The idea for the Thinking Man's Chair was born in front of an antique dealer's window. Jasper Morrison noticed a chair stripped of its upholstery: only the structure remained, reduced to its essentials. It was that image—an object almost “down to the bone”—that suggested a seat designed for contemplation. From that intuition emerged one of the most well-known projects of the collaboration between the British designer and the Italian company Cappellini, a design partnership that has now lasted nearly forty years and that the brand’s Milan showroom retraces today with the installation The Thinking Man.
Perhaps Jasper Morrison’s greatest merit as a designer lies in his products’ ability to escape any historical category: placing them in time simply by looking at them is almost impossible. You might say they were designed yesterday or fifty years ago, and the fact that even his earliest projects still feel so current suggests they will remain so for a long time. They exist outside the logic of trends and yet are entirely contemporary; free of any mannered or decorative excess, but recognizable for their strong use of signs, colors, and materials, and for their essential forms.
When Domus visited him — the encounter was published in the May 1988 issue — they described a studio that resembled more a small workshop than a design space: prototypes, pieces of metal, and components scattered everywhere reflected a working method based more on assembly than on drawing. Ideas materialized without going through graphic exercises. “I believe that if I could really draw well, in the end I would be much less capable,” the designer had said. This way of “thinking with his hands” has, over the years, led him to design extensively for some of the world’s most important companies.
For nearly 39 years, the Italian company Cappellini—today led by Giulio Cappellini—has been the tireless ally of Morrison’s prolific design activity. This is no coincidence: between the late 1980s and the 1990s, the Lombard brand became one of the leading laboratories of international design, capable of hosting very diverse creators and transforming their ideas into objects destined to circulate worldwide. Its catalog includes many of the designer's furnishings, alongside those of illustrious colleagues such as Shiro Kuramata, Alessandro Mendini - whose famous Proust armchair the company produces -, Marc Newson, Nendo and many others.
For the Universal System, his modular storage system, Morrison drew inspiration from the organizational efficiency of Apple computers and the ability to easily organize, store, and retrieve documents. Similarly, his “infinite” handleless drawers were designed to keep everyday objects—often difficult to find a place for—clearly visible and within reach. The series, marketed by Cappellini in 1990 and now out of production, surprised for its absolute formal simplicity and the choice of wood. Some saw a Scandinavian influence, others a hint of Japonisme in the rigor of the modules, yet even in this case, it is impossible to fit the product into any single category.
The One-Legged Table, originally designed for an apartment in London's Kensington district, became part of the Cappellini catalog in 1989, only to leave and re-enter it with the 2023 reissue. In its utter simplicity, the curved shape of the one leg removes the furniture from any rigidity or austerity.
But the most famous of the products born from this partnership is the chair now in the Vitra Design Museum's collection. The Thinking Man, the title of the exhibition celebrating Morrison's work at Cappellini, pays tribute to the designer's first piece of furniture produced by the company: the Thinking Man's Chair, the painted iron armchair that, with its gentle, composed form, invites contemplative activity, as its name suggests. And so that contemplation would not be lacking, Morrison designed the chair by including two small trays at the ends of the armrests, designed to rest glasses on. That is why, initially, the design was called The Drinking Man's Chair.
The Thinking Man is set up in Cappellini's Milan showroom (Via Borgogna 8), in the Durini district. The installation is curated by Giulio Cappellini together with Jasper Morrison himself and can be visited from March 4 to 22, 2026.