Eero Aarnio's Globe chair became an icon of Pop design in the late 1960s. Similar to Op Art of the period, derived from simple geometries of squares and circles, the chair is simply a dissected ball on a pivoting circular base. Since the 1950s chair designers had experimented with one-piece seats and backs but here these elements were expanded into an encompassing micro-environment, like a pod that isolated the sitter. Aarnio even installed telephones in some Globe chairs, acknowledging that they were like small private rooms.

The pod motif recurred through late-1960s design and surely related to the popular fascination with space travel, inspired by the Apollo missions that culminated in the moon landings at the end of the decade. The strict geometries, synthetic materials and colours, and space-capsule-like character completely disassociate the chair from nature and seem to point forward to an optimistic, technological, man-made future.