His Praust chair designed in 1978 is one of the most famous designs. From this chair onward, Mendini created a furniture line of re-designs. He had come across a copy of a neo-arabesque chair from the 18th century in France. He covered the chair in colourful, hand-painted dots. It is inspired from the impressionism movement, he attempted to re-create the atmospheric appearance of nature. This was a unique piece, but was replicated into several different designs by Mendini Studio. This design was a cost-saving, classic and original functional construction.
The Wassily chair re-design was produced in 1983. It had a chrome-plated steel frame and leather seat, backrest and armrests. He re-design the famous Wassily chair, 1925 by Breuer, by adding different colours and textures, trying to add ornament detail and decorative aspects. He added a smug effect to the leather, incorporating the military pattern in it. He modernized it and was a pretty innovative design for the 1970's.
The original Wassily Chair by Breuer
Another re-design from Mendini was Rietveld's Zig-Zag chair, designed in 1978 in Milan, with wood. He designed the back to form a cross and represent a pert religiousness, which caused a lot of controversy.
He liked twisting the meanings and purposes of products and design.
