RM58 CLASSIC
Brand creation
background
The RM58 armchair is the first product in the brand’s portfolio. It has not been put into serial production for 50 years (from the date of design – 1958). Practically, until 2012, hardly anyone knew about it. Discovered for a wider audience by Professor Krystyna Łuczak-Surówka, it has become a regular point of lectures on the history of design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. It was there that Jakub Sobiepanek, co-founder of the Vzor brand, heard about the RM58. He decided to implement it into serial production, which, as we now know, has been super successful.
Interestingly, the RM58 was not included in studies on Polish design until the early 2000s, and in the last 10 years it turned into the most important Polish design piece or a symbol of Polish design itself.
Iconic design
The iconic character of Vzor products can be proved by several facts. The fact that they are in museums is one fact. Presence in films from the era of the creation of the projects is next. The third fact is that few people asked about the creation of the design concept of Vzor products could confidently predict the year of design in the 1950s or 1960s without knowing their history. These are forms that do not age and can confidently compete with the best world design. They didn’t stand a chance in the years they were designed. The Vzor brand gives them this chance now.
Museums
MoMA – Museum of Modern Art in New York
Probably the most important Museum of Contemporary Art in the World, located in New York, periodically purchases RM58 for its design shop for commercial purposes.
Victoria & Albert Museum in London
The RM58 was shown for the first time in a foreign museum at the Victoria & Albert Museum at the exhibition about design from behind the Iron Curtain entitled “Cold war modern”. The museum purchased the original version of the armchair, still produced by Roman Modzelewski himself.
National Museum
in Warsaw
At the National Museum in Warsaw, at the permanent exhibition “We want to be modern” about the Polish design, you can see three prototypes of the products from the present Vzór offer: RM56 & RM58 by Roman Modzelewski and KA237 by Aleksander Kuczma (original, prototype versions of products created in the 1950s and 1960s)
National Museum in Cracow
At the permanent exhibition “Gallery of Polish Design of the 20th and 21st Century”, created in December 2021 at the National Museum in Cracow, dedicated to Polish design and fashion, you can see Roman Modzelewski’s RM58 in the version produced by the Vzor brand currently.
National Museum
in Wroclaw
In the branch of the National Museum in Wrocław, in the Four Domes Pavilion, you can see around 30 pieces of white and gray versions of the RM58 Classic grouped together. It makes an amazing impression for a visitor of the Museum. The armchairs look like clouds lazily crossing the sky.
Museum of the City of Lodz
2022 has been announced as the year of Roman Modzelewski in Łódź (his family town). On this occasion, a special exhibition was created at the Museum of the City of Lodz, the leitmotiv of which was to refer to the artist as the Polish Charles Eames. You could see selected painting and sculpture works by the artist, but also yacht designs, prototypes and furniture models of the first key Polish designer of industrial forms.
Cinematography
"The Eighth Day of the Week"
At the National Museum in Warsaw, at the permanent exhibition “We want to be modern” about the Polish design, you can see three prototypes of the products from the present Vzór offer: RM56 & RM58 by Roman Modzelewski and KA237 by Aleksander Kuczma (original, prototype versions of products created in the 1950s and 1960s)
“Mr. Anatol is looking for a million”
Polish feature film from 1958 directed by Jan Rybkowski, the second part of the film trilogy that also includes Mr. Anatol’s Hat (1957) and Mr. Anatol’s Inspection (1959). The main roles are played by Tadeusz Fijewski and Barbara Kwiatkowska. A comedy of lapses that can still make you laugh even now. In a very futuristic interior of a modernist building in Warsaw’s Żoliborz district, RM58 appears several times. The interior itself looks, even for the present times, very phenomenal.
"Where are you, Louise?"
This film is a short sci-fi picture from 1964. The work of cinematography tells the story of mysterious creatures that came from space and landed on earth in a flying saucer. The aliens persuade the people they meet to undergo their experimental research in exchange for eternal youth and immortality. The black version of the RM58 appears in it in a scene shot in the middle of the highway.
Vzór improves
ergonomics
Bigger sizes
Vzor products often change their formand ergonomics compared to the original designs from the 50s and 60s, because furniture was once designed for a shorter and lighter user.
RM58 Soft version
It is not a plastic armchair upholstered in fabric, inside there is a foam filling on a metal frame. This gives great sitting comfort when using the chair for a longer time.
Exhibitions
