Marc Held, the pop designer of Prisunic

Marc Held (born 1932) is one of the most inventive French designers of the post-war boom. Architect, designer, photographer, he founded his Archiforme agency in Paris in 1960, opened his L'Échoppe boutique on rue de Seine in 1965, and that same year signed for Knoll International the Culbuto armchair, with its rocking seat and rounded back, which became an icon of French Space Age design. His collaboration with Prisunic from 1966 produced a whole collection of flat-pack furniture, a symbol of French democratic design. Later, he would design for Renault, Lip and the Élysée Palace.

The Culbuto armchair edited by Knoll International, the moulded fibreglass bed and Prisunic furniture remain Marc Held's most identifiable pieces. French vintage furniture to find for those wanting a pop and democratic Sixties-Seventies signature.