Vitra Jasper Morrison HAL Ply Wood Chair

Founded in 1950, Vitra is a Swiss company dedicated to improving the quality of homes, offices and public spaces through the power of design.

Vitra's furniture and concepts are developed in an intensive design process pairing engineering excellence with the creative genius of leading international designers. The result: interiors, furniture and accessories that are vibrant, functional, and inspiring.

Longevity of materials, construction and aesthetics are Vitra's leading principles, as demonstrated by their Classics – many in continuous production since the 1950s. Initiatives like the Vitra Campus architecture, the Vitra Design Museum, workshops, publications, collections and archives are all integral elements of Vitra's vision and culture.

Jasper Morrison, born in 1959 in London, studied at the Royal College of Art in London. He pursued further studies at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin on a fellowship. In 1986 he founded his own design studio in London.

Two early projects that gained attention were room installations, "Reuters News Center" for Documenta 8 in Kassel, and "Some New Items for the Home" at the DAAD Gallery in Berlin. The stringent concepts of these projects, which featured starkly reductive objects, represented a reaction to the formal excesses of postmodernism.

Jasper Morrison became a leading figure of "New Simplicity", a movement that advocated a more modest and also more serious approach to design. In addition to furniture, he has also created lamps, home accessories, textiles, a tram system for the city of Hanover, Germany, and a bus shelter for the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein.

His joint 2006 exhibition with the Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa, entitled "Super Normal", put forth provocative theses that once again stimulated great discussion. Along with Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec and Hella Jongerius, Jasper Morrison has made essential contributions to the steadily growing Vitra Home Collection.