Ceo

Origin

CEO Cube is a series that Lella and Massimo Vignelli designed for Poltrona Frau. It includes meeting tables, executive desks and storage units, and it brings together the pure form, the blend of materials and the solidity of a technically advanced structure that make up the soul of the company. The Vignellis design micro architectures rather than straightforward pieces of furniture, shaped to divide and populate the spaces of prestigious workplaces.

Lella Vignelli, born in Udine, graduated in architecture in Venice, and Massimo Vignelli, born in Milan in 1931, studied architecture in Milan and Venice. Based first in Milan, their studio has worked from New York since 1965.

Design Language

Simple geometries let the materials show, from fine Pelle Frau® leather to wood and aluminium alloys. The series expresses a wish for light surfaces in keeping with contemporary architectural expression. On the desk, a voluminous drawer chest-bookcase is set against the thin planes of the desktop and its support panel, a contrast that lends a streamlined, authoritative look, and the meeting tables repeat the language in variable dimensions.

The desk stands on a tubular steel frame with sheet metal crosspieces, and castors under its cube unit let the cube swivel about the connecting column. Two overlapping MDF panels form each meeting-table top, textured black below and foam-padded with leather upholstery above. Leather-covered cylinders of lightly padded metal tubing serve as legs, and black painted iron lies beneath the top.

Key Pieces

• CEO Cube Desk, resting on a cube unit at one end and a leg at the other
• CEO Cube Meeting Table, the rectangular meeting table
• CEO Cube Oval Meeting Table, with an oval top
• CEO Cube Round Meeting Table, in Ø 150 and Ø 180 cm
• CEO Cube Cabinet, listed with the desk and the meeting tables in the same collection