50+ Sleek, Funky and Weird Chair Designs

Aug. 4, 2009  |  Design  |  55 comments

Chairs have evolved tremendously for thousands of years, as they shifted from being a symbol of state and dignity, to an item of ordinary use.

Chair design considers intended usage, ergonomics (how comfortable it is for the occupant), as well as non-ergonomic functional requirements such as size, stackability, foldability, weight, durability, stain resistance and artistic design.

In this article, we’ll leave their function aside and take a look at chairs purely from an artistic point of view.

Here are 50 examples of great chair design, from the sleekest you’ll ever see, to the funkiest and the just plain weird.

 

 

 

 

 

 


What do you think of these chair designs?  Which ones are your favorites? Please share your comments below…



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COMMENTS
  • RoaldA

    Hahahha, i laughed! Genious, somethign out of the ordanary. :P

  • http://twitter.com/French_Blast French Blast

    amazing and very creative chairs!

  • Hagi

    these chairs crack me up :D

  • http://www.orphicpixel.com Mars

    would it be worth relaxing if we a chair like that

  • Maria

    the bookshell one is my favorite! and the one right at the beach too!!!

  • http://www.mydatbroker.com JP

    Some of them where not made with comfort in mind. OUCH!!!!

  • http://www.bigtunainteractive.com Adam Hermsdorfer

    Agree with JP. I would definitely buy the book shelf chair.

  • http://www.traxor-designs.com/ Luke Jones
  • Jonn

    You just know that every on of these chairs will have a ridiculous ‘modern design’ price tag attached to it!

    Some nice chairs designs there though…

  • http://www.ausbildunggta.de Alpi

    I think the gaming seat is my favourite!

  • http://acristech.in vikas ghodke

    Woow great creativity… i need this one lol http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/chair_design/5.jpg

  • http://estefanyfranco.blogspot.com Estefany Franco

    Wow! Such amazing, creative and weird designs! I wish I could have some for me… ^^

  • http://www.mypsdstudio.com MyPSDStudio

    nice collections..very creative but not recommended to sit :p

  • http://newlayer.hu david

    The shopping trolley chair is very creative and awesome!

  • http://www.rachelbooth.com Rachel

    OMG. I love the Q shaped computer chair! Some of these are so practical and creative. The sailboat hammock looks luxurious! That was a clever reading chair, and I like the one that reminds me of a harp. rocking wheel chair?!? Amazing! what did they do, draw a crazy phrase out of a hat and have to design it? Coolest things i have seen today!
    i would actually buy the simple ones with the circle patterns on the back. A lot of them just look like art sculptures they are so contemporary, its strange to think of them as furniture. So used to “Don’t touch the art!” being screamed at me. But these ones are meant to be sat on and even some rocked!

  • http://www.vtldesign.com Brian DeKoning

    I defy anyone to view these photos and not sit up straighter.

  • http://www.presentationsexpert.com Rashid Rupani

    Very uncomfortable but good design

    • Jonn

      I know what you mean, but doesnt that mean it’s bad design then? lol

  • http://www.ecommerce-blog.org/ Jestep

    Here’s e of my favorites. Surprised you missed it…

    http://farm1.static.flickr.com/176/431471686_01f7e2c161.jpg?v=0

  • Mark

    I prefer the natural trees ;)
    pooktre.com

  • http://yoast.com/ Joost de Valk

    Now that’s a bit much, chairs wise, to chew in one day :)

  • http://www.bendesign.eu Bendesign

    Beautyfull Chairs. very creative Designs. Thank you for this inspiration.

  • http://www.israelisoldiersmother.blogspot.com A Soldier’s Mother

    I love them – wow, I wish I could buy probably around half of them. I can’t even figure out which one calls to me the most…but it would be more than I could possibly fit in my house. What a great collection – thanks for pulling it all together!

  • http://www.vigorlady.com Vigor

    What the heck? I subscribe to this blog because it’s a web design blog not an interior design blog. WTF, pray tell, has chairs got to do with web design?

    • http://www.webdesignerdepot.com Walter

      Hey Vigor,

      WDD was designed to empower readers to become better designers.

      You can only grow so much from seeing inspiration in website design, that’s why you’ll see the blog diverting to other fields of design in order to expand one’s horizons.

      There’s something to learn from all design aspects, and industrial design is one of them.

      Thanks.

    • http://www.brushthis.com Liora

      Vigor,

      The reason this blog is so great is because it offers a colorful and broad spectrum of inspiration for the design community at large. Bravo, WDD, for doing what most web design sites can’t do: bridge the gap between web design and print, industrial design and architecture. There is something of interest to everyone. I even forwarded this link on chair designs to people who love art, but don’t practice it themselves, and received really enthusiastic responses.

      Liora
      Brush This

      • http://john.onolan.org JohnONolan

        Agreed, completely.

  • KTd
  • http://john.onolan.org JohnONolan

    The thing about chair designers is that they seem to perpetually negate that comfort is a fairly important function of a chair. Most of those things would give you piles after just 5 minutes!

  • http://www.vigorlady.com Vigor

    But seriously. Chairs? Ok, whatever. I just found it useless and boring. I get inspiration from observing design in many forms, so I “get” the idea here…but … chairs? Seriously?

  • http://www.v2interactive.net/ Josh Zehtabchi

    The last red chair has to be my favorite chair in the whole post. Looks so… smooth like I would slide right off of that thing.

  • http://atrium-nn.ru/ Andrey

    I love the last ;) creative!

  • stevo

    Some great designs here, how have I never seen a chair and bookcase combined before? it seems so obvious now.

  • Daria

    love it! lots of cool designs! :)

  • http://www.all-maroc.com/vb abdelah

    Some of them where not made with comfort in mind. OUCH!!!!

  • http://www.chairblog.eu/ ChairBlog

    Well found!
    Nice selection!

  • http://www.creativeindividual.co.uk Laura

    Wow, a few of those I’m not too sure how your even meant to sit down on them! And once you do, they can’t be very comfortable!

    However they are all truly genius and a few I would love to own, especially the hammock!

  • http://www.platinummango.com/utah-web-design.html Jordan Foutz

    My favorites are the mountain bike, the shopping cart, and the crosswalk signs. But 99% of them, fantastic.

  • http://www.bluegrassprint.com Bluegrass Print

    Dang! Nice collection! Keep posting stuff like this. I love weird furniture design.

  • http://www.sandersdesign.com Martin Sanders

    what an amazing collection. Most of them are for design rather than comfort :)

  • http://www.vijayinfo.in web design company

    nice collection of chairs , i like the fist one it is color is very nice

  • yatin

    amazing and creative chairs ……..

  • bonggarrido

    sorry, but i’m on my way to a carpentry shop to have some of the designs copied. LOL. i sooo most like the chair with the built-in bookshelves on, very practical. Sitting on books never looked this good!

  • http://www.webartsense.com web design company

    amazing collection of chairs, great creativity :)

  • http://www.retrorumage.tumblr.com Paul

    Design and comfort don’t always go hand in hand. The child in me loves the gloss red chair at the end.

  • liner

    look here, there is also a very creative chair

    http://www.3d-chair.com

  • http://www.twitter.com/codephase Codephase

    great collection, but some might make your butt hurt a little

  • http://theothersideofdeanna.wordpress.com Deanna Schrayer

    I have got to have that bookshelf chair and stool! Love it!

  • mian jamil

    good chairs

  • http://www.thewebsitedesigncompany.co.za DIY weB duDe

    wow, damn, talk about inspiration! Don’t even know which to choose, so many cool abstract idea’s.

  • Ben

    Wow there awesome, some really strange stuff there

  • http://interiordesigningblog.com/ Interior Design

    That’s an awesome collection, I haven’t seen most of them before. The bookcase cum chair is the one I find most innovative, it makes good use of the space available..

  • http://web3m.in.ua Alex

    really interesting designs

  • Cecilia

    I love it!!! So creative!

  • ChairChick

    I love the creativity! But OUCH, that spoon and fork one? I think some of these are just meant to be looked at, not sat on. XD