A chair bends the rules

Flunking French may have been the best thing that happened to designer John Liston.

That led to makeup classes in either music or art. He chose a jewelry-making class where his novice skill impressed the teacher. Turns out, he’s an ace artist.

“The teacher was very impressed at what I was doing and the skill level I was doing it and offered me (the opportunity) to take it again, but teach me more advanced options for jewelry. … It was one of those few times that you really get that somebody was very excited at what I was doing.”

He may not have had an ear for French, but he did have an eye for art. Following in his brothers’ footsteps (one is a medical illustrator, the other a fashion photographer), he went on to furniture and an art degree in New York and eventually made his way west to San Francisco, where the city’s architecture serves as his muse. Some of his inspirations are obvious, such as in the wood-and-metal Suspension Bench, which draws from the Golden Gate Bridge. Others, like the steel Ribbon Chair, are meant to evoke architecture’s emotional response.

“The inspiration for the Ribbon Chair was shadows coming off architectural buildings,” says Liston, who lives in Berkeley but shares a studio in San Francisco. “Like when you’re coming through the city, you’d see shadows coming off the building and how the shadows wrap over park benches or the curb and how the shadows go through handrails and create this texture on the sidewalk and ends up wrapping over whatever surface is there.”

Each 21-by-33-inch-tall bent steel chair takes 40 hours to complete. He cuts steel into strips and bends it over a plywood frame.

“Originally, what got me into (making furniture) was living in an apartment and needing things, a TV stand or a table or something like that. The good thing about it when you’re making it for yourself is there’s no rules — you don’t have a client you’re making it for so you can do whatever you want. And so, every once in a while, I’ll be inspired by something.”

Ribbon Chair, $3,900 (list) at Coup d’ Etat showroom and gallery, 111 Rhode Island St., San Francisco. (415) 241-9300. http://jlistondesign.com/index.html