furniture, including the “seating area of the future,” Phantasy Landscape.
This set of six samples probably came from one of Mira-X’s showrooms. Excepting the largest-size stripe, each sample represents the mid-size version of each pattern.

It is credited Museum purchase from the Members' Acquisitions Fund of Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.

  • Sidewall, Borage
  • block-printed on paper.
  • Gift of Clifford Murvine, Reed Wallpaper Company.
  • 1977-28-19-a/f
  • Sidewall (Italy)
  • block-printed paper.
  • Gift of Simon de Vaulchier.
  • 1939-47-1-a/c

Our curators have highlighted 4 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

  • Sidewall, Rodney
  • stencil printed.
  • Gift of Empire Wall-Paper Company.
  • 1946-97-5-a,b

Its dimensions are

H x W: 119.5 × 122 cm (47 1/16 × 48 1/16 in.)

It is inscribed

Mira- Spectrum- designed by Verner Panton for Miratex

Cite this object as

Sample, Decor I Series, Circle, 1969; Designed by Verner Panton (Danish, 1926–1998); Manufactured by Mira-X International Furnishings, Inc. (Switzerland); cotton; H x W: 119.5 × 122 cm (47 1/16 × 48 1/16 in.); Museum purchase from the Members' Acquisitions Fund of Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum; 2017-9-1

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/1108806909/ |title=Sample, Decor I Series, Circle, 1969 |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=20 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>