Stool for the Norman Bar Stool

This stool was designed by Tom Dixon for the Norman Bar in Leeds, England. The stool uses the basic form of the cylinder for the shaft of the seat as well as the tripod base. The form is surprisingly stable—the stool can be used upright or turned upside down to serve as a tray rest or seat. This stool is a variation of an earlier Dixon piece, the Jack chair (1994).
Dixon is a self-taught British designer who first came to international attention for his do-it-yourself approach, particularly in his welded metal forms. By the mid-1990s, Dixon had an established design practice and was starting to explore plastics. He founded the firm Eurolounge to produce his own designs and utilized the rotary molding technique to produce durable polyethylene forms. In 1998, Dixon was appointed Head of Design by the British retailer Habitat and, in 2004, he became creative director of Artek, the firm founded by Alvar Aalto in 1935.
This would be the second example of Dixon’s work to enter the museum’s collection. The museum’s first acquisition of Dixon’s work was his S-chair (1988), which is made of welded tubular steel and recycled inner tubes. The addition of the stool to the collection shows another facet in the development of Dixon’s early career.

Stool for the Norman Bar Stool; Designed by Tom Dixon (English, b. 1959); England; molded polyethylene; H x W x D: 49.5 x 56.8 x 53.3 cm (19 1/2 x 22 3/8 x 21 in.); The Linda and Irwin R. Berman Stool Collection; 2008-32-6