Fun and functional furniture for kids

Treviso company Magis top leader with Me Too collection

Children’s furniture design is often a scaled-down version of furniture for adults, but there are a few companies who’ve tried to come up with innovative designs made specifically for the younger set. Chief among these manufacturers is Magis, the Treviso-based furniture company that launched its Me Too children’s collection in 2004. The Italian company has just debuted a new rocking chair and coat stand by Finnish designer Oiva Toikka, bringing the total number of designs in the Me Too collection to more than 20.
The Magis project was initiated by company founder Eugenio Perazza after a search for a desk suitable for his young granddaughter proved to be difficult. Perazza’s grand-daughter eventually became the de facto director of the Me Too collection, with her grandfather relying on her expert opinion. “While she looked at the models,” Perazza says, “I would look at her eyes and mouth. If her eyes lit up with joy and her mouth opened in a smile, I understood that she wanted to have one, and the project was approved.”
The Me Too project is notable because not only does it involve designs for children, but it also addresses issues of personal development. University of London professor Edward Melhuish, an expert in early child development and a consultant to Magis for Me Too, notes that design “is an important piece in the puzzle of creating an environment fit for children. Design that gives the child the opportunity to experience control of the environment as well as enabling the child to use the apparatus to fit in with fantasy play will contribute to the child’s learning, sense of mastery and overall competence.”
The Me Too designs, then, are both fun and functional. Legendary Finnish designer Eero Aarnio’s Puppy design for Magis is both a chair and play friend. Having proven to be one of the most popular designs in the collection, the plastic Puppy is now available in glossy and fluorescent versions.
Aarnio’s Trioli chair for Me Too is a three-in-one design. It is a low seat with a high back, but can also be turned upside down to create a higher seat. Turned on its side, Trioli becomes a rocking horse. The design addresses a handful of childhood development needs – it’s an object for play, but also teaches a child about spatial relationships, with its varying seat height and in turn encourages flexible, creative thinking.
Other designers for the Me Too collection include Italian design legend Enzo Mari, as well as Javier Mariscal of Spain and Dutch designer Marcel Wanders.
High-end Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra is also producing furniture designs for children. American modernist design pioneers Charles and Ray Eames created a child’s plywood chair in 1945 and the design was re-born recently as the plastic Eames Elephant chair, distributed by Vitra. Made of matte finished polypropylene, the children’s chair is available in five colours, including light pink and dark lime. Vitra also produces the Panton Junior chair, the 1960 child’s chair by Danish designer Verner Panton (the adult version of the cantilever chair design is a modern classic). Other newer Vitra furniture designs for children include a storage container by the Bouroullec brothers of Paris and a desk by Dutch designer Hella Jongerius.
The California-based clothing and accessories company Paul Frank, has also recently released a line of furniture for children. Designer Eric Pfeiffer has created a nine-piece collection of kids’ chairs and tables for the quirky American brand.
We don’t often think of inanimate furniture as a component in a child’s development, but intuitively, this does make sense. A safe and friendly environment of physical objects complements the teachings of loving parents and helps a child with his or her first steps into a bigger world.

Publication Date: 2009-03-08
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=8955