Zoeftig - Celebrating 40 years of British design

‘An office chair designed to cut through the hierarchy of office seating.’

When Frederick Scott created the iconic Supporto Task Chair in 1976, he was driven by a determination to design the first and only seating solution that featured ergonomics at the heart of its design. To celebrate the 40th birthday of its most innovative product, Zoeftig explores how Supporto became such a high-profile pioneer of British design.

It’s a well known fact that the first prototype of the Supporto Task Chair was constructed of the only materials Frederick Scott had to hand in his workshop – chicken wire and chrome. While these may initially appear as some of the most unlikely materials to be associated with comfort and quality, they played a vital role in facilitating Scott’s extensive study into task seating positions, such as sitting in front of a drawing board.

Today, more sophisticated leather, fabric and aluminium variations of the Supporto Task Chair can be found in the homes and offices of high profile figures, including Apple’s Chief Design Officer, Jonathan Ives, Sophie Conran and Sir James Dyson who personally regards Supporto as being specifically “engineered with function in mind”.

Specifically engineered to allow maximum support and free movement, Zoeftig now boasts a complete Supporto collection that enables users to operate at their maximum efficiency, comfortably. Comprising an entire range of chairs and stools, the collection meets the wide-ranging criterion of home, office and executive environments.

While Zoeftig has continued to set the standard for innovation, quality and reliability in a variety of sectors across the globe for almost half a century, the Supporto collection remains proudly at the helm of its product portfolio. Founded upon classical British design and manufacture principles, it’s easy to see why Supporto was named as The chair that most influenced modern office seating’ by the International Federation of Architects.