“It was exactly what we were looking for, creating a chair for an office environment that is changing from the corporate nine to five routine.” (Konstantin Grcic – Designer of Allstar)

Equipped with a complex, but highly employed mechanism in office seating – Konstantin Grcic set out to design a low-cost task chair for a student at a college campus. The synchronized seat and backrest mechanism proposed by Vitra is not new to task chair design, but with four years to develop and learn, Konstantin and his team designed a chair that performs all the functions of an office chair, but has a different grammar. It looks recognizable, but not necessarily recognized as an office chair.

In a recent interview with Johanna Agerman Ross for Disegno Magazine,  Konstantin admittedly states that some of the other more challenging chairs in his repertoire may be harder to like. However, Allstar for Vitra is easily likable. It’s prominent feature, the large loop armrest, makes it very inviting and easy on the eye. “Because it looks familiar, it makes it very simple. It is a chair that you can read immediately, you know what it is.”

Still, even this statement masks its attributes. Konstantin points out that most people readily mistakes Allstar for a studio chair that is capable of performing limited functions that don’t match up to other tasks chairs. Its most characteristic feature, the elegant loop armrest, that gives it its simplicity is also what houses its function. Aside from adjustable armrests, Allstar behaves like any other task/office chair, therefore defying the typical stereotype of how a task chair should look.

Read Disegno’s interview with Konstantin Grcic to learn more about the design of Allstar.