"Protect Your Rights" Chair is a Commentary on Copying

Swedish furniture brand Blä Station has worked alongside David Ericsson to create a wooden chair designed to make a statement about design fakes and copies.

Named “Protect Your Rights”, or P.Y.R, the chair was launched during this year’s Stockholm Design Festival, and is described by Ericsson as a “celebration of simplicity”.

“P.Y.R is more than just a product – it’s a movement,” the brand says. “[It is] a reminder that the simple can be the strongest. But also a challenge: How do we protect the original in a time where copying or “strongly inspired by”, has become the norm?”

Despite the obvious, the specific details around the design of the chair are vague – perhaps intentional given the concept. What we do know, however, is that it has been constructed from pine plywood, and that the form appears sturdily built. A metal plate is affixed to the back of the backrest, and features the chair’s name and a brief paragraph about the ideology behind it.

“We train engineers, technicians and designers to develop better, smarter and more sustainable products – which we then, hands tied and unprotected, watch the fast capital change, degrade and sell to us as almost the same or the same – but at a lower price, in a constant race towards our own destruction”

For both Ericsson and the brand, creating a seemingly simple chair also offered a chance to reflect on the lengthy process involved – but often ignored – behind the finished product.

“Design and product development are not what you see, because you only see the result of a long and costly process,” they say. “The design process requires an enormous amount of patience and an incredible amount of knowledge”

P.Y.R launched at Stockholm Furniture Fair, which took place in the Swedish city from February 3 to 7.