In the past years, Polstrin, a traditional Czech producer of upholstered furniture, has been consistent in its efforts to find and keep the direction towards quality design production. Take as proof the designs by designer Jiří Pelcl who designed for Polstrin the Snug Chair, a chair of generous dimensions with a side space on its left or right side, and the Frame Bed with cleverly located shelves integrated into the bed’s headrest.
However, the company, in operation in Hradec Králové since 1957, has become a finalist in the category Producer of the Year of the Czech Grand Design Awards, only when they started their collaboration with the design studio Lexová & Smetana, the result of which is the striking collection of seating furniture Hide and Seek. The collection makes excellent use of the brand’s rich, generations-old know-how consisting of the combination of craftsmanship and modern production processes and underlines it to perfection. The professional jury of the Czech Design Academy was impressed by the design as well as its execution, especially the perfect rendition of upholstery details and the precision of stitching alongside the circumference of upholstered elements. Individual pieces are very pleasant to touch, a characteristic further enhanced by the use of elastic textiles by the Danish Kvadrat brand, whose excellent adhesion provides the collection with a full, yet gentle and youthful look “without wrinkles”. The original design and excellent craftsmanship, as well as a well-chosen palette of pastel hues used in the collection, make of Polstrin a producer able to successfully compete with strong international competition. The Hide and Seek Collection can serve as an inspirational example to Polstrin and others worth following and is a very nice and surprising introduction to a story that will hopefully follow…
David Kalista