Vitra: At Home

The collaboration between Swiss furniture company Vitra and Cornel Windlin lasted only from 2004 to 2008 and “only” produced three catalogues (the first, Select/Arrange, in 2005; the second, The Home Collection 2007/2008, in 2007; and the third, The Home Collection 2008/2009, in 2008) plus one book, Projekt Vitra, also in 2007. And yet this short collaboration became a milestone for Swiss graphic design of the mid-2000s.

The At Home edition sold here is a 2005 reissue of just the second part — the Arrange — of the original Select/Arrange edition. And it’s precisely in this Arrange section that Cornel Windlin’s art direction reveals itself at its most unusual, original and daring. Commissioning a host of photographers and illustrators — among them Armin Linke, Juergen Teller and Lizzie Finn, all credited on the back cover — the catalogue stages classic Vitra design pieces by Eames or Morrison in imaginary arrangements, sometimes utterly unflattering and non-commercial, sometimes simply poetic. Nothing you’d expect from a furniture catalogue, which makes the whole concept all the more fascinating and contemporary. A furniture catalogue that doesn’t try to sell the furniture itself, but rather to position Vitra (and even Switzerland) as the most sought-after, avant-garde design brand in the world.

The original Select/Arrange catalogue was named one of the Most Beautiful Swiss Books of 2005 by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (awarded in 2006), with the distinction “Buch der Jury”.