Having the good fortune to be on the armchair quarterback side of such things, I can’t say for sure, but I’d conjecture that designers of office chairs have struggled for decades with the challenge of creating functional furnishings with cool caché. I don’t just mean ordinary cool, but the kind of cool to impress bona fide hipsters from Soho to Santa Monica; the kind of cool to move even those with an obsession for the Mid-Century Modern. Sola by Davis Furniture is just such a creature.

Sola Chair. Designed by Justus Kolberg. Manufactured by Davis Furniture.

The Sola Chair by Davis Furniture Brings High Style to the Office

Knowing a thing or two about the stringent standards of the above demographic, I don’t make the assertion lightly. But Sola has the chops to impress. The executive and conference task chair, designed by Justus Kolberg, has all the right angles, so to speak. Constructed of a bentwood back with just the slightest rearward inclination, Sola achieves excellent ergonomics without sacrificing an inch on aesthetics.

The idea behind Sola, according to Kolberg, was to design an office chair that facilitated comfortable work and conferencing positions while maintaining a clean, lean appearance. Translation: eschew the familiar onslaught of adjustable features and articulating joints. Not that Sola is rigid in this regard. The chair boasts a height adjust lever as well as a proprietary spring tilt mechanism.

These features help users make the kind of micro adjustments that are sometimes necessary to achieve customized comfort, but Sola’s aspiration—and achievement—is providing enhanced ergonomics across a broad range of user shapes and sizes while maintaining the kind of distinctive style that made, say, the Eames a household name.

Options for Sola include your choice of an exposed veneer shell or full upholstery; arm caps in plastic, upholstered leather, or aluminum; and a polished or powder coated aluminum frame.

About the Manufacturer: Davis Furniture Industries, based in High Point, North Carolina, began in 1944 as the Davis Upholstery Company. Family-owned and operated for four generations, the company now manufactures contract furniture with “superior design in aesthetics and function with an international contemporary influence.” Davis began its focus on modern style in the 1970s when it began licensing European designs: “To date, Davis has had licensee agreements with nine different European manufacturers.”