Over three decades ago, UK-based office furniture manufacturer Hille International set about designing a brand new and appealing office chair that would shake up the office furniture market for years to come.
The resulting line of chairs, called System Supporto, was a masterpiece of design, and according to this curious article from CultofMac, may have been Jony Ive’s source of inspiration for the unibody MacBook Pro!
The story goes (according to Supporto’s own website) that the System Supporto is big-time Apple Senior Vice President of Design Jony Ive’s very favorite kind of office Chair, and these chairs are apparently in wide use at Apple, with Jony Ive providing these chairs to all of the designers that he oversees.
The chairs are beautiful, elegant creations made from gorgeously formed aluminum, foam and leather. The design is also reportedly the result not just of a strong design aesthetic, but many years of ergonomics research performed by Hille International.
There does appear to be some resemblance between the MacBook Pro and the Supporto chairs, but I’m not all that convinced that they are similar enough to claim the Supporto chairs as a significant design inspiration – what about you?
