What do Jean Prouvé’s Standard chair, Michael Thonet’s No. 14 chair and Philippe Starck’s Louis Ghost chair all have in common, besides being chic places to roost? They’re all recent cover stars for Magazine C, a quarterly publication based out of Seoul, South Korea, that zeroes in on a single chair per issue, diving deep into the piece’s design, manufacturing and use. The publication launched in Korean in June 2024, and recently began printing English-language versions as well.
One chair might not seem like enough to fill an entire magazine, but Magazine C isn’t your typical design magazine. Adopting what one of the title’s editors, Sunjin Kim, calls a “documentary style” of magazine making, each issue delves into the chair’s provenance, the designer’s biography, and how the chair is manufactured, as well as exploring its enduring influence on design culture and featuring interiors from around the world that use the design in notable ways.
There’s some variation from issue to issue. For the Louis Ghost edition, the editors nabbed an interview with Starck himself, who discusses his 2002 translucent design and how he views the legacy of his work. The one on the No. 14 chair goes deep on the industrial innovation that Thonet’s 1859 design inspired: It was essentially the first piece of “flatpack” furniture, and its prevalence across the cafés of Europe was driven in part by the affordability that self-assembly provided. Looking ahead, C will feature chairs by Poul Kjaerholm and Le Corbusier.
But why chairs, specifically? “Among many different furniture designs, like tables or lamps, the reason we focus on the chairs is because [in our view], the chair is the most cutting-edge design among furniture design,” says Eunkyung Jeon, executive director of Magazine C. “Through [examining] chairs, we can really look into how people live inside a space. And that’s also why all designers are still eager to design their own chairs today. [Looking at possibilities] for the form or material, the sculptural characteristics of chairs, it enables the most potential of creativity.”
The argument makes sense. Even design aficionados with a taste for collectible furniture are probably more likely to take a chance on an avant-garde chair than, say, a bed. In a one-bedroom apartment, a homeowner might have half a dozen chairs but only one sofa. Chairs being more multipurpose and prevalent in our lives has likely given furniture designers more freedom to take risks and innovate.
Founded by Korean entrepreneur Bongjin Kim (the founder of the country’s biggest food-delivery app), Magazine C is the result of a collaboration with Suyong Joh, founder and publisher of Magazine B, a special-format publication that focuses on one brand in each issue. The two also teamed up to launch a third title, Magazine F, which singles out foods or beverages. A former design student, Kim wrote in the first edition of C that the magazine’s aim is to pay homage to respected design luminaries and support the furniture industry. He tapped Jeon as executive director and Minjung Kim as editor in chief, both of whom had previously worked at the South Korean shelter publication Monthly.
While there’s no shortage of chairs the C editors would like to feature (Jeon says they have a running list of over 50 they’re considering for future issues), a chair does have to meet certain benchmarks to make the cut. “We look at the originality of forms, the technical innovation and their effect in industry, as well as their impact on public lifestyle,” says Jeon. “We look at the value of being timeless. But the ultimate question is: Can the story of this chair carry a whole issue?” The editorial team also visits the headquarters and manufacturing facilities of each chair, gathering firsthand accounts of how the piece is made. “We want to understand not just the aesthetic influence or how people live with these pieces, but what goes into making it technically,” says Jeon. “We’re trying to seek a balance [and include the perspective of] the manufacturer, designer and user.”
The magazine, which is currently available for purchase online and at specialty retailers in Europe, has started to garner fans across the world, with collectors and homeowners gushing over their particular favorites and offering their homes to be featured in its pages. Jeon was at an event recently when a design student approached her and said one of their career goals now is to have a chair that they make an issue of C about. “When we were first launching, a lot of people doubted that this idea could work—doing one chair for a whole magazine—but now we see how excited people are about it,” she adds. “We’re happy to see our idea come to life and that it can resonate with so many people.”
