Core77

...or you could say that the original is overdimensioned.

I guess the first line says it all: 'What's the most frustrating thing a furniture designer will have to endure?'

Arne Jacobsen has been dead for ages and thus for a long time has not had to endure anything. Yet a private corporation, Fritz Hansen, manages to retain a - fortunately less and less perfect - monopoly on his design - in flagrant disregard of every modernistic vision of democratic design...

I say go you Asian copy cats!

-and remember to add a few extra layers so we can catapult the neat FH designer in a more helpful direction

Trying to win an emotional argument with a rational explanation. Those silly Scandinavians.

Nice testing. Why did you go easy on the last one?

Seems like a useless demonstration. When is the chair ever loaded like that in normal use?

I think this argument might work on some people, but the fact that he fully tried to break the reproductions, and just wiggled up and down on the original ruins the argument.

He sits on his chairs differently than I do.

Yeah, he doesn't jump on the last one (Original) at all. Bit of a farce really. And at the end of the day, people want the look, not the durability-in-an-upsidedown-jump-test!

If the originals were't so bloody expensive this wouldn't happen, no one rips off IKEA furniture. As as many enemies as it has, i've yet to break a piece, and its all durable and (mostly) good looking decent stuff.

If the classics were as efficiently and cost-effectively made this would be a moot point.

I applaud Fritz Hansen for this demonstration. Knock-offs are not good for any industry including furniture design. We must support original design and quality products. Great job!

This is a perfect example of why the classics last a liftime compared to the fakes. I say it is good quality and it is fair that consumers become aware of that when they make a purchase.
The video exactly shows: What you see is what you get.

Go classics!

For the people asking "when is a chair ever loaded like that?", that is a variation on what is pretty much the standard check amongst cabinet-makers to see if a chair is sound or not.

If the chair will withstand that, it'll live through fatty putting his feet up.

Great video which really shows the value of investing in the real thing!

Jakob - Jacobsen, or Eames or any of the designers who are ripped off by these manaufacturers never intended for their products to be made by Chinese sweatshops. They designed their furniture closely with their manufacturers who developed the manufacturing with them during the design process. The original designs challenged the capabilities of the time with new techniques and materials and this is what helped make them classics. Wouldnt the more "democratic" thing be if these factories who make the fakes actually used their resources to invest and develop in new designs and designers rather than just expoliting the history and reputation that the designers and original manufacturers have created through the high quality of the classics?

There is nothing new in making make a copy! - unless it is of a better quality and last longer. Copies are only interesting if they do the original design better or provoke an alternative solution. There is so much junk in this world, why spend time on copies? To buy a copy, is like a false marketing of yourself or your company.

.. and yes (Jakob) Arne Jacobsen died many years ago but he actually developed the chair together with Fritz Hansen in the 50-s! Fritz Hansen developed the tool and put it into production and therefore made this unique invention / design possible. Why buy bad copies that only use other people's inventions in commercial contexts?

Counterpoint: I've ripped off plenty of Ikea furniture.

The argument that the cost of these items or the profiteering of manufacturers is all that supports the case for cracking down on copies.. is so flawed... and somewhat surprising on a website targeted at the industrial design community. WIthout proper IP protection or a sense of respect and aknowledgment for an original design or concept none of you would have this website to interact with. The industry is absolutely, directly impacted on by fakes and people who justify them. Designers who see no problem in them are short sighted, ill informed and professionally arrogant.

To the argument that IKEA has not been copied... are you kidding me!? Have you seen the issues IKEA are having in China. Entire stores and the products in them are being replicated right down to logos, trolleys and shopping experiences. Your inability to see beyond your naive designer (prob fake) spectacles, young man, is astounding.

You have to place value in something at some point or nothing will ever matter.

you only have to answer one question..!?

would you buy a fake BMW?

thanks