BOLA (A TRIBUTE TO RON KEMNITZER)
Bola is a timeless seating and furniture collection originally designed by Ron Kemnitzer for Fixtures Furniture Company in 1988. A winner of the Institute of Business Design IBD Gold Award, Bola is beloved for its approachable and fun character, along with its enduring practicality.
Bola was designed with a clear purpose, to bring comfortable, durable, and versatile seating to educational, corporate, healthcare, and institutional environments. Its simple yet expressive form combines a powder-coated steel frame with molded thermoplastic or upholstered seats, creating a design that is both reliable and visually engaging. True to its name, Bola features distinctive ball-style glides that give the collection both a playful character and functional resilience.
Over the years, Bola expanded beyond chairs to include stools, benches, and tables, all rooted in the same design DNA. Stackable and adaptable, the pieces reflect Ron’s thoughtful approach to user comfort, color, scale, and space flexibility.
For KEM STUDIO, Bola represents more than a product. It is part of a legacy. Jonathon Kemnitzer and Brad Satterwhite evolved Kemnitzer Design, the studio Ron founded in 1982, into KEM STUDIO in 2004. While we’ve always been committed to building a portfolio based solely on our own work, we’ve also maintained a deep respect for the roots from which we came. With Ron’s passing, we are honored to share Bola as part of our story, celebrating the thoughtful industrial design that helped shape our path. This project page stands as a tribute to Ron’s creativity, curiosity, and lasting influence on how we think about beautiful design that makes life better.
BOLA IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES
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