Hille Ltd

Robin Day designed the Hille logo in 1949 at the start of his long and close relationship with the Hille family firm. Over the next three decades his prolific and innovative output for the company, including the ground-breaking Polypropylene Chair (1963), Armchair (1967) and E-series School Chair (1971) put modern British furniture design on the world map.

After the Hille family sold the firm in 1983 it changed hands several times. Robin Day’s later designs for Hille include the handsome and durable Toro (1990) and Woodro (1991) benches used on London Underground station platforms.

Hille Ltd was incorporated in 2008 when the company was acquired by Brian Foster, who had been responsible for manufacturing much of Hille’s plastic seating from the 1970s onwards. Robin Day’s designs are now made at the Hille factory in Ebbw Vale, South Wales. The company has worked closely with the Foundation to re-launch the Polyside and Armchair with Robin’s elegant P5 side chair stacking frame and in Robin’s original colours – light grey, charcoal, flame. No effort has been spared to achieve high-quality authentic detailing to the frame and close colour matches to examples of the original production. As a result these British design classics return to the market with all the freshness and authority they had when they were first launched in the 1960s.

www.hille.co.uk