Groovy isn’t it? Verner Panton’s Panton Chair is 50 this year – or at least it is 50 years since this enduring, now classic chair was put into production. The Danish designer had been experimenting with the pliable new material, plastic, for seven years, attempting to get the material to work for his vision of a fluid, curvaceous, cantilevered chair. His tenacity paid off and it went into production in 1967 and was exhibited to critical acclaim at the 1968 Cologne Furniture Fair.

Mass production followed and the Panton Chair went on to win several design prizes and no round-up of great chairs of the 20th century is complete without it. One of the early models is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Regarded as the first chair to be manufactured completely out of plastic in one single piece, it hints of the space age, of a brash new future and an unapologetic appreciation of plastic. The Panton Chair is stackable for practicality and the lipped edge makes it easier to lift up and move around – but also gives it additional rigidity and strength. His idea was that the chair could be used in any room – with its contoured seat it is comfortable enough for the living room and practical enough to be used in the kitchen as a relaxed dining chair.

And the bright, strong block colours are a nod to pop art. Panton was not a fan of beige: “Most people spend their lives living in dreary grey-beige conformity, mortally afraid of using colours,” the provocative designer said. The chair is still in production by Vitra.