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Text Ida Kukkapuro Pictures Unto Rautio

Danish fashion designer Stine Goya’s perceptive color curation brought out the characteristics of the Modernos.
A product always reveals something about its designer. It reflects the designer’s values and worldview, as well as their ego. In psychology, the ego is considered a person’s conscious self, but in everyday language, the meaning of the word has shifted to refer more to an attitude or behavior. A big ego often implies self-consciousness or even arrogance.
There are chairs with big egos, they are the center of attention. When you bring one into the room, the room must adapt to the chair. The colors and materials of such chairs are often precisely defined. Consequently, the user must accept the designer’s worldview as his own, or at least allow its presence in his space. Sometimes that is exactly what is appropriate.


There are also chairs that aim primarily to serve the user instead of the designer’s self-expression. Such chairs are manifestations of practicality. It is in functionalism that one can think that design is good when it is quiet. The chair does its job so well and self-evidently that you hardly need to pay attention to it.
Yrjö Kukkapuro designed the Moderno series at the beginning of his career. One could imagine that the designer then needs to emphasize his own special quality and make himself known. Modernos did not produce such products. They are minimalist, quiet chairs. An untrained viewer cannot immediately tell that they are Kukkapuro’s handiwork. The components that are typical for him and the shape solutions created through them, or the ergonomic curves made of fiberglass and later bent plywood, are not yet visible in the products.
Over the years, Modernos have been seen in hundreds of different colors or color combinations, because Interior Architects have always been able to define the chairs according to the needs of the space. Sometimes the chairs end up in hospital lobbies or fast food restaurants. Sometimes they pop out in bright colors or contrasting colors in fancy restaurants or homes.
Now the small chair of the Moderno series, the classic L-28, has been stretched to its limits. The Danish master of colors, fashion designer Stine Goya made almost 40 different variations of the chair. Different materials and color combinations give each quiet chair its own character. You immediately want to start giving them nicknames. As if they don’t get their own conscious selves now.
