--- Charles & Ray Eames |
 Charles & Ray Eames
Product Designers
(1907-1978 + 1912-1988)
Not only did Chrales Eames (1907-1978) and his wife, Ray (1912-1988) design some of the most important examples of 20th century furniture, they also applied their talents to devising ingenious children's toys, puzzles, films,
exhibitions and such iconic mid-20th century Los Angeles buildings as the Eames House and Entenza House in Pacific Palisades.
The last thing the landlord expected when he rented a modest Richard Neutra-designed apartment on Strathmore Avenue in the Los Angeles suburb of Westwood to a newly married couple in 1941 was for the spare bedroom to be
turned into a workshop. No sooner had Charles and Ray Eames moved in than they kitted out that room with a home-made moulding machine into which they fed the woods and glues that Charles sneaked home from his day job as a set
architect on MGM movies like Mrs Miniver.
It was on this machine - dubbed the "Kazam!" after the saying "Ala Kazam!" because the plywood formed in the mould like magic - that the Eames produced their first mass-manufactured product, a plywood leg splint based on a plaster
mould of Charles' own leg. A year later, the US Navy placed an order for 5,000 splints and the Eames moved their workshop out of their apartment into a rented studio on nearby Santa Monica Boulevard.
The combination of visionary design and ingenuity that had prompted Charles and Ray Eames prototype a mass-manufactured product in their spare room was to characterise their work over the next four decades. Together they not only
designed some of the most influential and innovative furniture of the late 20th century, but through their films, teaching, writing and their life together in the house they designed in Pacific Palisades, they defined an open,
organic, emotionally expressive approach to design and lifestyle.
Both Charles and Ray were the youngest of two children in middle-class families and gifted students with a flair for art: otherwise their backgrounds were very different. Born in 1907, Charles Ormand Eames grew up in St Louis,
Missouri where his father, a keen amateur photographer, worked in railway security. When Charles was eight, his father was injured in a robbery and died four years later. Charles helped to support the family with part-time jobs,
but still excelled at school. His class yearbook described him as "a man with ideals, courage to stand up for them and ability to live up to them." After high school, he won an architecture scholarship to Washington University in
St Louis where he met a fellow student, Catherine Woermann, whom he married in 1929. Her father paid for them to honeymooon in Europe where they saw the work of Le Corbusier, Mies Van Der Rohe and Walter Gropius.
Back in St Louis, Charles opened an architectural office which won commissions for houses only to fold in the depression. After eight months away on what he called his "On The Road tour" in Mexico, Charles set up another practise
in 1935 and was asked to design a house for the Meyers, friends of Catherine's. He sought the advice of the architect Eliel Saarinen who offered him a fellowship to study architecture and design at Cranbrook Academy. There,
Charles deepened his friendship with Eliel and his son Eero - with whom he won the 1940 Museum of Modern Art Organic Furniture Competition - and found new collaborators notably Harry Bertoia and, later, Ray Kaiser.
Born in Sacramento, Calfiornia in 1912 as Bernice Alexandra Kaiser, Ray came from a close, creative family. Her father was a theatre manager-turned-insurance salesman and both parents encouraged her love of art, film and dance.
After her father's death in 1929, Ray and her mother moved to New York to be closer to her brother, an army cadet at West Point. Ray enrolled at the Art Students League and studied painting under Hans Hoffman. When her mother died
in 1940, Ray moved to Cranbrook, where she met and fell in love with Charles. He divorced Catherine in May, 1941 and married Ray in Chicago a month later. They set off for a long honeymoon drive to their new home in Los Angeles.
On the journey, they picked up a tumbleweed from the road which still hangs from the ceiling of the Eames House today.
In LA, Charles found work at MGM and Ray created covers for California Art & Architecture magazine. At night, they conducted plywood experiments in their apartment. The US Navy order enabled the Eames to rent an office on
Santa Monica Boulevard in 1942 and to gather a group of collaborators including Harry Bertoia (who had designed Ray's wedding ring) and Gregory Ain. Continuing their experiments, they produced sculpture, chairs, screens,
tables and even toy animals in plywood. Herman Miller, the US furniture group, was persuaded to put some of these pieces into production by George Nelson, its head of design. All the Eames' plywood combined an elegant organic
aesthetic with a love of materials and technical ingenuity.
These qualities were also apparent in the showroom they designed for Herman Miller in 1949 and the Case Study Houses, a low cost housing project sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine which included the Eames House, a steel
structure with sliding walls and windows. Designed for cheap, speedy construction, it took five men 16 hours to raise the steel shell and one man three days to build the roof deck. Spacious, light and versatile, the vividly
coloured Eames House was described by the design historian Pat Kirkham as looking like "a Mondrian-style composition in a Los Angeles meadow".
Unsurprisingly, the house and its contents epitomised Charles and Ray's approach to design and their "good life" concept of celebrating the beauty of everyday objects as well as precious ones. The dried-out tumbleweed from their
honeymoon hung alongside a Robert Motherwell painting. Toys, masks and other folkloric souvenirs collected from their travels were laid out on tables next to stones, buttons, pieces of bark and favourite books. The British
architects, Peter and Alison Smithson, described the house as "a cultural gift parcel". Its fusion of the mass-manufactured and folkloric appeared in the Eames' films and graphic projects, like their 1952 interlocking House of
Cards game, for which Eliel Saarinen coined the term "spiritual function".
Charles and Ray sustained this spirit in the way they dressed: he in open-necked shirts and loose pants, she in a bohemian version of a conventionally feminine wardrobe of short-sleeved blouses and full skirts. The film director
Billy Wilder and his wife Audrey, who befriended the Eames after commissioning a sadly unbuilt house from them, remarked that Ray's idea of formal dress was to put on a clean blouse and Charles' take on black tie was literally to
wear a black tie. Ray's self-consciously feminine guise underscored the role she adopted within their relationship of Charles' younger, adoring protege and underplaying her contribution to their work, which contrasts with the
picture of painted by Charles himself of a gifted, energetic woman.
After plywood, the Eames focused on equally zealous experiments with other materials by creating furniture in fibreglass, plastic, aluminium and, for the 1956 Lounge Chair, leather and a very opulent plywood. The Lounge became an
icon of the 1960s and 1970s - no ambitious executive had made it until there was one in his (or very occasionally) her office - but Charles always expressed a preference for his earlies, less expensive plywood designs.
Their collaboration with Herman Miller continued and extended to Vitra, its European partner. The Eames also began a long-lasting relationship with IBM for which they made films and designed exhibitions. Like all important
designers, the Eames were blessed with good timing. There were no shortage of empathetic corporate partners in the expanding US post-war economy at a time of rapid advances in materials and production processes and their
democratic view of design struck a chord in an era of growing affluence. Throughout the 1950s, their furniture was exhibited in the Good Design shows with which MoMA, New York sought to raise the public's awareness of design.
The Eames' furniture, especially elegant office chairs such as the Lounge and Aluminium Series, now seem synonymous with mid-20th century Corporate America, but Charles and Ray equally influential at making respectable the
then-neglected folkcrafts not only in the US but in India, for which they produced the 1950s Eames Report on raising standards of design training. These concerns dominated their later work in the 1970s when, able to live
comfortably on their Herman Miller and Vitra royalties, they concentrated their creative energy on propagating their ideas in exhibitions, books and films.
Work remained the centre of their lives - with working days running from 9am to 10pm and a full-time cook on hand so they needn't leave the studio to eat - until Charles' death in 1978. Ray then worked hard to complete any
unfinished projects but, having done so, did not seek new ones. She devoted the rest of her life to communicating their ideas through talks and writing. Ray Eames died of cancer on 21 August 1988, ten years to the day after Charles.
© Design Museum
source: www.designmuseum.org
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--- Bengt EK Design |
 BENGT EK DESIGN
Prisbelönt design från Bengt Ek.
Bengt Ek föddes i Småland och växte upp i fabriksmiljö. Uppväxtens närhet till det industriella gjorde också att yrkesvalet tog den riktningen. Bengt Ek utbildade sig till maskinteknisk ingenjör och verktygsmästare och startade
kort efter sin examen företaget Design Byrå. Han fortsatte sedan sina studier på Konstfack där han studerade industridesign, guld och silversmide.
Karriären gick framåt och 1976 startades familjeföretaget Ek Inter AG i Luzern i Schweiz. På kort tid gick företaget från att producera ett fåtal produkter till att snart ha en egen fabrik. Här tillverkades bland annat timers,
väggur, väckarklockor, och termometrar för att sedan exporteras över hela världen. Idag finns företaget i både Schweiz och i Sverige. Företaget utvecklas fortfarande i snabb takt och man exporterar 85 % av sin produktion till utlandet.
Bengt Eks tidlösa design har alltid fått mycket uppmärksamhet och företagets produkter har under längre tidsperioder varit utställda på Museum of Modern Art i New York, San Fransisco och Tokyo. En av företagets äggklockor har
även blivit utvad till årets designprodukt i Tokyo i konkurrens med allt ifrån motorcyklar till underkläder! Och priserna fortsätter att ramla in även fast företaget inte längre anmäler sig eller skickar in några produkter.
Så hur designar man produkter som håller genom åren och som passar in i tidens alla skeenden? Frågar man Bengt Ek så är det genom att vara med i hela processen, från idé, till skiss, till produktion och slutligen försäljning.
Talang är något medfött och med ett intresse för allt det som händer runt omkring så kommer också inspirationen. Det är viktigt att resa och få nya intryck men också något så enkelt som att vara med familjen ger inspiration.
De flesta av Bengt Eks idéer kommer oftast ifrån när han i en vanlig vardagssituation anser sig sakna något, och ur det har många produkter skapats, vissa för att bli en storsäljare!
kilde:http://www.bengtekdesign.se/
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--- Carlo Borer |
 Carlo Borer
1961
Der Designer
Carlo Borer (1961) bildet sich nach Abschluss der Matura als Autodidakt weiter. Freischaffend seit 1981 widmet CB sich zuerst als bildender Künstler der Zeichnung und der Malerei später arbeitet
Carlo Borer gänzlich dreidimensional und bezeichnet sich als Objektbauer. Ab 1992 entstehen parallel zur künstlerischen Arbeit erste Möbelobjekte. Zuerst für den eigenen Bedarf gedacht werden sehr bald Kleinserien produziert.
Sein erfolgreichstes Gebrauchsobjekt, die Espressomaschine Etienne Louis wird über 1700 mal gebaut und in ganz Europa vertrieben. Seit einigen Jahren entstehen Carlo Borers Entwürfe digital auf CAD.
Borer baut Objekte deren suggestive Form die Fantasie schweifen lässt ohne dass deren Funktion durch das Design beeinträchtigt wird. Form follows function without loosing fantasy- könnte sein Credo lauten.
Das heisst Carlo Borers Objekte sollen Freude machen, unsere Fantasie anregen uns zum schmunzeln bringen. Immer mit einem Augenzwinkern gestaltet sind Borers Gebrauchsobjekte aber stets perfekt durchdacht und fabriziert.
Borer ist fasziniert von der Aufgabe eine Funktion in eine suggestive und vielleicht verrückte Form zu bauen, ohne Abstriche an der Tauglichkeit der Objekte.
Source: www.cbindustries.ch
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---- Chris Ferebee |
 Chris Ferebee
1971
An artist as well as a designer, Chris Ferebee divides his time between furniture/product design, photography, mixed media and graphic design. Self-taught in all these disciplines, Ferebee was born in Virginia Beach in 1971 and
grew up a part of skateboard and surf culture where he takes much of his inspiration. Along with punk and post punk music/graphics, and artists like Rauschenberg, Twombly, Beuys and others, with interests in science and technology,
Ferebee's work is as eclectic as his varied influences.
Ferebee has been with the stock photo agencies Photonica/Getty Images and Graphistock since 1992 where has had works published by such diverse clients as IBM,
Microsoft, Sony, Saatchi & Saatchi, and American Express. He is also the principal for the multidisciplinary design studio, 521 Design formed in 1999 in NYC and has designed award-winning, internationally recognized furniture
designs. Ferebee has been invited to lecture at the University of Houston and Rochester Institute of Technology.
Various design awards include a 2000 Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and
Design for the Hive Shelving Unit, as well as a Design Distinction Award for furniture design from I.D. Magazine's Annual Design Review 2001. His work has been included in design publications such as the International Design
Yearbook 18 and 20, MoMA's The Design Encyclopedia, and Bent Ply : The Art of Plywood Furniture. Exhibitions include 100% Design, London, 2004, Scandinavian Furniture Fair, 2004, IMM - Cologne Furniture Fair, 2004, "New Design New
York", Totem Gallery, NYC 2001, the "Carrefour de la Creation" Exhibit, Centre Pompidou, Paris 2001 and T.A.G. Team curated by *Surface Magazine and Totem Design, Milan and NYC 2001.
Ferebee continues to focus on new areas
of art and cutting-edge design with collaborative and commissioned work with companies such as Medium Footwear and Danish furniture manufacturer, Gubi International as well as working towards creating products for companies such as,
DWR, The Conran Shop, Urban Outfitters and Target. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
source: www.coroflot.com |
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---- Christian Flindt |
 Christian Flindt
1972
Christian Flindt (1972) er en ung og talentfuld designer. Han er uddannet på Arkitektskolen i Århus.
Christian Flindt har deltaget på en lang række danske og internationale messer og udstillinger. Og han har modtaget flere legater og designpriser her i blandt Bo Bedres designpris i 2005.
Ripple Chair er hans første møbel for Paustian. Det modige og friske design i en traditionel konstruktion viser en designer, der tør og vil.
kilde: www.paustian.dk
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--- David Mellor |
 David Mellor
David Mellor, Royal Designer for Industry, is one of the best known designers in the UK. He is unusual in combining the activities of designer, manufacturer and retailer.
His great professional expertise is in metalwork, working over a broad spectrum and designing products both on a large scale and a small scale. His designs range from street lighting and the UK national traffic signal system to
one-off pieces of hand made silver and the modern stainless steel cutlery he manufactures in his own purpose built factory.
David Mellor was born in Sheffield in 1930 and trained in silversmithing at the Royal College of Art in London, winning a scholarship for further study at the British Academy in Rome.
In 1969 he opened the first of his well known kitchenware and tableware shops in Sloane Square, London. He set up his first production workshops for cutlery in Sheffield. Then, in 1990, he built his new factory in the Peak
National Park in Derbyshire, a rural area of outstanding natural beauty, in collaboration with the architect Sir Michael Hopkins. This factory has been described as a ‘minor masterpiece' of modern architecture.
David Mellor's own designs continue to win numerous international awards and in 1996 he received the accolade of a retrospective at the Design Museum, London.
In 2001 he was awarded the CBE by Her Majesty Queen
source: www.magisdesign.com
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--- Defne Koz |
 Defne Koz
Defne Koz is an industrial designer who started her career in the sphere of the Domus Academy, she provides consulting for product development and creative support for product strategy innovation in household appliances,
electronics, furnishing, urban furnishing, accessories for the home and table, lighting systems, interior design and objects for homes and shops.
The work of Defne Koz is featured in museums around the world while her designs have been manufactured by Fontana Arte, Foscarini, Leucos, Cappellini, Egizia and several others.
Source: www.foscarini.com
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----
Denis Santachiara |
 Denis Santachiara
Denis Santachiara – an anomalous designer and an outsider of the international
outline of design, he began his career marrying in his work the art and design.
This was exposed in the following exhibitions: Biennale of Venice 1980 ,
“Tutte le arti tendono alla Performance” Palazzo dei Diamanti Ferrara 1982 ,
“Documenta 8” Kassel , Triennale di Milano 1982/84/86/96/01/04 ,
Quadriennale di Roma 1998.
Solo Exhibition/Art-Direction /Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions at the Museum of
Arts of Lyon and Vitra Museum , “La Neomerce,the design of the invention
and of artificial ecstasy” 1984 – Triennale di Milano and Centre Pompidou of
Paris( a manifesto exhibition and an international reference event for a design
that is performative,tecno-poetic and ironic).“I segni dell'habitat” - Grand
Palais – Paris 1987, Berlaghe Museum – Amsterdam 1988-Tokyo 1989. In the
1997 he designed the interiors of the exhibiton “ The new persona” (artdirection
Germano Celant)-Florence. “Stanze e Segreti” Rotonda della Besana
– Milano 2000 (art-director Achille Bonito Oliva).”Water Design” and “Open
Living” during the Design Week of Tokyo in the 2003 and 2004.
Permanent Exhibitions in museums
MOMA of New York,Musee des arts
decoratives du Louvre, National Museum of modern arts of Tokyo, Museum of
Lyon,Museum of Frankfurt,Vitra Museum of Weil-am-Rhein(Germany) and
Philadelfia Museum ,Collection de Design du Centre Pompidou. Museum of
design ,Triennale di Milano.
Interiors and Architectures projects
Chartusian monastery of Avignone, for the
French Ministry of culture, furniture for the Plaza of Toyama(Japan), The Art
Hotel in Dresda , winner of the international prize ZIP for the city of
Saarbrucken(Germany), Generali Bank for a project of telematics
banking,Promotional Center for the Emilia Romagna in Shangai,Biennal of
architecture of Bejing
Collaborated and collaborate
with italians and foreign industries for the design
and the research of new products and enterprises : Snia Viscosa,Centrostile
FIAT,Progetto Cultura Montedison,B&B,French Ministry of culture, Luceplan
,Artemide, Swatch, Mandarina Duck, Rosenthal, Panasonic, Domodinamica,
Vitra, Campeggi, Superga, Bang-Olufsen, Banca Generali, De Padova,
Chrysler/Benz, Foscarini, Marutomy, Baleri Italia, La Murrina, Serralunga,
Koizumy, Erreti,Bonaldo, Magis, Zerodisegno, Post Design, Polsit,
Naos,Fontana Arte ,Isedit.
Prizes and publications
In the 2002 the publishers “Abitare Segesta” publish a
book on his activity written by Virginio Briatore.
Compasso d'oro 1986,in the 1999 won the Good Design award of the Chicago
Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and in April in the 2000 he
was given a prize in 2 sections with the Design World.
Academic activity
From many years he participate in lecturing in university
courses and seminars : ISIA of Florence ,Rietveld school of Rotterdam,Royal
college of London ,Les ateliers of Paris.Escuela de diseno of
Barcellona,seminar at the University of Tokyo ,University of
Jerusalem,Accademy of the arts of
St. Petersburg,Accademy of Brera e Politechnic of Milan ,various Master in
design at the Domus Accademy,Istituto europeo di design in Milan, FMI in
Washington ,Cambridge University Boston,Universitad Mayor of Santiago del
Chile , University of Venice IUAV, Creative Accademy a Milan,Universitad
Veritas in Costa Rica .
Source:http://www.denisantachiara.it/
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--- Design Group Italia |
 Design Group Italia
Design Group Italia is a design studio with its head office in Milan, and is run by Edgardo Angelini, Ross De Salvo and Sigurdur Thorsteinsson.
Set up by Marco Del Corno in 1968, today Design Group Italia has a qualified professional team which works along a creative research and experimentation route, always directed towards finding the most
innovative technical, functional and formal solution for each project.
Design Group Italia is a case of Italian professional eclecticism and international vocation, which has carried through highly successful projects for a large number of customers in different parts of
the world, from ABB to Tamoil, from Unilever to Barilla, from Fila to Kone, Jacuzzi and Magis: an example which says it all is the Mentadent White System toothbrush which, during the year of its presentation on the European market, sold 12 million pieces.
These projects are, therefore, very different from each other, but all have a common denominator - innovation.
Combining market requirements and the needs of industrial production with what is made available from time to time by technological advances is Design Group Italia's professional outlook.
The final objective is always to make a truly innovative product, but one which is simple to produce, correct towards users and a market winner.
To do all this, Design Group Italia has internally developed and put together design tools such as Trend Analysis, Interface Design, Product Graphics, CMF design (colours-materials-finishes), Engineering
Design, CAD Surface Modelling and Development of Models and Protoyptes.
As confirmation of its working method, Design Group Italia has received many International awards over the course of its history, such as the Compasso d'oro (ADI), the IF (Industrie Forum Design in Hannover),
the Design Innovation - Red Dot (Design Centrum Northeren Westfalen), the BIO in Lublijana, the Design Auswahl (Design Center Stuttgard), the JANUS de l'Industrie award (Institut Francais du Design
Industrielle), and the TOP TEN (Promosedia di Udine).
source: www.magisdesign.com |
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--- Designit |
 Designit
Hos Designit er samarbejde i centrum. Der er plads til, at de enkelte designere kan udfolde deres talenter, men samtidig er det synergien mellem designerne, som giver de gode resultater.
Derfor sammensætter Designit altid et hold af forskellige designere, der sammen udvikler innovative koncepter, evaluerer og raffinerer dem til inspirerende, enkle og funktionelle produkter.
Designit blev stiftet i 1991 af de tre industrielle designere Anders Geert-Jensen, Mikal Jørgensen og David Fellah. I dag har Designit 50 medarbejdere og kontorer i Århus, København og Paris.
Blandt kunderne er Bang & Olufsen, Novo Nordisk og Munthe plus Simonsen. Designit har bl.a. modtaget The International Interior Design Award 2000, IF Design Award 2001 og RedDot Design Award 2003 og 2005.
Billedet ovenfor viser Anders Geert-Jensen og Emil Wegger Jensen fra Designit.
Kilde: www.stelton.dk
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--- Eero Aarino |
 Eero Aarnio
1932 -
The popularity of plastics in Finnish furniture design lasted from the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s and Eero Aarnio (1932-) was at the forefront of the trend. His premier examples were the playful shape of
his fiberglass "Pallo" (Globe) chair and his "Pastille" chair, an indoor/outdoor, Pop take on the rocking chair, which won an American Industrial Design award in 1968.
Aarnio was born in Helsinki and studied at the Institute of Industrial Arts there, graduating in 1957. In the late fifties he worked with the Finnish designer Ilmari Tapiovaara, and in 1960 he started
working for the Asko Company. He established his own design office in 1962 as an industrial and interior designer.
His Globe chair was introduced to the public at the Cologne Furniture Fair in 1966 and won the immediate acclaim of the design press despite the fact that it was expensive and produced on a limited scale.
Until that point, much of the draw of Scandinavian design had been its beauty and elegance in spite of, and perhaps because of, its mass production. The modern image that the Globe chair was creating,
however, led Asko to establish a limited partnership with Aarnio in which he could design experimental furniture using new materials and modes of production and, in doing so, benefit and expand their
corporate image. This new popularity and the professional relationship that grew out of it allowed Aarnio to push the boundaries of design in ways that he never would have been able to in his earlier years
as an Asko employee.
Although the Globe chair was introduced as a limited item, Aarnio started out working with plastics to the same end that earlier Finnish designers, like Tapiovaara, worked with wood. He wanted to create
ergonomic designs using state-of-the-art materials that were modern and mass-produced at a low cost. His organic forms also represent an elegant Scandinavian approach to the use of synthetic materials, and
an adherence to the belief that his designs should be beautiful and extraordinarily durable. This "built to last" philosophy went somewhat against the grain of the prevailing Pop 1960's aesthetic, which was
more disposable.
Aarnio is often quoted as saying that, "design means constant renewal, realignment and growth." In following with this sentiment, Aarnio began using polyurethane foam in the 1970's to create works like the
"Pony" chair (1970) which have an almost animated character to them. In a recent article in The New York Times Aarnio reasserted the contemporary merits of plastic, stating that "Today’s generation is born
in the midst of plastic. Their first night is spent in a plastic bed in the hospital."
source: www.r20thcentury.com |
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--- Enzo Mari |
 Enzo Mari
1931
Enzo Mari was born in Novara, Italy, in 1932. An artist and designer, he attended the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan in the early '50s and dedicated his attention to research into the methodology of
design.As a true philologist of the language of the visual arts, he turned his attention to design in the late 50s, fully aware of the need to work towards a global project of quality within mass culture.
The disciplinary complexity of his activities have been commented on by personalities in the world of culture: Enzo Mari think creatively and builds logically (Max Bill, 1959), Enzo Mari a philologist of a
creative language (Pierre Restany, 1967), Enzo Mari the more he thinks about it (about the crazy, ambiguous, uncertain and slippery "profession" of design) the worse he feels (Ettore Sottsass, 1974),
Mari the designer's conscience (Alessandro Mendini, 1980), Enzo Mari, who works at a systematic level (Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, 1980) the various Enzo Mari (six in all) who are known to Tomàs Maldonado
(1980), Enzo Mari who would be an aesthetic, political and design operator all at the same time (Atenor-Pedio, 1980), Enzo Mari the greatest moral authority in the field of Italian design (Giovanni Klaus
Koenig, 1981), Enzo Mari turns contradiction into truly creative material, Enzo Mari committed to reducing potential errors in the use of objects (Vittorio Gregotti, 1981) Enzo Mari lightly Calvinist, as honoured by Carlo Argan (1980), undertakes to create design for a society which is not to be opulent, Enzo Mari who responds philosophically when confronted with the elementary concepts of art and science (Maurizio Calvesi, 1986), Mari – for whom aesthetic is art and design's own way of communicating (François Burkhardt, 1997).
In January 2001 his essay "Progetto e Passione was published, where Mari, without any mention of his work, deals with design themes setting them in a wider cultural horizon.
Enzo Mari's works have been exhibited in many Italian and foreign museums, including the Venice Biennale, in 1967, in 1979, and 1986; at Kassel exhibition in 1968; the "Modelli del Reale exhibition in the
Republic of San Marino in 1988; "Arbeiten in Berlin, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, in 1988; the great exhibition "Enzo Mari il lavoro al centro in Barcelona in April 1996, moved to Milan Triennale on
November 1999, the exhibition "Tre mostre di Enzo Mari at the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza, on June 2000.
Examples of his art and design work are to be found in the collection of many museums, including 9000 drawings kept since 1980 in the Archivio del Progetto of the University of Parma and works in the
National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld, and the Kunstmuseum in Düsseldorf.
Mari has created 1600 projects for Italian and foreign companies such as Danese, Olivetti, Boringhieri, Adelphi, Driade, Le Creuset, Artemide, Castelli, Gabbianelli, the Municipality of Milan, Interflex,
Zanotta, Fantini, Agape, Alessi, Zani e Zani, K.P.M., Robots, Ideal Standard, Arnolfo di Cambio, Magis, Rosenthal, Frau, Thonet, Daum, Muji.
From 1976 to 1979 he was president of ADI (Association for Industrial Design).
His research work has won him about 40 awards, including "Compasso d'Oro ": in 1967 for his individual researches on design, in 1979 for the chair "Delfina"(manufactured by Driade) , in 1987 for the chair
"Tonietta (manufactured by Zanotta) and in 2001 for the table "Legato (manufactured by Driade).
In 1997 he was also awarded with the "Barcelona award. Since 1989 he has been a member of AGI (Alliance Grafique Internationale). In November 2000 he was awarded "HonRDI (Honorary Royal Designer for Industry)
by RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts) of London and in the same year he was also appointed honorary professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg. In October 2002 he received the
honorary degree in Industrial Design from the Faculty of Architecture of the Politecnico of Milan.
His teaching courses include those at the CSAC at the University of Parma, the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, the Faculty of Architecture at the Politecnico of Milan, and ISIA, Florence; recently he has
also taught at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin and at the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst in Wien.
source: www.magisdesign.com
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--- Enrico Franzolini & Vicente Garcia Jimenez |
 Enrico Franzolini &
Vicente Garcia Jimenez
1952 -
1978 -
Enrico Franzolini
Born in Udine in 1952. He studied in Florence and graduated in architecture at the University of Venice. In 1972 he was invited to the 36th Biennale Exhibition of decorative arts in Venice, exhibiting two
objects produced by the Livio Seguso glass-manufactory in Murano. In 1978 his first personal exhibition at Plurima Gallery in Udine marked the beginning of his interest in minimal architecture.
At the same time however he became interested in architecture and interior and product design.
He has worked with several of the most important furniture companies such as Accademia, Alias, Cappellini, Crassevig, Gervasoni, Knoll International, Montina, Moroso and Pallucco. Vicente Garcia Jimenez was
born in Valencia (Spain) in 1978. He graduated in Industrial Design at the faculty of Castellon de la Plana. In 2000 he starts his collaboration with Santa & Cole in Barcelona, developing new lighting and
furniture projects. In 2003 he moves to Italy where he meets Enrico Franzolini, and starts collaborating with him.
Modern industrial design was born in the great cities of Europe—Paris, Berlin and, of course, Milan. Following World War II, Milan became pre-eminent, leading the way with a stunning display of products
from Achille Castiglioni, Vico Magistretti and Antonio Citterio. The vitality of post-war design that flourished in the studios of Milan undoubtedly influenced Enrico Franzolini, one of the city's young
but most prolific furniture designers. On his way to becoming an international household name, Franzolini designs for the most prominent furniture companies in Europe and the U.S, including Moroso,
Cappellini, Crassevig, Accademia and Knoll International.
Franzolini began his career as an artist—his work expresses a sculptural elegance and an aesthetic refinement. He exhibited work at the Venice Biennale, as well as other exhibitions and galleries in the
1970s and then turned to design and received a degree in architecture in 1979. Like Magistretti and many other designers in Italy, Franzolini has been active across the spectrum of creative fields from fine
art to architecture to the various arts of the craftsman. He uses a variety of materials—wood, metal and all the varieties of plastic—with confidence on both the large and small scale. Franzolini's work
epitomizes the integrity, the technical innovation and the ingenious forms for which Italian design has long been admired.
Franzolini's Compasso D'Oro side chair and armchair received Italy's top design award, the Compasso D'Oro at the 1998 Venice Trienniale. This award is one of the highest achievements that can be attained as a
designer in Europe and is a tribute to Franzolini's extraordinary talent. Franzolini also designed the Tapis chair and the Elan chair, elegant seating found in elegant hotels and restaurants throughout Europe.
Vicente García Jiménez
Vincent was born in Valencia (Spain) in 1978. He graduated at the Faculty of Experimental Sciences in Castellon de la Plana. Later he moved to Barcelona where he worked at Santa & Cole. There he developed
lighting and interior furniture designs. At this time he developed an interest with the environmental aspect of designing these items, constructing his first prototypes in this field. During this time he
also got interested in other environmental aspects such as light and shadows, a variety of materials, textures and colors. While in Barcelona he was involved in a small filming project which was directed by
Jose Luis Montesinos. A strong need to discover and develop his craft brought him to Milan where he met the work of Enrico Franzolini. There, he was given the responsibility to design a collection of lighting
material for Karboxx. At this time, he is searching for a way to design items through basic materials, using much imagination and inner resources while creating a complicated effect. In other words, what
seems complicated is actually simple, using for example light and shadows to create this atmosphere. Presently, Vincent lives in Udine (Italy) and works with Foscarini, Palluco Italia and Karboxx, he also
collaborates with Enrico Franzolini in the same field.
source: www.foscarini.com www.dwr.com
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--- Erik Magnussen |
 Erik Magnussen
1940-
Erik Magnussen, født 1940 i København, blev uddannet som keramiker og fik afgang med sølvmedalje fra Kunsthåndværkerskolen i 1960.
Han har i en årrække arbejdet for Bing & Grøndahl, og blandt hans seneste arbejder er møbler for Fritz Hansen a/s, dørhåndtag for Franz Schneider Brakel GmbH, brugskunst i tin for Royal Selangor, brugskunst
i rustfrit stål og kunststof for A/S Stelton, porcelænslamper for Licht & Form samt møbler for Paustian a/s.
Erik Magnussens produkter er udstillet på museer verden over, og han modtog Lunning-prisen i 1967 og Møbelprisen i 1977. Han blev valgt til "årets designer" af Dansk Designråd i 1983 og adskillige af hans
produkter er flere gange blevet tildelt Id-prisen af Selskabet for Industriel Formgivning. I 1996 blev Erik Magnussen tildelt Bindesbøll medaljen ligesom han har modtaget Ole Haslunds legat, Hofjuvelér A.
Michelsens jubilæumslegat og Knud V. Engelhardts mindelegat.
Senest har Erik Magnussen modtaget "The Red Dot" i "Design Innovations 1997" - konkurrencen afholdt af Design Zentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen og "Good Design Gold Prize" tildelt af Japan Industrial Design
Promotion Organization.
kilde: www.stelton.dk
Erik Magnussen studied ceramics at the Danish School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen. As a designer, he has developed a reputation for finding elegant, inevitable solutions to complex problems. He received
the prestigious Danish ID Prize on several occasions, was recognized in 1983 as Designer of the Year in Denmark, and was given the British design distinction Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) in December 2001.
As a young ceramicist, Magnussen set up shop in his parents’ basement. He worked for the Danish porcelain manufacturer Bing & Groendahl, designing a popular porcelain set, Form 679, comprised of only eleven
items rather than the usual fifty. In addition to creating innovative ceramic tableware collections, Magnussen has since branched out to design tables, chairs, a thermos, high-tech products, and lamps.
Often his tables and chairs employ tube steel frameworks, such as the Chairik series that couples bent steel legs with birch and colorful melamine. While the materials have changed, Magnussen still handles
them like a sculptor molding the seat of the simple, armless Chairik Chair to provide comfort and back support.
For his Click series of tables for Fritz Hansen (1994), Magnussen drew inspiration from fellow Scandinavian Bruno Mathsson’s self-clamping leg developed for the superellipse table. Magnussen has taken the
idea one step further. Not only can you simply click the table legs into place without using tools, a groove along the perimeter of the underside of the table allows one to locate the legs anywhere.
Like Mathsson, Magnussen is also an architect. He recently completed the renovation of his mid-19th-century country house near Riberac, France.
source: www.dwr.com
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---- Ernesto Gismondi |
 Ernesto Gismondi
1931 -
Ernesto Gismondi is founder of what today has become the internationally successful Artemide Group, producing lamps of highest standard. At the International Steel Forum Design on 10 November 2005 in
Düsseldorf, Ernesto Gismondi will lecture as an expert in the category “Luxury and Lifestyle” on the topic “Luminous innovations in steel.”
Gismondi was born in 1931 in San Remo, Italy, and studied aeronautical and missile engineering in Milan and Rome. In 1959, he founded the company Artemide. With his pioneering design spirit, Ernesto Gismondi
ranks among the leading figures in the international design scene. He has created many classic lamp designs and the world of design cannot be imagined without his many years of design experience and expertise.
Ernesto Gismondi was also a member of the legendary Memphis collective, founded by Ettore Sottsass in the early 1980s.
source: http://en.red-dot.org
Gismondi, the creator of Artemide
Rome - (Adnkronos Multimedia) - An entrepreneurial adventure started almost by chance and in extremely unusual circumstances led to the creation of Artemide, the world leader in lighting system design.
It was set up in 1959 by 2 friends, Ernesto Gismondi, an aeronautics engineer who until then had been involved above all in designing and building missiles, and Sergio Mazza, a young architect specialised in
interior design and furnishing accessories. The Italian design style, which in subsequent decades would conquer the world, had not yet been fully consolidated. Gismondi and Mazza began producing lamps, and
then also furnishing accessories and furniture, above all in plastic. The company grew, and in 1972 moved onto international markets with the Tizio lamp, now considered a masterpiece of industrial design.
Artemide's latest achievement is the extraordinary lighting project for the Formula One circuit in Shanghai, which uses 400 solar powered poles, capable of projecting beams of light for up to 10 km.
Today the Artemide group has a turnover of over € 100 million, with 16 controlled companies, 35 exclusive distributors all over the world and production facilities in Italy, France, Germany, the United States,
Hungary and the Czech Republic. The company is still run by Ernesto Gismondi, now 74, who can now finally also boast the most prestigious international industrial design prize, the Compasso d'Oro, awarded to
Artemide in 2004 for the "Pipe" lamp.
"The prize," says Ernesto Gismondi, "is a highly prestigious confirmation of our expertise in the world of lighting, on which our success is based. Our expertise is comprehensive and covers various strategic
areas, above all innovation in light sources, optics and electronics. Then there is what we call light management, and lastly, research and technological experimentation".
source: www.italtrade.com
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--- Pietro Ferruccio Laviani |
 Pietro Ferruccio Laviani
1960 -
Born in Cremona, Italy in 1960
He received a diploma in 1984 from the Design Polytechnic of Milan
He took his degree in architecture in 1986 at the Polytechnic of Milan
From 1986 to ’91
He is a partner in the STUDIO DE LUCCHI srl. and does projects for different companies, among these: ABET LAMINATI, MANDARINA DUCK, MEMPHIS, OLIVETTI, PELIKAN, POLAROID, RB ROSSANA ,SWATCH.
He curates the show “TECHNIQUE DISCRETES le design du mobilier italien 1980-1990” Louvre, Paris. He is in charge of the historical section of the GRONINGER MUSEUM, Holland together with Alessandro Mendini.
He collaborates with MEMPHIS taking part in the “12 new MEMPHIS’” MEMPHIS ’87 and designing the stand for the Milan Furniture Fair and the show room in New York.
From 1991 to present
He curates the artistic direction of KARTELL and designs their stands at: the Salone del Mobile Milan, Laeln Messe Koln, ICFF New York, the sales outlets (among these:
Milan ’97, New York’98, Copenhagen ’00, Madrid ’02, Brussels ’02, San Francisco ’02, Istambul ’03, Monaco ’03, Bordeaux ‘03, New York ’03, Tokio ’04, Palermo ‘04) the corners, the shops in the world. He
contributes to the creation of the “KARTELL OFFICE” concept ’99 in which he is in charge of the graphics project of the catalog and he creates the “Max” table ’98. He designs and realizes the concept of the
Kartell Business Museum ‘99. He is in charge of setting up event and shows such as: the presentation of the book: “Kartell 150 items, 150 artworks” at the Triennale of Milan. He designs the lights Fly and
Easy ’02, Take ’03, Bourgie ’04, Gé ’05 and table Four ‘04.
Since 1992
He collaborates with FOSCARINI MURANO designing for them the lights: the floor lights, Orbital ’92 and Dolmen ’96, the wall light Bit ’93, the suspension light Supernova ’01, the table
light Lenin’01, Teorema’05
1992
He collaborates with IMEL designing for them the stand at the Salone del Mobile, Milan. He is in charge of the photography and design of the bed “Sebastiano” ’91, the seat “Paola” ’92, the
table “Samir” ’92.
From 1992 to present
He is the Art Director of EMMEMOBILI and designs: the table Edu ‘94, the bed Rio ‘92, the table Ufo ‘94, the table Ferro ‘98, the bed 4 and the bed-head 12 ’99, the day bed
Sils ’00, the table Sandro ’00, the library Sami ’01, the table Jan ’01, Table Palermo’02, seat Roma’02, chest of drawers Lerici ’02, bed Capri ’02, bed Shiva ’03, the table Said ’03, the saidboard Modular,
’03, the sofa Dune ‘03.
From 1994 to 2002
He had collaborated with Moroso, and design: the sittig System Malta, the Sofa Simple ’95, the sofa Jorge ’99, the armchair 40/80 with Achille Castiglioni’99, the sofa Ginevra ’00,
he designed the refurbishing of the one brand showroom in Milan and Udine, he project several settings up of the showroom, Milan during the furniture fair.
From 1995 to 1996 He is the Art Director of the MITO, he designs the new logo and designs ’94 the lights Itaparica, Bomfim, Olinda, Slim, Marina ‘94. He designs the stand for Euroluce, Milan.
From 1995 to 1997
He had collaborated with T70 and he is in charge of the graphic project of the catalog . He project the setting up of stand during the Milan Forniture Fair
From 1995 to 1997
He collaborates with the FORUM COFFECCOES L.t.d.a. realizing the photography shows of the book “Welcome to Brazil” (Rio de Janeiro) and of the catalogue “24 HOURS”
(Gallery San Paolo, Sao Paolo); he curates the stage design for the presentation of the collection ‘96/’97 and the remodeling of the TRITON stores in Brazil.
1996
For PATRICK COX-WANNABE he curates the set-up for the presentation of the collections in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires.
1996-1997
For FONTANA ARTE he designs the family of chairs “Solange” chaise longue, arm chair, seat “Bobo”.
From 1997
He collaborates with COSMIT. With architect Achille Castiglioni he curates the show dedicated to Gio Ponti and Vico Magistretti. Later he then curates the cultural shows dedicated to
Bruno Maunari and “Techniques and Forms” for ASSOLUCE. He designs the other communal stands of the Salone Satellite. He is the artistic consultant in planning the stage design of the TV show
“Ricominciare” produced by RAI in collaboration with Cosmit.
From 1997
For the event ABITARE IL TEMPO, Verona, he participates in the show with Ettore Sottsass, Issey Miyake, Achille Castiglioni and Andrea Branzi. In the exhibition “1999 Italy –
Europe. Scenes from young design” he designs the general set-up of the area dedicated to “Multi-media Design” and exposes, in a section of the show “From product design to strategic
design”, some of his products. In the edition of ABITARE IL TEMPO, 2000 he curates the set up of the show “Tempo e Abitare” and participates in the show “Dafne or il compimento del
classico”.
From 1997 to present
He collaborates with èDePADOVA” curating the image of the show room on Corso Venezia, Milan.
From 1997 to 2005
He curates the Artistic Direction of FLOS SpA researching and creating for them a new expository system for their lights. He designs the stands for the following events:
Euroluce Milan, Interieur Belgium, Light Building Frankfurt, Birmingham England. He does the plans for the remodeling and the set-up of the company sales outlets throughout the world, among these: Milan
‘99-’00, Rome ’98, Paris ’98 /’04, Stockholm ’99 Copenhagen ’02 Belgio ’03, Taiwan ’04, Hangzou ‘04. He designs the FLOS Space in the world,
among these; Dussendorf, Istanbul, Tokio, Colonia, Telaviv, Hong Kong, New York. He designs and restores the head quarter office in Brescia,Italy.
From 1999 to present
He design for DADA –ALTA CUCINA (MOLTENI & Co) the kitchen model Quadrante for which he edits the grafic and the artistic direction of catalogue, and the kitchen model
Vela Quadra. He project and setting up the space named “Cook Space Laboratory” during the Abitare il Tempo Fair in Verona
2000
For DADA he is in charge of the presentation of the kitchens at the Galleria Meravigli, Milan, for the Salone del Mobile.
From 1999 to 2003
he collaborates with PIOMBO designing the first company stores: Milan, Via della Spiga, Venezia Calle Vallaresso and the show rooms of Milan and New York. He curates the stage
design for the fashion shows of the men’s collection and the graphic project of the presentation booklet for the sales outlets and the press campaign. He coordinates the PIOMBO CASA collection and
designs some of the pieces: vase, napkin holder.
2000
As a professor at the DOMUS ACADEMY he holds several seminars, among them the one dedicated to “Seat Toledo”. He is the art director of PANDORA Design s.r.l., for whom he curates the
collection PANDORAMIQUE and designs the sets: “Toy Food” and “Beauty Food”.
2001
For FEDERLEGNO ARREDO he curates the stand of the international show “Abitare Italia” in Brasilia and is the speaker at the seminar “DESIGN ITALIANO HOJE: REFEXOES E
PROJETOS”, he is a professor in the design department of the Politecnico di Milano for the program of laboratory activity concerning final synthesis, trends, products and strategies for fashion.
2001
–2002 He curates the Artistic Direction, the coordinated and graphic image of MERATI s.r.l. and designs: the exposition areas, the stands at Cersaie, Bologna, the new packaging for
the samples of the trimmings.
From 2001 to present
He begins his collaboration with Dolce&Gabbana creating and designing for them: the concept of the corners for the Dolce&Gabbana line; the interior of the new headquarters in
Milan, Via Goldoni and especially: the show room, the offices, the sales area, the sales entertaiment area, restaurant, private area. Moreover he’s in charge of the artistic direction, designing
furniture and accessories. He design, with Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, a new concept for the interior of woman, man and accessories space (boutique, shop in shop, corner) worldwide. He project the
interior for the 1700 sq.m. area dedicated to “man”, in Milan Corso Venezia and in particular: the man boutique, the bar Martini, the Sicilian barber, the Grooming area, designing the general
architectural project, the furnishing, and the accessories. He project the new woman boutique in Milan, via Spiga 26 and the new accessories boutique in via Spiga,2.
2002
For SNAIDERO SpA he created the set up of the stand for Eurocucina, Milan
2002
He designs for CASSINA, for the forniture fair, Milan, the set up of the show room in Via Durini.
2003
He creates and designs the “SOCIETY CLUB” boutique in Montecarlo
source: www.laviani.com |
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--- Foersom & Hiort-Lorenzen |
 Foersom & Hiort-Lorenzen
Designerduoen Johannes Foersom og Peter Hiort-Lorenzen fik sin begyndelse i 1977, og siden har deres velgennemtænkte design kvalificeret dem som nogle af de bedste nulevende danske designere.
Foersom & Hiort-Lorenzen har skabt nogle af vor tids bedste stole, hvilket uden tvivl skyldes deres fokus på stolen som en sanselig afspejling af kroppen.
Duoen har til Paustian tegnet den eksklusive armstol, Stuk og sofaserien Lounge, Paustian Udtræksbord samt den enkle og funktionelle væghylde Hang On. Produkterne illustrerer tydeligt makkerparrets evne
til at forene form og funktion.
I forlængelse af deres tegnestue har makkerparret Atelier 7 - deres eget udstillingshus. Her gives plads til eksperimenter og nyskabelse - samtidig med at de søger direkte kontakt med forbrugeren i håb om
at kunne tilfredsstille nogle virkelige behov.
kilde: www.paustian.dk
Tegnestuen
Foersom & Hiort-Lorenzen er en erfaren designvirksomhed, fokuseret på møbel- og produktdesign samt designrådgivning.
Visionen i vores designarbejde og rådgivning er at skabe langvarige værdier, der stimulerer en sund udvikling for mennesker og deres omgivelser. Vores arbejde baserer sig på høj
kvalitet i samarbejde , proces og produkt, hvor viden og innovation er basale ressourcer.
Virksomheden henvender sig til kunder, der ønsker at arbejde med design som en fundamental steategi og som kan se værdien af en ekstern designrådgivning i et tæt og
fortroligt samarbejde med høj integritet.
kilde: www.foersom-hiort-lorenzen.dk
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--- Frank Gehry |
 Frank Gehry
1929 -
Frank Gehry is one of the most sought-after, internationally recognized and prolific architects and designers in the world today. His work defies categorization, but has become an icon of current architecture
with such projects as the Vitra Museum in Weil am Rhein, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Gehry’s
newest architectural projects include the proposed and controversial New Jersey Nets complex in Brooklyn, New York, a satellite museum for the Guggenheim, a hospital wing in Scotland and a museum extension
in Gehry’s birthplace of Toronto. In addition to designing over 30 existing buildings, Gehry has distinguished himself with a handful of furniture designs, created throughout his career.
After studying architecture at the University of Southern California and spending a year at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gehry established his own architecture office in 1962, in Los Angeles.
Ten years into his career, Gehry launched the value-based Easy Edge chair series constructed from laminated cardboard. However, he soon withdrew the Easy Edge chairs from production, fearing that his
popularity as a furniture designer would detract from his reputation as an architect.
In the 1980’s, Gehry returned to furniture design and created his Experimental Edges furniture, again out of corrugated and laminated cardboard. The Experimental Edges series was "art furniture," in many
ways similar to the work of Ron Arad and Tom Dixon, who used materials such as corrugated iron, plaster, industrial girders and wicker. The concept was an indication of Gehry’s affinity for exploring
structural strength and form in uncommon materials through mastery of engineering.
The early 1990’s brought the development of Gehry’s sculptural and gallery-ready Cross Check series for Knoll International. This collection of bentwood tables and chairs was a radically inventive use of
materials: the chairs were made of "woven" strips of maple—taking inspiration from wooden apple crates—and required no additional structural support. Gehry also designed a series of Fish Lamps using
"color core" formica, which are now in private and museum collections.
In early 2004, Gehry completed his year-long collaboration with Emeco to create the Superlight™ Chair, a dynamic new aluminum design that debuted at Milan’s 2004 Salone Internazionale del Mobile.
Weighing in at just 6.5 pounds, the Superlight blends strength with fluidity and comfort by gently moving with the sitter. Inspired by Gio Ponti’s Superleggera Chair, the Superlight illustrates Gehry’s
architectural fascination with aluminum as both structure and skin and his proficiency in meshing components of engineering and design to create innovative, user-friendly furniture.
Gehry has received numerous prestigious prizes and awards, including the Pritzker Prize in 1989.
source: www.dwr.com
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--- George Nelson |
 George Nelson
1904 - 1986
Possessing of one of the most inventive minds of the century, George Nelson is one of those rare people who can envision what isn't there yet. Nelson himself has described his creative abilities as a series
of "zaps" — flashes of inspiration and clarity that he was able to turn into innovative design ideas.
One such "zap!" came in 1942 when Nelson conceived the pedestrian shopping mall detailed in his "Grass on Main Street" proposal. Soon after, he pioneered the concept of built-in storage with Storagewall, a
system of storage units that rested on slatted platform benches. The first modular storage system ever, it was showcased in Life magazine and caused an immediate sensation in the furniture industry.
In 1946, Nelson became director of design at Herman Miller, a position he held until 1972. While there, Nelson recruited other seminal modern designers including Charles Eames and Isamu Noguchi. He also
developed his own designs, including the Marshmallow sofa, the Nelson platform bench and the first L-shaped desk, a precursor to the present-day workstation. He also created a series of boldly graphic wall
clocks, a series of bubble lamps made of self-webbing plastic and developed forward looking, occasionally futuristic concepts such as the "hidden city" of underground buildings designed to create a "more
humane environment."
Nelson felt that designers must be "aware of the consequences of their actions on people and society and thus cultivate a broad base of knowledge and understanding." Nelson himself certainly followed this
principle. He was an early environmentalist, one of the first designers to take an interest in new communications technology and a powerful writer and teacher. Perhaps influenced by his friend, Buckminster
Fuller, Nelson's ultimate goal as a designer was "to do much more with much less."
source:www.dwr.com
You may not recognize much of the work on these pages. You should comprehend its spirit, though, even if you can't place its author. Over the years, countless words have been written about the force behind
this, relatively little-known, work and other, much more publicized ventures. It is the work of George Nelson, a man whom some associate with the post-war glory years at Herman Miller and others with the
founding of Industrial Design magazine. Still others may curse him for the development of the office system. But there are those who've read his lucid, if frequently caustic, prose or are familiar with this
practical sense of whimsy and miss the resonance of a voice that was continually aimed with laser-like precision at the problems of design and the problems with designers.
Those who knew him, and worked with or for him, recall his ability to make the unexpected connections that resulted in new solutions, or to ask more interesting questions, or to dismiss the rote answer in
design or anything else. Most especially, they remember his ability to develop an airtight argument with the tools offered by the discipline of design, and by the necessity of language, thus effectively
forcing them to see and to think differently, and always clearly. As for the entire generation of designers who remain uninitiated, Stanley Abercrombie has written a forthcoming book on Nelson, George Nelson:
Design of Modern Design, which should fill the lacuna.
George Nelson was not a graphic designer. He called himself, simply, a designer. He practiced a variety of the so-called design disciplines during his fifty-odd calendar years of ceaseless professional
activity. His formal training was in architecture. He became extremely well known as a furniture designer, an industrial designer, an interior designer and exhibition designer. He was in the vanguard of a
quiverful of design "disciplines" which were only becoming bona fide professions, or at least ways to make a living, at the same time he began to turn his hand to them. Or when he began to write about them.
Or when he began to do the work that proliferated and sneaked in many, often unexpected, directions.
George Nelson in the course of this rather remarkable career managed to excel in several professions requiring skills of articulation seemingly removed from those of design. He was a marvelous writer.
He was a reporter, an editor and an essayist. It may be that the designs he wrought from the English language were his greatest designs of all. Unfortunately, those essays, as well as the several books and
countless magazine articles, have long been out of print.
He also taught, on and off, on and on, through those fifty years. And he traveled and took pictures, examining the world with a typewriter, a sketchbook and a camera. Then he wrote some more and designed
some more, traveled some more and taught some more. And learned some more.
That pattern of integrated interests and abilities and diverse energies began establishing itself relatively early. George Harold Nelson was born in 1908 in Hartford, Connecticut, and graduated from Hartford
Public High School in 1924. He graduated in 1928 from Yale University, where he had discovered architecture, with a Bachelor or Arts degree. Afterwards, he pursued a Bachelor of Fine arts at the Yale School
of Fine Arts—the predecessor to the architecture school, where he was an instructor—which he received, with honors, in 1931. While in school and teaching, he also worked as a renderer in the New York
architecture firm of Adams and Prentice. He headed south to do graduate work at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. and to prepare for the Paris Prize competition. Ironically enough, while he only made
the finals of the Paris Prize, he won the Rome Prize in 1932.
He spent the next two years based in Rome, but it seems that he traveled throughout Europe quite a bit at a time when both Modernism and Fascism were on the rise. In a remarkable series of interviews with,
among others, Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Gio Ponti, the Luckner brothers (some of whom would die, some of whom would emigrate to the U.S., others of whom remained to rebuild Europe after the
war or to populate the obscurity into which many contemporary luminaries often fall) he captured the political tenor of the age and its effect or absence of effect on the life and work of designers.
These interviews were the first ever published in the United States with these men, whose very existence would change the way we live and work. There were twelve, published over a year or so in Pencil Points,
the architecture journal that eventually evolved into Progressive Architecture. They appeared in print with the editors' frequently repeated and increasingly strong caveat about using that modern work as a
paradigm for American architecture. The caveat was ignored by Nelson, some of his contemporaries and an entire subsequent generation of architects who saw the world differently.
After Nelson had sold the series to Pencil Points, but prior to its complete publication, he landed a position in 1935 as an editorial staff writer at Architectural Forum, the leading professional journal of
the time, published by Time Inc. His first written work for any journal in the Luce empire was for Fortune magazine, and unsigned: it was an article in the February 1934 issue titled "Both Fish and Fowl? is
the Depression-weaned Vocation of Industrial Design."
During the following decade at Time Inc. he went on to become the co-managing editor of Architectural Forum, a special contributor to Fortune, the head of the Fortune-Forum Experimental Department, and
a peripatetic who had, in the course of roughly a decade that overarched the period of our delayed entry into and successful exit from World War II, plotted the future of housing, of city planning, the state
of industry and of travel, among many other varied topics. He published his first book in 1938 and, until America entered the war, he was also a partner, with William Hamby, in an architecture firm that did
rather well, designing, among other things, a widely-published "machine for living" house for Sherman Fairchild, the aircraft mogul, in Manhattan. He also found time to teach evening courses at Columbia, in
the early Forties.
After the war Nelson met D.J. DePree, a mid-westerner with a mission to find a new designer for the modern furniture that his company, Herman Miller, had been making. This meeting happened as a consequence
of some work Nelson had done for Time Inc. The project was the Storagewall, an insight about interior space, organization and efficiency that was eventually published in Architectural Forum, made the cover
of Life magazine, and filled a chapter in Nelson's book, Tomorrow's House, co-authored with Henry Wright, a colleague at Architectural Forum. The Storagewall, an architect's answer to getting rid of the
unnecessary clutter that accumulated with post-war prosperity, signaled an unusual, and fortunate, convergence of purpose, training and insight. It also indicated a preference for the sooner-rather-than-later
extinction of free-standing furniture that Nelson would ceaselessly propose for the rest of his furniture-designing existence. All of which, with a few martinis on Nelson's part, several trips to the wilds
of Zeeland, Michigan, and a handshake, led to a very long (nearly forty years) association between Nelson and Herman Miller.
The association segued naturally into the opening of Nelson's own design office and the exploration of other design interests. It led, naturally, to the winding down of the relationship with Time Inc.,
and, not surprisingly, to a contributing editorship with Interiors magazine and later to the evolution of Industrial Design magazine. But what it led to most importantly was the opportunity for Nelson to
let his instincts flourish, to tease his thoughts free from the morass of extraneous information, and enable him to oversee the process required to translate an idea or insight into a physical, often useful
and occasionally beautiful thing. This bore a certain resemblance to the considerably reductive and always hasty cycle of magazine life.
The chance to put a keen critical sense to the practical test of developing designs for products, for what came to be called corporate image and graphic programs, for signage, for interiors, of really
seizing an opportunity for design to play a significant role in commerce and, by extension, in culture didn't exactly come with Nelson's role as design director for Herman Miller. He just made it happen
that way, by applying design to every designable aspect of the company: from his first furniture collection and the development of the Herman Miller mark to the design of the company's first, and subsequent
catalogues; to letterhead and truck signage, advertising, secondary and tertiary literature, invitations and hangtags—even to collecting other designers to develop products for the company. It was all an act
of faith. And it also yielded a great deal of growth for the company and for Nelson's design office. Perhaps most important, it endowed the general practice of design with a certain specificity and
legitimacy it may well have lacked prior to the overwhelmingly convincing example Nelson provided.
That, in turn, gave Nelson a mission of his own: to make people see clearly what design was and was not, what it might be capable of achieving and what it would require, as a discipline, to reach its
potential. He also tried his damndest to make people see that there was a thought process driving design, one which had a certain universality, with clearly beneficial effects for all those who disciplined
themselves to look beyond visual style, to see more clearly the world they were making for themselves so that they would, at worst, synthesize and, at best, design a better one.
The effort to do this occupied Nelson for years. He fought the prejudice of a population he termed "visual illiterates," people who confused design with style, who hadn't developed any critical visual
faculty, who didn't understand that the immediately apparent "look" of something was not design at all; that design was, to the contrary, an internal, necessary, and ineradicable logic inherent in the
fabricated, synthetic world. Design, for Nelson, made the mind's eye visible, tangible, comprehensible in the language of materials of the physical world.
His argument has faded more rapidly and more completely than seems possible given his pre-eminence as an ardent, provocative and persuasive articulator of a substantial underlying reason for design.
He believed that the natural world and the natural sciences provided a kind of basic model that could be used by designers to design the manufactured world. He believed that designers ought to attempt to
develop a scientific method for critical assessment of design. He believed that design, like science, needed a system as objective as theory, hypothesis and experimental investigation to insure its integrity.
Of course, Nelson was at his most effective as a designer during the time when the scientific discoveries about the "design" of the physical world were thrillingly changing our perceptions and providing new
models and metaphors to obtain greater clarity and depth of understanding of that physical world.
From the mid-1940s to the mid-1980s the Nelson office had a client list that included a host of Fortune 500 clients, a choice selection of those decades' entrepreneurs, some wacky projects, some possibly
revolutionary proposals that were never realized, a number of endeavors years ahead of their time and, most unusual, a series of corporate brain trust-like consultancies even now outside the range of most
designers' activities. Nelson continued to write, design, travel, lecture, organize (particularly Aspen conferences) and to serve generally as a self-appointed gadfly buzzing around the design community,
stinging it awake every so often with an outrageous truth.
It is impossible, within the confines of this essay, to chronicle, even in précis, the work that Nelson himself and the Nelson office produced from 1945 until its close in the mid-1980s. That a gargantuan
number of designs came to fruition is a wonder of its own. Much of the work has remained memorable, some of it has achieved icon status, and some designs have become cult classics. That this is so is a
tribute indeed to the rigor of thought and agility of mind that went into their development. Other of Nelson's works, perhaps, were just a matter of luck;—the right idea came at the right time; the flash
of insight illuminated unexpected possibilities.
Over the years, various people were more and less responsible for interpreting, translating and executing Nelson's ideas into graphics and packaging. The "paper" work and its applications were in concert
with and expressive of design ideas contained in other aspects of any given project. The list of designers in the Nelson office who created graphics includes Irving Harper, Chris Pullman, Tomoko Miho,
George Tscherny, Don Ervin, Fred Witzig, Herbert Lee, Tobias O'Mara, Philip George and Anthony Zamora, to name several.
The zest, appetite, curiosity, skill, and, in a way, innocence—or at least a certain idealism—Nelson brought to his life and work characterize him as a man of a specific time: an era which saw the rise and
fall of a faith in America as a benevolent superpower with might and right on its side; and era which saw science fail to succeed its successes in its role as a catalyst; an era of progress usurped by
politics and force of economics.
Most fortuitously, Nelson lived during the roughly one-half century of the post-war period when design really could have mattered. Its current concerns, ideals, and style may unfortunately no longer mirror
those that preoccupied him. But while they did, there was not a stronger, more eloquent nor more articulate practitioner than George Nelson.
Copyright 1992 by The American Institute of Graphic Arts.
source: www.aiga.org
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--- Hans Brattrud |
 Hans Brattrud
29.09.1933
Utdannelse
- Møbeldesign ved Statens Håndtverk og Kunstindustriskole i Oslo; 1952-1957
- Møbelsnekker fra Løkka Trevareindustri på Dokka.
Fakta
Fra 1958 – 1963 drev Brattrud eget designkontor i Oslo. I denne perioden designet han en rekke prisbelønte møbler, deriblant Scandia Jr. Scandia-serien ble produsert i Norge, men ble distribuert til store
deler av verden.
Han arbeidet på denne tiden også med innredning av private og offentlige rom, og hadde prosjekter både nasjonalt og internasjonalt. Deretter startet han arbeid med arkitektur og ferdighusproduksjon, noe som
preget hans senere yrkeskarriere.
Brattrud utviklet og patenterte et byggesystem for industriell produksjon av boliger, og utviklet altså sin karriere videre innen bolig- og byggebransjen. Brattrud fortsatte også siden å utvikle nye
produkter innen arkitektur, og innehar til sammen ca. 50 patenter.
Fra 1979 arbeidet han for Nordre Land Kommune, med ansvar for bygg, eiendom og planarbeid, inntil han i 2003 inntok pensjonisttilværelsen.
Den nordiske fellesutstillingen ”Scandinavian design” i Chigaco og vandreutstillingen med samme tittel i USA og Canada i årene 1954 til –57, ble et viktig vendepunkt for norske og nordiske møbeldesignere.
Grunnlaget for begrepet Scandinavian Design ble på mange måter lagt i disse årene.
Ting du ikke visste om Hans Bratterud
- I 2004 ble Hans Brattrud invitert til å stille ut på det franske galleriet Galleri Salle Lenotre. På utstillingen presenterte 24 nasjoner en designer fra det 2000 århundret. Alvar Alto representerte Finland,
Charles Eames representerte USA, mens Hans Brattrud representerte Norge.
- Hans Brattrud er mest kjent for sine Scandia-stoler. Disse ble relansert i 2002 av fjordfiesta.furniture.
kilde: www.insidenorway.no |
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--- Harri Koskinen |
 Harri Koskinen
1970 -
Born in 1970 in Karstula, a small town in the centreof Finland. He studied at the Lahti Institute of Design and at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki.
In 1998, he founded his own practice, Friends of Industry, which offers product and concept design, as well as architectural shows.
In spite of his youth, he already possesses a portfolio of well-known clients: Altia, Artek, Beauty Prestige International, Danese, Design House Stockholm, Finlandia Vodka Worldwide, Genelec, Iittala,
Magis, Marset, Issey Miyake Inc., Montina, Muji, O Luce, Panasonic, Seiko Instruments Inc., Swarovski, Venini, Woodnotes, etc. Koskinen normally relies on existing techniques and materials but occasionally
also looks to go a little bit further in the search for innovative solutions for both consumers and manufacturers.
Harri Koskinen designs are characterised by their utility and a strict aesthetic criterion. To maintain the simplicity of his designs, he draws the best qualities out of his materials and allows them to
express themselves. He mainly uses glass, wood, metal and plastic. Today, Koskinen is one of the most well-known young designers in the world.
For the moment he has received many important awards, including the Compasso d’Oro (Golden Compass) 2004 for the “Muu” chair, designed for Montina.
source: www.stylepark.com |
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--- Holger Strøm |
 Holger Strøm
Since the late '60s, Holger Strøm has worked mainly with corrugated card packaging design. As well as packaging, he has also designed exhibition systems, furniture and toys - all made from corrugated card.
As a packaging designer, he used cardboard and paper for his experiments in search of the polygon best suited for building lampshades.
Source: www.bald-bang.com
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--- James Irvine |
 James Irvine
1958 -
James Irvine was born in London December 1958, and graduated in design at Kingston Polytechnic Design School London (1978-81 BA (Des) and The Royal College of Art for post graduate studies (1981 - 84 MA (Des) RCA).
In 1984 he moved to Milan, Italy.
From 1984 to 1992 he was a design consultant for Olivetti design studio Milan designing industrial products under the direction of Michele De Lucchi and Ettore Sottsass.
In 1987, for a cultural exchange organised by Olivetti, he worked for one year at the Toshiba Design Centre in Tokyo making design research for industrial products.
Returned to Milan in 1988 and opened private design studio. Clients included Cappellini, CBI, BRF and SCP.
From 1993 to 1997 in parallel to private studio, was a partner of Sottsass Associati Milan and was responsible for the industrial design group.
In 1993 he had his first personal exhibition at the Royal College of Art Stockholm and in 1999 a retrospective of his more recent works was shown at Asplund Stockholm.
In 1999 he completed the design of the new city bus for the Hannover transport system Üstra. 131 buses have been built by Mercedes Benz.
Today his design studio in Milan is working with various internationally renowned companies including Artemide, B&B Italia, WMF, Alfi, Magis, Whirlpool, Arabia, Mabeg and Canon Japan.
source: www.magisdesign.com
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--- Isamu Noguchi |
 Isamu Noguchi
1904-1988
ISAMU NOGUCHI (1904-1988) was an American-Japanese designer who originally trained as a sculptor and brought a sculptural sensibility to everything he created: lighting, furniture, gardens and stage sets.
At a time when it’s commonplace to talk of the blurring of boundaries between cultural disciplines and of designers acting out the roles of artists, artisans and technologists, or vice versa; it’s hard to
appreciate quite how radical Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) must have seemed when he combined those roles back in the early 1930s.
If Noguchi had to be described as being any one thing it would have to be as a sculptor. He studied sculpture after dropping out of medical school in late 1920s New York and then in Paris as an assistant to
Constantin Brancusi. For the rest of his life, Noguchi applied his sculptural sensibility to everything he created: from his mulberry paper Akari lights and Martha Graham’s dance sets, to the
mass-manufactured Zenith Radio Nurse and the stone gardens he landscaped at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters and Lever House in New York.
The blurring of boundaries in Isamu Noguchi’s work mirrored his personal history: a fusion of his Japanese father’s Asian heritage and the American modernity of his Californian mother. His parents met after his father, the Japanese poet Yonejiró (Yone, for short) Noguchi, arrived in Los Angeles in the early 1900s at a time when it was fashionable for Japanese intellectuals to live in the US. He placed a newspaper ad for a translator which was answered by a young writer, Leonie Gilmour. She became pregnant but, by the time of the birth, Yone was back in Japan.
Their son, Isamu, was born in Los Angeles in 1904 and lived there with his mother for two years until she took him to join Yone in Tokyo. Once besotted by the West, Yone now loathed it and was far from sanguine at the arrival of his American lover and their illegitimate son. Soon they split up, and Leonie moved from Tokyo to the seaside town of Õmori. At the age of 14, Isamu was sent back to the US to enrol at an international school in Indiana. He graduated from high school as ‘Sam Gilmour’ and won a place to study medicine at Columbia University.
Once at Columbia, he realised that his future lay in sculpture. He dropped out of medical school and renamed himself Isamu Noguchi. Three years later, he won a Guggenheim Fellowship to study in Paris, where he assisted Brancusi. After a brief return to New York in 1929, Isamu set off on his travels again to Paris, then Beijing and, finally, Tokyo, for what he hoped would be a happy reunion with Yone.
Fiercely nationalist and still ambivalent about his half-American son, Yone was barely courteous, but he did introduce Isamu to fellow writers and artists. Isamu sought solace in Kyoto, where he became enthralled by the exquisite simplicity of the ancient Buddhist rock gardens. Although he would continue to travel to Japan and eventually married a Japanese woman (the movie star, Yamaguchi Yoshiko) Noguchi lost his illusions about ever being accepted there. Years later he wrote of the Chinese-American artist, Li-Lan, that: "in the same way as I do she belongs to that increasing number of not exactly belonging people".
Far from being squashed by "not exactly belonging", Noguchi made the most of it. Back in New York in the mid-1930s, he discovered the social cachet of being a charming, cultured, rather exotic Japanese-American. His sculpture was commissioned by wealthy collectors and in 1935, he began a 30 year collaboration designing stage sets for the choreographer, Martha Graham. He then ventured into industry with the 1937 Zenith Night Nurse, an intercom in the elegant form of a Japanese mask.
When the US joined World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Noguchi campaigned to improve the lot of Japanese-Americans, many of whom were herded into detention camps. After the War, he contributed to the reconstruction of Japanese industry when the city of Gifu asked him to revive its stricken paper lantern industry. Noguchi moved there with Yamaguchi, whom he had met and married in 1950. They lived in a traditional wooden house and he developed new designs which harnessed the ancient skills of the Gifu lantern-makers to produce modern electrified versions of traditional cande-lit lanterns. Beautifully shaped and capable of folding perfectly flat, his Akari light sculptures are still made by hand in Gifu today from the mino-gami paper that comes from the bark of mulberry trees.
Noguchi continued to design new Akari lights throughout the 1950s and 1960s: alongside the popular "organic" furniture he made in curvily sculpted wood for American manufacturers such as Knoll and Herman Miller. He was equally prolific as a landscape architect. After creating a memorial garden to his father at Keiõ University in 1950, Noguchi was invited by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange to design a (sadly unbuilt) memorial to the victims of the atom bomb in Hiroshima Peace Park. Over the next decade, he recreated the ancient Buddhist stone gardens he had loved in Kyoto at Lever House in New York (1951), UNESCO in Paris (1951), the Yale campus (1960) and Jerusalem’s Israel Museum (1960).
Back in New York, Noguchi designed a garden of his own around his home and studio on a disused industrial lot on Long Island City in Queens, which eventually opened to the public in 1985 as the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum. He built another home and studio on Shikoku, Japan’s most deserted island. From his two bases, Isamu Noguchi continued to fuse his mixed heritage in life and work until his death in 1988. As the writer, Ian Buruma, once noted this fusion "was not a matter of superficial ressemblances to traditional styles: it was in the spirit of his work: artisanal, utilitarian, and always in search of simplicity."
© Design Museum
Biography
1904 Born in Los Angeles to Leonie Gilmour, a US writer. His father, the Japanese poet, Yonejiró (Yone) Noguchi, has already returned to Tokyo.
1906 Taken to Japan by his mother to join Yone. Over the next 12 years, they live in Tokyo, the seaside towns of Õmori and Chigasaki, then Yokohama.
1918 Sent back to the US to study in Indiana. Four years later, graduates from high school (as Sam Gilmour) and enrols at Columbia University.
1924 Leaves Columbia to concentrate on sculpture as Isamu Noguchi.
1927 Wins a Guggenheim Fellowship to travel to Paris, where he assists the sculptor, Constantin Brancusi.
1929 Returns to New York where he befriends Richard Buckminster Fuller and Martha Graham.
1930 Two year trip to Paris, Beijing and back to Japan.
1935 First stage design for Martha Graham. Their collaboration continues for 30 years.
1937 Designs first mass-manufactured product, the Zenith Radio Nurse intercom.
1941 After the Pearl Harbour attack, Noguchi campaigns to improve the lot of Japanese-Americans.
1950 Returns to Japan where he designs a memorial garden dedicated to his father at Keiõ University. Back in New York, Noguchi meets his future wife, the Japanese movie star, Yamaguchi Yoshiko.
1951 Invited to Gifu in Japan to create modern design for local paper lantern makers. Back in the US, he designs a garden for Lever House in New York as his first collaboration with Gordon Bunshaft of
Skidmore Owings Merrill.
1956 Begins work on stone garden for UNESCO in Paris.
1960 Creates gardens at Yale and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
1961 Converts a factory on Long Island City, Queens into a home and studio. He extends the site over the years to create the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum.
1968 Retrospective at the Whitney Museum, New York. Publishes his autobiography, A Sculptor’s World. For the next 20 years until his death, Noguchi continues to execute large-scale
sculptures and sculptural gardens.
1985 Opening of the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum on Long Island City.
1988 Isamu Noguchi dies in New York.
© Design Museum
source: www.designmuseum.org |
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--- Jacob Jensen |
 Jacob Jensen
1926 -
Jacob Jensen, industrial designer, born 29 April 1926 in Vesterbro, Copenhagen. Son of upholsterer Alfred Jensen and Olga Jensen. Left primary school after the 7th grade, journeyman upholsterer 1946.
Admitted into the School of Applied Arts in 1948 where his instructors included Jacob Hermann, Kaare Klint, Hans J. Wegner and Jørn Utzon. Left school in 1952 with industrial design as his specialized subject.
1952-58, employed at Sigvard Bernadotte and Acton Bjørn - the first Danish industrial design studio.
Leader of the studio from 1954. During this time he also worked in the U.S.A. with Raymond Loewy, and Latham,Tyler & Jensen; Assistant professor in industrial design at The Chicago University 1959 - 61.
Own studio from 1958 under the name of JACOB JENSEN DESIGN.
Jacob Jensen has, during the past 50 years designed more than 500 industrial products and developed survival strategies, product families and form language for numerous Danish and foreign companies, among
them: Bang & Olufsen A/S, Alcatel-Kirk A/S, and Gaggenau Hausgeräte GmbH.
Through the years, Jacob Jensen has recieved more than 100 national and international awards for his design. In 1996 he was honoured with the "Knight of the Order of Dannebrog" issued after endorsement by
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the cabinet secretary of Amalienborg. In 1999, he was included in the “Great Danes”, a list compiled by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the 50 most recognized
Danes. He is represented in a number of museums, among them The Museum of Modern Art in New York with 19 products included in their Design Collection and Design Study Collection.
Today he is recognized as one of the leading creators of original form among industrial designers of the 20th century.
Getting the Idea
With regard to the actual inventive process, I have a tool which I call conscious coincidence.
The way conscious coincidence works is that I begin to draw faster and faster and faster. More and more off the track. In a way, I make a mess of it, ruining my drawings because I am back jammed.
I can't get through. I make accidents on what I'm working on.
Afterwards I read these drawing, these conscious coincidences, and then I see: Ha! That, that's damn good! In some way I see the shadow, or whatever it is. That, then, becomes the foundation for the next
breakthrough, the next design. And not just design
New ideas emerge on the functional side..... New functions always bring new forms."
Process
"In my view, constructing a fountain pen, writing a poem, producing a play, or designing a locomotive, all demand the same components, the same ingredients: Perspective, creativity,
new ideas, understanding, and first and foremost, the ability to rework, almost infinitely, over and over. That "over and over" is for me the cruelest torture. The only way I can work is to make 30 - 40
models before I find the right one. The question is, when do you find the right one? My method is, when I have reached a point where I think, okay, that's it, there it is, I put the model on a table in the
living room, illuminate it, and otherwise spend the evening as usual, and go to bed. The next morning I go in and look at it, knowing with 100 per cent certainty, that I have 6 - 7 seconds to see and decide
whether it's right or wrong. If I look at it longer, I automatically compensate. "Oh, it's not too high", and "It's not so bad". There are only those 6 - 7 seconds; then I make some notes as to what's wrong.
Finished. After breakfast, I make the changes. That's the only way I know."
The Limitation of Technology
"We are not limited by technical specifications. If the idea is right we always find a way to do it. If the idea is so exciting and sustainable that people say: "We have to have that!", then they find a
way to make a chair that can rock, a low profile transformer, a turntable with parallel pick up arm. You name it. The manufactureres don't care if it's difficult. They will spend the money when and if they
can see that the idea is so obviously right. There's no excuse, no "Sorry, I can't afford that". It's quite simple. The talented design walks in and proves itself on sight.
If you bring your idea to your friends, which the people you work with or for should preferably be, and if when you put your idea on the table in front of them, you have to explain the idea, then you can
just forget it. On the other hand, if you bring your idea and people say, "I'll be damned! How can we make this?", then you are already rolling. The process grabs itself, steers itself, and one is almost
shoved aside in the beginning, because the technicians have a problem to solve ... a solution to find."
source: www.jacobjensen.com |
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--- Javier Mariscal |
 Javier Mariscal
1950
Javier MARISCAL was born in Valencia, Spain in 1950.
In Valencia, at the age of 19, Mariscal started publishing the cartoons that featured his first character, El Señor del Caballito.
In 1971 he moved to Barcelona to study at the Escuela Elisava. It was there that he founded El Rrollo Enmascarado, an underground comic strip that was sold on the streets.
In 1977 he held his first solo exhibition Gran Hotel, where he transformed the space into a multidisciplinary hotel with painted glass, hand-knitted sweaters, papier mâché objects, editorial work and colored couches.
In 1989, the same year his cartoon figure Cobi was chosen as the Olympic mascot of Barcelona 92, Mariscal produced the exhibition 100 Years with Mariscal. A gutted ship was used as a giant box to display a comprehensive view of Mariscal's thousands of bits of work. The show revealed the outlook, the attitude that serves as a key to his creativity. At the exhibit's end, computers were installed where people could create and print their own Mariscal.
1989 was also the year he founded Estudio Mariscal.
With a small team of collaborators, Mariscal took up residence in a former leather-tanning factory dating from the "steam" period. He began working with the first Macintosh computers. Logotypes were designed, fashion bars were decorated, and 3-D investigations were conducted.
By 1993 the team counted over 30 people. With Alfredo Arribas the studio designed the Acuarinto children's area inside the Huis ten Bosch park of Nagasaki (Japan). This project combines architecture, interior design, graphic images, animation, merchandising and new media techniques.
In 1996 his cartoon figure Twipsy was chosen as the mascot of the Hanover 2000 World Expo. Mariscal supervised the development of its corporate and merchandising projects.
In 1998 Mariscal founded Muviscal, an audiovisual production company
Muviscal produced the cartoon series Twipsy, 52 episodes of 15 minutes each. Both 3D and traditional animation were used and based on scripts by Patty Marx. Twipsy is an Internet messenger who, in comparing the real world to cyberspace, visualizes contemporary issues for a very young audience.
In 1999 Estudio Mariscal produced Colors
This is a visual show combining an overhead projection screen, a protagonist/narrator (a robot named Dimitri), 7 gymnasts as actors, shadow-makers, dancers, stagehands, 4 singing robots, a soundtrack and a lighting installation. The show tells a humorous tale about colors.
In 2000 Estudio Mariscal produced the Diseño Gráfico set published by Salvat
This editorial project in 45 parts ventures into the graphic design profession uniting concepts and the different attitudes of its cutting edge designers.
Javier Mariscal has never abandoned the more artistic side of his career and his work has been displayed in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the years. He gives conferences in different countries, and shows his work and explains his professional experience to students of various disciplines.
source: www.magisdesign.com
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--- Jasper Morrison |
 Jasper Morrison
Product + Furniture Designer
1959-
JASPER MORRISON is one of today's most influential industrial designers. Born in London, he is renowned for his ascetically elegant, quietly humorous style and has designed everything from a tray-table to a tram system.
Anyone who wants to understand Jasper Morrison's work should flick through A World Without Words, the collection of images he compiled in 1988 from his collection of second-hand books and postcards. From one of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion houses and Gerald Summers' one piece plywood chair to a fisherman's hut on Hastings' shingly beach, each image illustrates the wit and elegance with which Morrison has revitalised rationalist design.
Born in London in 1959, Morrison grew up there and in New York, when his advertising executive father was posted in the US. He studied design at Kingston Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art. In 1986, a year after graduating from the RCA, Morrison opened his Office for Design in London.
He cites his early inspirations as his grandfather's study - a light, bright room furnished in the modernist style and an Eileen Gray exhibition he saw at London's Victoria & Albert Museum. During his student years, Morrison became interested in the work of modernist pioneers - such as Buckminster Fuller, Gerald Summers, Jean Prouvé and Le Corbusier - that he discovered in the second-hand books he bought and sold to raise extra cash and later turned into A World Without Words. Another inspiration was the flamboyant furniture he saw at the Memphis movement's first exhibition in Milan in 1981. Morrison later described the experience as: "Just fantastic. Here was proof that none of the old design rules mattered any more."
Even as an impecunious young designer, Jasper Morrison was determined to design for industrial production. Rather than making pieces by hand as many young designers do, he scoured London on his Honda 90 moped looking for small industrial workshops which would make up small quantities of objects from ready-made industrial components. His 1984 Flower Pot Table, for instance, was made from a glass circle supported by a stack of ordinary flower pots.
"It was the Thatcher era and those small workshops were being forced further and further away from central London," said Morrison. "When I started it was a manageable circuit, but as time went by I felt doomed to ride round in ever-increasing circles as they moved out to the suburbs."
Slowly he won industrial commissions from SCP in London; FSB, the German door handle maker; Cappellini, the Italian furniture manufacturer; and Vitra, the Swiss furniture company whose chairman, Rolf Fehlbaum, contacted Morrison after seeing a slide presentation of A World Without Words.
In 1988, Morrison designed a room set for the Berlin Design Werkstadt exhibition. Entitled Some New Items For The House, it consisted of chairs, tables, a chaise longue, four walls and a door - all made from plywood. At first glance, the objects looked banal with their simple lines and familiar forms, but closer inspection revealed the quiet intelligence with which Morrison had refined them. The critic, Charles Arthur Boyer, later described Some New Items as aving "crystallised" his design ethos: "to produce everyday objects for everyone's use, make things lighter not heavier, softer not harder, inclusive rather than exclusive, generate energy light and space".
Jasper Morrison has pursued those goals ever since. Still working for Vitra and Cappellini, he has now nurtured a strong rapport with other clients including Flos, the Italian lighting company; Magis, the Italian plastic manufacturer; Rosenthal, the German porcelain producer; and Alessi, the Italian metal maker. The perfectly plain 1998 Tin Family steel kitchen tins he produced for Alessi and 1997 Moon tableware for Rosenthal echo the apparent simplicity and underlying subtlety of his New Items and the "archetypal objects" that Morrison searches for constantly. "If I watch a film, I often spend more time looking at the details of objects in the background than keeping up with the plot," he admitted.
Always keen to collaborate with fellow designers - such as James Irvine, a friend from the Royal College of Art, and Andreas Brandolini, with whom he formed the Utilism collective in the mid-1980s, Morrison has commissioned products from them and other designers. He and Irvine worked together to compile Cappellini's 1992 Progetto Oggetto range of household objects.
Critically, Morrison's clients have also allowed him to experiment with new materials and technologies. The results include his 1999 Low Pad Chair for Cappellini, which was inspired by one of Morrison's favourite mid-20th century chairs - the Danish designer, Poul Kjaerholm's 1956 steel and leather Chair, but used a new method of condensed upholstery to create a comfortable, but durable padded leather seat. Another technical coup is his 1999 Air Chair, an elegant, relatively inexpensive moulded dining chair made from a single piece of plastic using Magis's new gas injection technology.
Morrison has tackled more complex commissions: notably by designing a tram system for the city of Hanover in what he described as "an exhausting, but not unenjoyable" two year project. He also collaborated with Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss architects of London's Tate Modern museum, to furnish its public spaces with his Low Pad Chairs and 1998 Op-lá tray table for Alessi.
In 2000, Jasper Morrison departed from his self-imposed rule of concentrating on industrial production by accepting a commission from a museum in the Provençal village of Vallauris to produce a limited edition of ceramics made by local artisans. The result, as Morrison himself admits, shares the sleekness and formal clarity of his industrial designs. Rather than being flattered by his interest, the European craft community was outraged. "Why work with the ancient skills of the Vallauris potters," railed an editorial in one craft magazine, "to make something that looks as if it came from a factory?"
In the early 2000s Morrison set up a new studio in Paris and proceeded to divide his working life between there and London. He acquired new clients such as Rowenta, the French household appliances manufacturer for which he is developing a new range of kitchen products including kettles, irons and coffee machines. Morrison also sustained his relationship with established clients by designing new projects for Cappellini, Magis and Vitra.
© Design Museum
BIOGRAPHY
1959 Born in London.
1979 Studies furniture design at Kingston Polytechnic.
1982 After graduating from Kingston, Morrison enrols on the furniture design course at the Royal College of Art in London.
1986 Opens the Office for Design in London to design products and furniture which, initially, he manufactures himself using ready-made industrial materials and small workshops.
1987 Exhibits in the Documenta 8 exhibition at Kassel, Germany. Develops his furniture designs for production by SCP in the UK and Cappellini in Italy, as well as a door handle for FSB in Germany.
1988 Designs a room set entitled Some New Items For The Home to be exhibited in Berlin and presents a collection of images that have inspired him as the slide show, A World Without Words, in Milan. Vitra offers to manufacture the Ply Chair and other pieces from Some New Items For The Home.
1992 Collaborates with James Irvine to develop the Progetto Oggetto collection of home products for Cappellini from designers such as Marc Newson, Konstantin Grcic and Andreas Brandolini.
1994 Completes the design of Bottle, a plastic bottle rack, for Magis which, for many years, will be his best-selling product.
1995 Awarded a DM500m project, then the biggest light rail project in Europe, to design a new tram system for the German city of Hanover.
1997 Designs the Moon collection of porcelain dinnerware for Rosenthal.
1998 Launches the Op-lá Tray Table and Tin Family for Alessi and the Sim stacking chair for Vitra.
1999 Completes the protoype of the Air Chair, a one piece gas injection-moulded plastic chair for Magis, the Globe lights for Flos and densely upholstered Low Pad and Hi-Pad range of chairs for Vitra.
2000 Tate Modern Museum opens in London with public spaces furnished by Morrison.
2002 Lars Müller publishes a monograph of Morrison’s work, Everything But The Walls. Opens a design studio in Paris.
2003 Completes the development of the ATM desk system for Vitra.
2004 Designs kitchen appliances for Rowenta and cutlery for Alessi.
2005 Completes the development of a collection of furniture for the Vitra At Home and develops products for Muji.
Nominated for the Design Museum’s Designer of the Year prize.
2006 Exhibited in Designing Modern Britain 30 July 2006 – 25 February 2007
© Design Museum
source: www.designmuseum.org
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--- Jean Prouvé |
 Jean Prouvé
(1901-1984)
French furniture designer and architect, Jean Prouvé (1901-1984), grew up surrounded by the ideals and energy of his father Victor's art collective, "l'École de Nancy." This school came together with the intent to make art readily accessible, to forge a relationship between art and industry, and to articulate a link between art and social consciousness. Although Jean Prouvé shaped his public image around the idea that he was not married to a specific aesthetic, the tenets of "l'École de Nancy" were certainly a powerful influence on his body of work. "I was raised," Prouvé says, "in a world of artists and scholars, a world which nourished my mind."
Prouvé was first apprenticed to a blacksmith, Émile Robert, and then to the metal workshop of Szabo. In Nancy in 1923 he opened what would be the first in a string of his own workshops and studios. He produced wrought iron lamps, chandeliers, hand rails and began designing furniture. In 1930 he helped establish the Union of Modern Artists whose manifesto read, "We like logic, balance and purity."
He opened the successful "Ateliers Jean Prouvé" in 1931 and began collaborating with French architects Eugène Beaudoin and Marcel Lods on projects such as the Maison du Peuple in Clichy, an aviation club and an army camp. He also collaborated with Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret on a variety of furniture designs. The war kept "Ateliers" in business manufacturing bicycles and a stove called "Pyrobal" that could burn anything. During the war Prouvé was also politically active as a member of the Resistance and he was recognized for this involvement after the war by being named mayor of Nancy. He was also made a member of the Advisory Assembly after Liberation and made the Departmental Inspector for Technical Education. "Ateliers Jean Prouvé" were commissioned by the Reconstruction Ministry to mass-produce frame houses for refugees.
In 1947 he built the Maxéville factory where he produced furniture and undertook extensive architectural research on the uses of aluminum. They built industrial buildings from aluminum and sent hundreds of aluminum sheds to Africa. After Maxéville he started "Constructions Jean Prouvé" whose major works were a cafe in Evian, a pavilion for the centennial of aluminum and the Abbey Pierre house. In 1957 he started the Industrial Transport Equipment Company and built the Rotterdam Medical School, the Exhibition Center in Grenoble and the Orly Airways Terminal façade.
The metal furniture of Jean Prouvé was produced copiously in every studio and workshop. The style is set apart from the Bauhaus steel furniture of the time by his rejection of the steel tube technique. Prouvé had more faith in the durability and form of sheet metal, "bent, pressed, compressed then welded." His designs speak of a work philosophy that includes knowledge of the materials at hand, a commitment to collaboration between artists and craftsmen, an attention to evolving technical developments, and "the principle of never postponing decisions so as neither to lose the impetus nor indulge in unrealistic forecasts." Prouvé was influential in the development of the idea of nomadic architecture, likening a chair to a house, and designing both with portability in mind.
source: www.r20thcentury.com
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--- John Sebastian |
 John Sebastian
1975
John Sebastian was born in 1975 in Denmark and grew up in Horsholm. In 1997 he entered the Engineering College of Copenhagen to study modern manufacturing processes.
In 2001 John Sebastian set up his own studio in Copenhagen.
In the same year, Easy, his first foray into furniture design, was exhibited at Scandinavian Furniture Fair. This showing led to an introduction to Jacob Gubi and in 2004 Easy became a part of Gubi’s permanent collection.
In 2003 he developed a concept bike for Biomega, JS01.
The bike was exhibited together with Biomega’s Copenhagen Bike, Marc Newson’s MN01 and Ross Lovegrove’s RL01 at the Dreams on Wheels exhibition in The Danish Design Centre in Copenhagen and at the Superdanish exhibition at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.
John Sebastian began a co-operation with Stelton in 2004.
The brief was to create an evolution of Erik Magnussen’s renowned thermos, which resulted in the Pingo series. The project led to an even closer co-operation with Stelton, which has resulted in additional projects such as the Cruet Set.
2005 brought the Glow lightning series for the glass producer Holmegaard and this collaboration will soon reveal new glass objects.
Recently Royal Copenhagen commissioned him to create a complete range of Pots and Pans.
Throughout the years, his work has been recognized with numerous of international design awards. Profiled in Wallpaper as a leading designer of the next generation, and his work is frequently published and exhibited worldwide.
Among working together with companies like Biomega, Gubi, Holmegaard, Royal Copenhagen and Stelton, John Sebastian’s latest projects include collaborations with Dupont Corian (US), Samsung Electronics (Korea) and Kundalini (Italy) among others.
source: www.johnsebastian.dk |
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--- Jens Juul Eilersen |
 Jens Juul Eilersen
1938
Jens Juul Eilersen er født i 1938, og som møbeldesigner er han autodidakt. Han startede på familiens fabrik i 1960, og snart sad han fordybet ved tegnebrættet og lavede møbelskitser.
Ifølge Jens Juul Eilersen selv arbejder han altid meget hårdt med sine ting. Derfor laver den selvlærde møbeldesigner mange prototyper, før han er tilfreds med et møbel.
- Bare en eller to centimeters forskel fx på et armlæns bredde ændrer totalt på sofaens udseende. Proportionerne er utroligt betydningsfulde. Derfor prøver jeg altid at finde ud
af, hvordan et godt design kan blive endnu bedre, siger Jens Juul Eilersen.
kilde: www.houmollers-mobler.dk/
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--- José Gandía |
 José Gandía
1956
Born in Ontinyent (Valencia) in 1956. José Gandía studiied Law, although his great passion is for all types of artistic expression (painting, sculpture, music, literature.....) and particularly architecture and design.
A fan of Mediterranean culture, he admires the classics ages of Greece and Rome and the island of Ibiza. Professionally, his heroes are Mies van der Rohe, Peter Zumthor and Sanaa; he creates exterior collections, textiles and rugs for Gandía Blasco
source: www.stylepark.com
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--- Jerszy Seymour |
 Jerszy Seymour
1968-
Product Designer
JERSZY SEYMOUR (1968-) is a product and furniture designer whose work combines a raunchy humour with innovative use of materials. Born in Berlin, Seymour grew up mostly in London, but has lived and worked in Milan since 1999.
When the guests arrived at a party thrown by Sputnik, the Japanese design collective, in a disused garage on via Meda during the Milan Furniture Fair, they discovered Bonnie and Clyde, a life-size polyurethane foam replica of a 1985 Ford Escort Coupe, in the middle of the space and animated images of copulating cockroaches projected on to the walls.
Both the car and cartoon cockroaches were the work of Jerszy Seymour, the Berlin-born, London-educated, Milan-based industrial designer. "Dear Teruo, This is an idea for a project for Milan, which excites me, it is a way of mixing and scratching culture," he had emailed Teruo Kurosaki, the Japanese entrepreneur who founded Sputnik. "…Bonnie and Clyde’s car. A real car cast in building polyurethane, hollowed where the inside can be used as a sofa, bed (it is like an old four-poster bed), chilling out place or eating place."
Like the rest of Jerszy Seymour’s work, the Bonnie and Clyde sofa combines a sense of fun with innovative use of materials and a raunchy wit. All three themes underpin everything he has designed from mass-manufactured products, such as his playful 1999 Pipe Dreams blow-moulded polyethylene watering cans and 1998 Captain Lovetray injection-moulded ABS tray for Magis, to one-off projects like the Captain Freewheelin Franklin remote-control table he created for the first Sputnik exhibition in 2000.
Born in the Spandau area of Berlin in 1968, Seymour moved with his family to Canada the following year and then to London in 1970. He studied engineering design at South Bank University followed by an MA in industrial design at the Royal College of Art. After graduating from there in 1994, he went to Milan and collaborated for a time with the Italian designer, Stefano Giovanonni. Seymour then moved to New York in 1997 where he worked with Smart Design only to return to Milan in 1999 to open a studio there.
Like Marc Newson, the Australian-born industrial designer and fellow Sputnik collaborator, Seymour’s work can be deceptively playful. At first sight, his zest for bright colours, cartoonish forms and jokey pop culture references is so dominant that it is easy to ignore his technical inventiveness and his innovative choice of materials and manufacturing processes.
The distorted curves of the 1998 Captain Lovetray ABS plastic tray manufactured by Magis, for instance, are reminiscent of a sun-warped frisbee. Yet whereas conventional plastic trays have compressed rims which twist when loaded up with objects, the inverted rims of his Captain Lovetrays tense when loaded thereby stabilising the tray.
Similarly, the most distinctive features of the Ken Kuts collection of Murano glassware, which Seymour designed for Covo in 2001, are its bright orange hue and the sexual images he etched graffiti-style in the glass by "vandalising" it with a knife when hot and soft.
Yet his "vandalism" is also an elegant example of the modernisation of a traditional industrial process. While his 1999 Playstation Chair is part-armchair, part-chaise longue, part-foot stool and part-table because the rounded hollow of the seat stretches out into a footstool or table on which the sitter can eat a meal or play with their Playstation. Because the polyurethane foam structure has no internal supports, it is also light and easily portable.
Similarly, the 2000 Free Wheelin Franklin remote control table bears the sporty number of a racing car on its vacuum-formed plastic top and is named, according to Seymour, after a "fast-walking, pill-popping, hash-smoking character from the 1960s cult comic The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. It is also an inspired example of DIY technology because Seymour simply mounted the table top on the motor of a ready-made remote control car with four wheel drive, a rechargeable gear box and a maximum speed of 17 mph.
Even the Bonnie and Clyde sofa is an example of material reinvention: its expanded polyurethane foam is usually used in the construction industry. "A car already has human dimensions," continued Seymour’s email to Teruo Kurosaki of Sputnik. "Put inside, it creates a connection between architecture and furniture. It responds to the fact that more people want to live in open ex-industrial spaces like a kind of way of being compatible with spaces not meant for living or creating spaces in huge modern restaurants not meant to be impersonal. The car is a romantic symbol of freedom and, maybe now, true luxury is freedom."
© Design Museum
source: www.designmuseum.org/
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--- Josef Albers |
 Josef Albers
1888 - 1976
Josef Albers was born March 19, 1888, in Bottrop, Germany. From 1905 to 1908, he studied to become a teacher in Büren and then taught in Westphalian primary schools from 1908 to 1913. After attending the Königliche Kunstschule in Berlin from 1913 to 1915, he was certified as an art teacher. Albers studied art in Essen and Munich before entering the Bauhaus [more] in Weimar in 1920. There, he initially concentrated on glass painting and in 1929, as a journeyman, he reorganized the glass workshop. In 1923, he began to teach the Vorkurs, a basic design course. When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925, he became a professor. In addition to working in glass and metal, he designed furniture and typography.
After the Bauhaus was forced to close in 1933, Albers emigrated to the United States. That same year, he became head of the art department at the newly established, experimental Black Mountain College, near Asheville, North Carolina. Albers continued to teach at Black Mountain until 1949. In 1935, he took the first of many trips to Mexico, and in 1936 was given his first solo show in New York at J. B. Neumann’s New Art Circle. He became a United States citizen in 1939. In 1949, Albers began his Homage to the Square series.
He lectured and taught at various colleges and universities throughout the United States and from 1950 to 1958 served as head of the design department at Yale University, New Haven. In addition to painting, printmaking, and executing murals and architectural commissions, Albers published poetry, articles, and books on art. Thus, as a theoretician and teacher, he was an important influence on generations of young artists. A major Albers exhibition, organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, traveled in South America, Mexico, and the United States from 1965 to 1967, and a retrospective of his work was held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1971. Albers lived and worked in New Haven until his death there on March 25, 1976.
source: www.guggenheimcollection.org
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--- Jozeph Forakis |
 Jozeph Forakis
Jozeph Forakis was born in New York City. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and Masters of Industrial Design from the Domus Academy in Milan. His work is recognized for it’s innovative use of materials and techniques, as well as for his ongoing investigation into the ‘behavioral’ influence of interactive information technologies in product design and in everyday objects.
The son of career artists, his cultural approach to design reflects his background in art and theatre with early professional experiences including set and lighting design for New York Off-Off Broadway. Other early experiences established his interest in research-driven design, with work in the US high-technology and biomedical sectors.
In 1993 he established his Milan-based strategic design activities, working with a wide range of international clients in the Home Furnishing, Personal Accessories, and Consumer Electronic sectors, including Foscarini, LG Electronics, Magis, Nemo, Philips, Swarovsky, Swatch, Tecno…
In parallel, from 1993-1997 he consulted with Domus Academy Research Center (DARC) specializing in strategic design research, interaction design and the design and development of products and services with information technologies. It here he was responsible for the award-winning program with Logitech and the design of the Cordless MouseMan Pro – the first “vertical” mouse. He is currently teacher and lecturer at the Domus Academy and the Institute of Interaction Design Ivrea.
From 1999-2002 he was European Design Director for Motorola where he was responsible for developing new design language, strategy, product designs and advanced concept programs, and lead the team responsible for the design of the landmark V70 mobile phone.
His designs have won several awards and have been featured in numerous publications, including the book “SPOON” (Phaidon Press) and “50 Lights” (Mel Byars).
In 2003 ADI (Italian Design Association) presented a one-man exhibition of his work in Rome, the first-time in ADI’s 50-year history to organize a show dedicated to a single designer. This show was also presented at Felissimo Design House in New York to coincide with the 2004 International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF).
His work has been displayed in many galleries and museums around the world, including the historic exhibitions “Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design” and “Workspheres”, both at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, where it now forms part of the permanent collection.
source: www.forakis.com
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--- Karim Rashid |
 Karim Rashid
Karim Rashid is a leading figure in the fields of product, interior, fashion, furniture, lighting design and art. Born in Cairo, half Egyptian, half English, and raised in Canada, Karim now practices in New York. He is best known for bringing his democratic design sensibility to the masses. Designing for an impressive array of clients from Alessi to Dirt Devil, Umbra to Prada, Miyake to Method, Karim is radically changing the aesthetics of product design and the very nature of the consumer culture. He has had some 2500 objects put into production to date. His designs of the Morimoto restaurant in Philadelphia and the award-winning Semiramis Hotel in Athens have successfully expanded Karim's scope to include the realm of architecture and interior design. Karim was honored with the title of 2007 Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards Product Design Finalist, the 2006 Honorary Doctorate from the Ontario College of Art and Design, the 2005 Honorary Doctorate from Corcoran College,
the Sleep05 European Hotel Design Award, and the 2005 Pratt Legends Award. Karim has also won the prestigious I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review, Red Dot Design Award, and Chicago Athaneum Good Design Award numerous times throughout his career. His work is in the permanent collections of 14 Museums worldwide including MoMA and SFMoMA and he exhibits art in various galleries. Karim was an associate Professor of Industrial Design for 10 years and is now a frequent guest lecturer at universities and conferences globally. Karim has published his guide to living Design Your Self from Regan Books (2006), Digipop a digital exploration of computer graphics (Taschen, 2005), Karim Rashid: Compact Design Portfolio (Chronicle Books, 2004), as well two monographs titled Evolution (Universe, 2004) and I Want to Change the World (Rizzoli, 2001). He edited the International Design Yearbook 18 for Calmann and King (2003) and released two CD's on boutique label, Neverstop.
Karimanifesto
Today poetic design is based on a plethora of complex criteria: human experience, social behaviors, global, economic and political issues, physical and mental interaction, form, vision, and a rigorous understanding and desire for contemporary culture. Manufacturing is based on another collective group of criteria: capital investment, market share, production ease, dissemination, growth, distribution, maintenance, service, performance, quality, ecological issues and sustainability. The combination of these factors shape our objects, inform our forms, our physical space, visual culture and our contemporary human experience. These quantitative constructs shape business, identity, brand and value. This is the business of beauty. Every business should be completely concerned with beauty - it is after all a collective human need.
I believe that we could be living in an entirely different world - one that is full of real contemporary inspiring objects, spaces, places, worlds, spirits and experiences. Design has been the cultural shaper of our world from the start. We have designed systems, cities, and commodities. We have addressed the world’s problems. Now design is not about solving problems, but about a rigorous beautification of our built environments. Design is about the betterment of our lives poetically, aesthetically, experientially, sensorially, and emotionally. My real desire is to see people live in the modus of our time, to participate in the contemporary world, and to release themselves from nostalgia, antiquated traditions, old rituals, kitsch and the meaningless. We should be conscious and attune with this world in this moment. If human nature is to live in the past - to change the world is to change human nature.
source: www.karimrashid.com
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--- Jukka Setälä |
Jukka Setälä
1967
Masters of Arts, University of Art and Design Helsinki (UIAH), faculty of Interior Architecture and Furniture Design
Co-Exhibitions
2000 100- (design-) exhibition, Helsinki, Finland
1999 Artificial Nature, furniture exhibition in Pit 21, Milano, Italy
1999 New Scandinavian, furniture exhibition in Köln, Germany
1998 Finnish Design 10, Design Forum Helsinki, Finland
1997 Talente 1997 International Trade Fair, München, Germany
1996 Nordiskt Glass, Malmö Form & Design Center, Sweden
1995 Giovani e Materia, Firenze, Italy
Awards and Prizes
2001 Merket för god design 2001
1999 Honorable mention in Light -99 Lightning design competition, Finland
1999 Excellent Swedish Design with Design House Stockholm Ltd., Sweden
1995 Coats Opti Inc, Design Competition, 1 st. prize, Finland
1994 Stala Ltd., Harjavalta Ltd., Naber & Co. Ltd. Design Competition, 3 th prize together with Ilkka Koskela, Finland
source: www.monena.fi
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--- Klaus Rath |
 Klaus Rath
1964
Klaus Rath er født i 1964, og uddannet som industriel designer fra Arkitektskolen i Århus.
Blandt kunderne er GN Netcom, GN Mobile, Modulex og Socialministeriet, hvor han har arbejdet både med produkt-, og grafisk design.
Klaus Rath har bl.a. modtaget IF Design award 2001, 2002 & 2004, G-Mark Design award 2003 samt CES Design award 2006.
kilde: www.stelton.dk
Klaus Rath Design
Klaus Rath Design is a small consultancy that develops product and graphic design.
The portfolio covers a wide range of work, including a number of award winning and patented designs.
Results are reached through a structured and creative approach, in a close dialogue with clients.
Approach
Design is approached as being a question of identifying the relevant issues, and addressing them the best possible way in a particular project:
The user A design has to communicate to the user on functional and emotional levels. Defining user types, and exploring their needs and preferences, make important guidelines for the design.
The market A design has to be competitive. Designing is also an evolutional process. Studying a market and existing products is a natural first step in finding a way to do things better.
The company A design represents the company behind it. A design is a statement. Understanding the clients’ perspective, values and ambitions is central to any design.
Technology Designing is also about putting things together, and knowing what can be done within the scope of a project. Experience from working with a number of different companies and their products, has given a broad practical overview. Klaus Rath Design holds two patents for innovative solutions.
Bias In the end the final outcome has a lot to do with attitude or emotional approach – you can’t rationalize everything! I am founded in the Scandinavian design tradition, with a preference to clean lines, simplicity and functional form.
source: www.rathdesign.dk
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Kay Bojesen |
 Kay Bojesen
“Selv om et gammelt ordspråk sier at for mye fagkunnskap virker fordummende, vil jeg som håndverker hevde at uten å ha fullført en skikkelig læretid i et fag – vi snakker her om kunstindustriens - gir det visse fordeler i formgivningens kunst i forhold til en ren teoretiker”.
Kay Bojesen er utlært sølvsmed, men ble med sine treleker kjent som en av Danmarks store pionerer. Hans Grand Prix Bestikk fikk sitt navn da det vant førsteprisen på Triennalen i Milano i 1951.
kilde: www.rosendahl-design.no
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Kim Almsig |
 Kim Almsig
"Et godt design skal pirre nysgerrigheden og give lyst til at røre” siger Kim Almsig.
”Der var for mange traditionelle vinholdere- og reoler på markedet, og derfor fik jeg ideen til at udvikle noget helt enkelt og funktionelt i et moderne materiale”.
Kim Almsig er oprindelig uddannet tømrer, men har arbejdet som autodidakt designer siden 1994 med hovedvægt på individuelt møbeldesign med finér som speciale.
”Min inspiration finder jeg i det skandinaviske design, hvis enkle og klare sprog er en udfordring for sanserne”.
Kim Almsig står bag flere CD-holdere og vinreoler fra Rosendahl
www.rosendahl-design.no
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---
Klaus Hackl |
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 Klaus Hackl
1967 -
Born 1967 in Munich, Germany
1990 -1995 Industrial Design studies at Munich Polytechnic and HBK Saarbruecken
1992 Assistant of Konstantin Grcic
1995-1998 Senior Designer at Jasper Morrison Office for Design, London.
since 1998 Design Studio in Munich, Germany
2002 teaches at the HBK Saarbrücken
2003 Solo exhibition at the Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken (catalogue)
Klaus Hackl won several design competitions - most recently the
`Handwerk und Form 2003´award.
His work was selected for group exhibitions worldwide, published in design
magazines like Design Report, Abitare and books like the
`International Design Yearbook 2000´.
He is working on architectural concepts, interior- and exhibition designs
as well as on a wide range of products for private customers and big
international companies.
source: www.magisdesign.com
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Komin Yamada |
 Komin Yamada
Industridesigneren Komin Yamada har skapt Rosendahl kjøkkenkniver og Global-designen.
Komin Yamadas tanker bak produktene er å kombinere funksjonalitet og design.
Komin Yamada søker å finne materialets naturlige form i sin design. Det fremgår tydelig av knivseriene, der Komin Yamada har valgt å bruke rustfritt stål til både blad og skaft – en enkel og elegant løsning.
Komin Yamada gav dessuten knivene en tykk, rund form som innbyr til å ta den opp. Skaftet med fordypninger gir knivene en hel spesiell karakter og har samtidig den praktiske funksjonen at de sikrer et fast grep om knivene.
kilde: www.rosendahl-design.no
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---
Komplot design |
 Komplot design
POUL CHRISTIANSEN
*Architect MAA MDD, born in Copenhagen, Denmark 1947.
*Graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Copenhagen 1973.
*Freelance designer since 1969.
*Lamp design for Le Klint A/S from 1969.
*Employed by Ib and Jørgen Rasmussen 1977-86.
*Architecture and design, design for Kevi and Herman Miller.
BORIS BERLIN
*Industrial and Graphic Designer MDD.
*
Born in Leningrad 1953.
*Graduate of the Institute of Applied Arts and Design, Leningrad 1975.
*Employed by VNIITE, Leningrad in 1976 and worked freelance, designing a wide range of industrial products and graphics.
*Since 1983, BORIS BERLIN DESIGN in Denmark.1985-87 Working for Penta Design, computerized work station for Danish Post and Telegraph.
Komplot Design has recieved numerous Design Awards:
2007
Winner - Best of the Best of Reddot Design Award for "GUBI Chair II"
Crafts and Design Biennial Prize 2007 for "NOBODY" chair
2. International Composites design Competition 1. Prize for "Big Bank"
2006
Silver Award, Best of NeoCon 2006 for "Avo" chair.
Danish National Art Foundation's Prize for the exhibition "Forty Chairs in Four Feet"
The POT FOR ONE FLOWER recieved Formland Spring 2006 Award.
2005
1st Prize for The Best New Export Products of Latvia 2005 for Python chair.
2004
1st Prize for The Best Design Item in Latvia Furniture Fair, September 2004 for Python chair.
The Danish Design Prize for "Gubi" chair.
Nomination to EDIDA/ELLE DECO International Design Awards.
RED DOT Design Award 2004 for "Gubi" chair.
Forsnäs Priset 2004 for "Gubi" chair.
2003
Merke for God Design, Norwegian Design Council for Convent Collection.
“ Rum Pris “ for the best showroom design at the Copenhagen Furniture Mart (for Howe A/S)
Gold Award, Best of NeoCon 2003 for “Genus” chair.
Innovation Award, Best of NeoCon 2003 for “Gubi” chair.
Bo Bedre, Årets Møbelpris 2003 for “Gubi” chair
The Architectural Review award for product excellence for "Genus" chair at Spectrum, London.
100% Design / Blueprint Award 2003, Best Product: Gubi chair.
Le Prix de la Fonctionnalité, Paris 2003: Genus chair.
Design 100, Metropolitan Home 2003: Non chair "Cleverest use of rubber since the eraser".
2002
Sköna Hem, Årets Möbel 2002, for "NON" chair.
The Furniture Prize "Møbelprisen 2002"
2001
Bo Bedre, Årets Designpris 2001 for "NON" chair.
Utmärkt Svensk Form, honorable mention for "NON" chair.
Nomination to Den Danske Designpris for "NON" chair.
Merke for God Design, Norwegian Design Council for "VIVA" collection.
2000
Diploma Utmärkt Svensk FORM for Longo seating system for Klaessons AB.
Klassiker Prisen Norwegian Design Council for Collage Tables.
1996
” Rum Pris ” for the best showroom design at the Copenhagen Furniture Mart (for Klaessons AB)
2nd Prize in Forsnäs Nordic Design Competition.
1993
Danish National Art Foundation Prize for “Antilope” chair.
1992
Transit Carrier purchased by the Danish National Art Foundation.
Merke for God Design, Norwegian Design Council for Vision.
1991
Scandinavian Furniture Award for Vision.
G-Mark (Japanese Design Award) for Collage Tables.
TOP Danmark Award for Terra Vita (together with Stuart Clyens).
1989
1st Prize IBD Competition, Table category, for Collage Tables.
Merke for God Design, Norwegian Design Council, for Collage Tables.
We Believe that design is an intermediate body - a link that appears into existence in the tension of no mans land: Tension between art and engineering, between manufacturer and consumer/user, between different cultures, between tradition and innovation, rationality and intuition, logic and emotion . . .
As with the wirewalker, who demands a high tension of wire to keep a balance, the high tension between these polar contradictions is the condition of designs successful performance.
Komplot Design’s multidisciplinary activities within product, furniture and graphic design, from tractor to office furniture systems and to brochures and corporate identity programmes, are not only giving the complexity of design approach, but also positioning our design into the “electric” field of intense exchange of experience and attitudes of different branches.
Besides this, our activities within different countries and cultures are giving an additional bredth of experience and intensity. Our design is very personal, influenced by our different back-grounds, cultures, different education and professional experiences. It gives us possibilities to access the problem from several sides at the same time.
We believe that good design is not just a solution of the primary so called pure functional problems, but creation of the message, that fills objects and concepts with cultural, philosophic, aesthetic and poetic content . . .
source: www.komplot.dk
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Konstantin Grcic |
 Konstantin Grcic
1965-
Product Designer
By 'defining function in human terms' the German designer KONSTANTIN GRCIC (1965-) has developed a design language that combines formal rigour with subtle humour in the design products and furniture for manufacturers such as Authentics, Flos, Krups and Magis.
When Groupe SEB, the French kitchen appliances manufacturer, selected individual designers to define the image of each of its brands, it chose the German designer Konstantin Grcic for Krups because it believed that he shared the “precise, professional and structured” qualities of the marque. Grcic approaches each new project with analytical rigour to produce a formally disciplined design solution, which is often enlivened by humour and always grounded in the way that people will respond to – and use – the finished product.
Born in Munich in 1965, Konstantin Grcic studied carpentry and cabinet-making at Parnham College in Dorset before enrolling on the masters’ course in furniture design at the Royal College of Art in London. After graduating in 1990 he worked for a year in Jasper Morrison’s studio before returning to Munich to open his own practice. Grcic has since designed furniture and products for companies including Authentics, Cappellini, Flos, Iittala, Lamy, Magis, Moroso and Muji, as well as Krups.
For the first ten years of his career he worked within a rationalist design language, but has since experimented with computer design software to create more fluid forms. For the One series of furniture designed in 2003 Grcic decided to create a deliberately “strange” form in die-cast aluminium, a new material both for him and the manufacturer Magis. He constructed Chair_One “like a football – a collection of small, flat planes assembled at angles to create a three-dimensional form”.
When he was asked by Groupe SEB to design a new range of appliances for its Krups brand, Grcic concluded that, rather than adopting a radical approach to the design of practical everyday products, like a coffee machine and a sandwich maker, he should concentrate on refining and redefining them. “We approach a product like a piece of architecture,” he observes, “where volume and shape are strongly determined by the arrangement of the inner technical components, user ergonomics and specific features.”
Briefed by Groupe SEB to develop a coherent design language for all Krups products, Grcic has identified what he calls a series of “formal codes” for the brand. He describes these codes as “simple, legible elements, which when put together form a coherent unit that ensures consistency.” These codes are defined by his interpretation of Krups’ characteristics. “Krups is historically a German brand and we try to pick up on that tradition of functionality, quality, sturdiness, longevity and refusal to compromise,” says Grcic.
The codes dictate the choice of materials for Krups products. “The materials must be honest, such as high quality plastics rather than fake metal,” says Grcic. “If we want metal, we should use the real thing.” Similarly the codes define the colours to be used, and whether edges should be sharp or rounded. “However, these codes are not too rigid,” says Grcic, “and will evolve into a more refined and confident, even self-assured design language.”
Having identified a core set of codes, Grcic and his team embarked on the design of individual products. He describes the development process as:
1.
Marketing and technical briefing.
2.
Producing the initial design proposal as a sketch.
3.
Evaluating the first design as a cardboard model and on computer, then making technical revisions.
4.
Producing a foam model.
5.
Refining the model to make a mock-up product.
6.
Finalising the details of design and construction.
7.
Constructing the mould from which the product will be made.
8.
Producing off-tool samples of the product.
9.
Finalising the details of texture, graphics and packaging.
10.Launching the product.
Throughout the process, Grcic develops his ideas in different media: on the computer, sketches and three-dimensionally in the form of models, starting with simple cardboard models of the product. These are, he says, “an essential tool in the initial design phase”. Grcic uses the cardboard models as a form of three-dimensional sketching to check the volume and proportions of his design by moving back and forth between the model and his computer. “It helps me to understand the complexity of the design,” he says, “and often leads to alternative solutions which would not be discovered on the computer alone.”
As the process continues and he has decided upon the design coordinates of the product, Grcic builds a more accurate foam model in order to finesse the details of the product. “Foam models are important for the refinement of the product by working out details such as the radius of each edge,” he says. “Eventually, when they have been painted, they simulate the final product.”
© Design Museum
source: www.designmuseum.org
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Luca Nichetto |
 Luca Nichetto
1976
Luca Nichetto was born in Venice in 1976, where he studied at the Art Institute. Afterwards he attended the IUAV, the University Institute of Architecture of Venice, where he graduated in Industrial Design. He began his business
career in 1999 by designing his first products made of Murano glass for Salviati. In the same year he began his cooperation with Foscarini: besides designing products, he also worked for them as a consultant for new material
research and product development (2001-2003). In 2006, he founded his own agency, Nichetto&Partners, which deals both with Industrial Design and Design Consultancy. He has held workshops in various Italian and international
universities and he has taken part in exhibitions in Europe, in the United States and Japan. Today, Luca Nichetto works for various companies, such as Foscarini, Moroso, Kristalia, Salviati, Meritalia, Casamania by Frezza.
source: www.lucanichetto.com
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Louis Weisdorf |
 Louis Weisdorf
1932
Louis Weisdorf (1932) has as a designer and architect achieved great acknowledgement in quite a few matters. Among other things he has as a manager at PH’s son – Simon P. Henningsen’s - drawing office designed ‘Plaenen’ and ‘Perlen’ in the lovely amusement park Tivoli in Copenhagen.
In Tivoli you can also find more lights by Louis Weisdorf – the famous ‘Konkylie-pendant’, designed especially for Tivoli. Also the famous Danish lighting producers Lyfa and Le Klint have benefited from his design of lights.
Louis Weisdorf has also designed chairs and buildings for Verner Panton and has worked freelance for PH by e.g. designing chairs for the Aveny theatre in Copenhagen.
During the 60s Louis Weisdorf’s new and different lamp designs attracted a lot of attention. He was a pioneer in his field. Due to his sense of form, function and aesthetics he also received a great deal of international acknowledgement. His design has a characteristic of elegance, sculptural idiom and great lighting qualities.
source: www.bald-bang.com
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--- Marc Newson |
 Marc Newson
1963-
Product + Furniture Designer
MARC NEWSON (1963-) is known for his funkily futuristic, but technically rigorous approach to design. Born in Sydney, he has worked from studios in Tokyo, Paris and, now, London, to design everything from a private jet to a Ford car.
No sooner had J. Mays, Ford’s design director, called Marc Newson offering a dream project –a concept car – than the designer went to work. For months, Newson pored over automotive books and magazines and peered closely at cars in the street to help him "to figure out ways of doing it better."
When the result of his research was unveiled at the 1999 Tokyo Motor Show, the Ford 021C combined what Newson described as the "totally naïve shape – so simple that it’s completely unforgiving" of a boxy 1950s saloon with radical detailing. The doors opened from the centre. The trunk rolled out from the rear and opened from the top. Newson painted the under-carriage above the wheels in the same 021C Pantone orange as the body because he’d noticed how ugly the "shitty black stuff you see there" looked on other cars.
Many of his innovations were in the interior, the part of the car which automotive designers usually ignore. The seats swivelled on pedestals, the dashboard was jewel-like in its detailing and, when the light was switched on, an electro-luminiscent film glowed snowy white across the ceiling. The 021C also told Newson’s story as a designer. The dashboard dials were reminisicent of his Ikepod watches and the steering wheel to his 1997 Alessi coat hook. The hourglass orgone that had been Newson’s favourite motif since the 1986 Lockheed Lounge cropped up in the carpet and tyre tread.
Literal references apart, the 021C also acts as a neat illustration of Marc Newson’s approach to design: don’t just tinker with existing typologies, but take a long lateral look at them and imagine how the perfect version would be. "The thing that has always driven me as a designer," he once said, "is feeling pissed off by the shitty stuff around me and wanting to make it better."
As a child, and later an art student, in Australia, Newson had no notion of what it meant to be an industrial designer. Born in Sydney in 1963, Newson’s entrée to design came through his mother (his father had left when he was a baby) who took him to live at a beachfront hotel she managed which he remembers as being "full of all this really cool Italian stuff: Joe Colombo trolleys and Sacco bean bags". In his teens, they travelled in Europe and Asia, until Newson returned to Sydney where he studied jewellery and sculpture. He soon applied those skills to furniture and mugged up on design history by "borrowing" copies of imported Italian magazines, like Domus and Ottogano, from the newsagent where he worked part-time. "That was how I got to know about Memphis and all the other stuff going on in Europe."
Newson has always maintained that it was a huge advantage to grow up in Australia, a country without an indigenous design tradition. "If I’d been studying design in Italy, I’d have been taught by people who’d been taught by Ettore Sottsass or Mario Bellini, and I’d have found having that tradition stuffed down my throat really stifling," he said. "Coming from Australia and studying jewellery and sculpture, my design was self-taught and instinctive."
His break-through piece was the 1986 Lockheed Lounge, the realisation of his image of "a fluid metallic form, like a giant blob of mercury" based "loosely, very loosely" on the 18th century chaises longue he had seen in reproductions of French paintings. Newson made it himself in "a couple of miserable months" of hammering hundreds of aluminium panels on to an home-made fibreglass mould. After the Lockheed Lounge was exhibited at a Sydney gallery, photographs of it appeared in magazines all over the world.
For the next few years, he eked out a living from odd jobs and grants while making prototypes of a few pieces. After a second hand-made metal piece, the 1987 Pod of Drawers, Newson adopted the sleek, luxuriantly industrial style which would become his signature: starting with the 1988 Embryo Chair, another reworking of the orgone, this time covered in brightly-coloured wetsuit fabric. He revisited the orgone and Aussie watersports in the 1989 Orgone Lounge, which was shaped like a surfboard in homage to Sydney surfies.
That year, Newson moved to Tokyo to work for Teruo Kurosaki, the Japanese design entrepreneur. Freed from the usual young designer’s struggle for funds, Newson put some old designs, like the Embryo Chair, into production and developed new ones, like the 1990 Wicker Chair. Kurosaki exhibited his work at the Milan Furniture Fair, thereby launching Newson in Europe. With commissions from Cappellini and Flos, Newson left Tokyo for Paris in 1992.
He eked out a living– "people thought I was loaded because I got a lot of press, but I was still strapped for cash" – by selling limited editions of sculptural pieces, such as the 1992 Event Horizon Table, and designing restaurants, like Coast in London (1995) and Komed in Cologne (1996). When he was paid a windfall $20,000 for designing a Shiseido perfume bottle, Newson splashed out on his then-dream car, an Aston Martin DB4.
Vintage Aston Martins, like the DB4, were an influence over his work, as were 1960s Lamborghinis and Ken Adams’ fantastical movie sets and the space race. Newson was – and still is - inspired by an eclectic collection of designers: from Joe Colombo "because of his killer shapes" and Achille Castiglioni "so clever and witty", to Enzo Mari "cool, very poetic" and Buckminster Fuller for "his nutty ideas and amazing imagination".
By the mid-1990s, he was experimenting with CAD software helped by Benjamin De Haan, who became his business partner. "I don’t design on a computer: never have, never will," Newson explained. "I always have an idea in my head and it goes into a sketchbook. All I do on the computer is join the dots. It’s a great tool for verification but there’s no way that seeing something on a computer will ever be as good as actually seeing and touching it."
De Haan’s computer skills proved invaluable as Newson took on commissions for mass-manufactured products from Alessi and Magis. In 1997, they moved the studio to London, where Newson won not one but two dream jobs: designing the cabin and livery of a Falcon 900B long-range jet and the 021C.
Those projects took his career him to another level. A bona fide superstar alongside Philippe Starck, who had encouraged Cappellini and Flos to hire him in the early 1990s, and his friend, Jasper Morrison, Newson juggled jobs for Nike and The Gap, with existing clients, such as Magis and Cappellini, as well as a Brisbane apartment building.
He also found time to compile a collection of objects which would provide an even neater illustration of his design sensibility than the 021C when exhibited at the Design Museum as the Conran Foundation Collection 2001. Given £30,000 to spend by Sir Terence Conran, Newson compiled a fantasy shopping list including an hand-made Rich Harbour balsawood surfboard and a cosmonaut’s space suit worn on a Soviet Space Agency mission into space.
© Design Museum
BIOGRAPHY
1963 Born in Sydney, Australia. His father leaves when Marc is a baby. He and his mother travel to Europe and Asia. At 15, he goes to school in Sydney.
1982 Enrols at Sydney College of the Arts to study jewellery and sculpture.
1986 Exhibits Lockheed Lounge at Roslyn Oxley Gallery in Sydney.
1987 Lives in London. Makes Pod of Drawers from materials stolen from the model making workshop where he works part-time.
1988 Designs Embryo Chair and Andoni fashion store back in Sydney.
1989 Moves to Tokyo to work for Teruo Kurosaki’s company, Idée, which produces Orgone Chair, 1987 Super Guppy Light, 1988 Black Hole Table and 1990 Wicker Chair and Lounge. Kurosaki exhibits Newson’s work in Milan.
1992 Opens studio in Paris rag trade district. Cappellini puts old pieces, including 1989 Orgone Lounge and 1989 Felt Chair, into production.
1993 Designs Helice Lamp for Flos, and Gluon and TV Chairs for Moroso. Develops Seaslug watch for Ikepod, a company co-founded with Oliver Ike.
1995 Coast restaurant opens in London with interior and furniture by Newson.
1996 Komed restaurant opens in Cologne. Newson develops retail concept for fashion designer, Walter Von Beirendonck. Meets Benjamin De Haan.
1997 Moves to London. Designs Rock and Dish Doctor for Magis, Apollo Torch for Flos and Alessi bathroom and kitchen products.
1998 Starts work on MN1 bicycle for Biomega and Falcon 900B jet.
1999 Spends most of the year in Turin developing the 021C concept car for Ford at Ghia carrozzeria. 021C unveiled at Tokyo Motor Show.
2002 Designs new business class seats for Qantas airline and sanitaryware for Ideal Standard.
2003 Develops a range of cookware for Tefal, mobile phones for KDDI and completes work on a bar at Lever House in New York. Participates in Somewhere Totally Else - The European Design Show at the Design Museum.
2004 Creates Kelvin 40, a concept jet, commissioned and presented at Fondation Cartier, Paris. Unveils a range of sports footwear for Nike, Stages a major survey exhibition of his work at the Design Museum.
© Design Museum
source: www.designmuseum.org
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Marc Sadler |
 Marc Sadler
1946
Marc Sadler was born in innsbruck on december 4, 1946. he is a french citizen and currently lives
in milan. he graduated from the e.n.s.a.d. in paris in 1968 and he has collaborated
with a number of french firms. he has been involved with the sport sector in particular,
where the research and development of new materials and production processes is
particularly consolidated, and in ‘71 he began to work in italy designing plastic ski boots.
he patented the symmetric “shell” system (for caber). he is also active in the academic
field, holding conferences and workshops at design schools and universities, both in
italy and abroad. he received the “compasso d’oro” prize for the soft lamp “drop”
designed for flos-arteluce in 1995, he was elected “createur de l’annee” at the salon
du meuble in paris in 1997. his motorcyclist back protector became part of the moma
permanent collection in new york in 1998.
source: www.designboom.com
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Marco Ferreri |
 Marco Ferreri
1958
Marco Ferreri was born in Imperia on February, 26th 1958.
He graduated from the Politecnico of Milan in 1981 and has lived and worked in this same city since 1984.
His project research includes various fields, such as industrial design, architecture, graphics and set design.
Some of his works are art of important design collections, such as the Pemanent design Collection of the MoMA of New York,
the permanent collection of the Israel Museum of Jerusalem, the Collection of the FNAC of Paris and also in various private collections.
His works have also received various prizes and awards:
The Libroletto, in collaboration with Bruno Munari, and the Less chair, produced by Nemo, were selected for the 40th Compasso d'Oro competition, the broom Titi won the Design Plus prize in 2000 and the chair Foglia by Novecentoundici was selected for the Red Dot Award in 2002.
Member of the Architect Professional Association of Milan, Member of A.D.I.
and of BEDA/Bureau of European Designers Association, he has also held lessons and lectures in various important Italian and foreign universities.
He currently teaches at the Politecnico of Milan and at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Brera.
source: www.magisdesign.com
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Marcel Wanders |
 Marcel Wanders
1963
Born on 02-07-1963, Boxtel, the Netherlands
Summary
Marcel Wanders grew up in Boxtel, the Netherlands, and graduated cum laude from the School of the Arts Arnhem in 1988.
Marcel Wanders’ fame started with his iconic Knotted Chair, which he produced for Droog Design in 1996. He is now ubiquitous, designing for the biggest European contemporary design manufacturers like B&B Italia, Bisazza, Poliform, Moroso, Flos, Boffi, Cappellini, Droog Design and Moooi of which he is also art director and co-owner. Founded in 2000,
Moooi has grown into an internationally renowned design label. Additionally, Marcel Wanders works on architectural and interior design projects and recently turned his attention to consumer home appliances.
Marcel was the editor of the International Design Yearbook 2005. In the same year, together with Chef Peter Lute, he established the extraordinary LUTE SUITES hospitality-concept, the first “all over city suites” hotel in the world. He also designed the interior of Blits, a new restaurant in Rotterdam and the interior of the restaurant ‘Thor’ at the Hotel on Rivington in New York including bar, lounge and private club.
Marcel is the first and among the most important designers of Droog design. He was a juror for various prizes like the Rotterdam Design Prize (for which his own products were nominated several times) and the Kho Liang Ie prize. He lectured at SFMoMA, Limn, the Design Academy, Nike, IDFA, FutureDesignDays and has taught at various design academies in the Netherlands and abroad.
Various designs of Marcel Wanders have been selected for the most important design collections and exhibitions in the world, like the Museum of Modern Art in New York and San Francisco, the V&A Museum in London, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Central Museum in Utrecht, Museum of Decorative Arts Copenhagen and various Droog Design exhibitions. Coverage on Marcel has been published in all leading design magazines and newspapers such as Domus, Interni, Blueprint, Design Report, Frame, I.D. magazine, Abitare, Wallpaper, Nylon, Elle decoration, Icon, Esquire, the International Herald Tribune, Washington Post, the Financial Times, the New York Times and Business Week.
PRACTICE
2004 – Present
Art-director and co-owner of LUTE SUITES, Amsterdam
2001 – Present
Director and owner of Marcel Wanders studio, Amsterdam
Art-director and co-owner of Moooi, Amsterdam
1995 – June 2001
Director of Wanders Wonders, Amsterdam
1992 – 1995
Partner in WAAC's Design & Consults, Rotterdam.
October 1991
Design and execution of the installation "And on the eighth day men started to lie" in the Kunstpassage, The Hague
1990 – 1992
Industrial product designer in Landmark Design & Consult b.v. Rotterdam
July 1988 – Present
Independent industrial product designer
source: www.marcelwanders.nl
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Marcello Ziliani |
 Marcello Ziliani
1963 -
Marcello Ziliani was born in Brescia on 20th February 1963 under the sign of Pisces.
After studying scientific subjects at school, in 1988 he graduated in Architecture at Milan Polytechnic (supervisor Achille Castiglioni) with an industrialized design for a modular portable ladder.
He is currently in charge of Studio Zetass, an integrated organization dealing with product design, graphic design, engineering and fitting-out which works alongside qualified professionals, both in-house and from outside, with extensive knowledge in their specific sectors.
He operates at both national and international level in conjunction with leading firms and offers consultancy services for multinational groups.
He has been working with Flos since 1994, designing its collection of wall brackets Sally, Piperita and Schroeder and the models Wings and Flaps for the US market.
Marcello Ziliani is a founder member of "ABC - Incontri sul progetto, a Milan-based cultural association which has organized meetings and events on the subject of design.
Since 1993, he has been involved in teaching activities in the field of graphics.
He has taken part in exhibitions (bagno senza confini - l'orgoglio del progetto - design under 35 - segnali di cibo) and has served on the juries of various competitions.
His many accolades include 5 selections for the Compasso d'Oro (3 as Studio Zetass) and the Top Ten award.
From 1997 to 1999, he has been Art Director for Salviati.
source: www.marcelloziliani.com
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Martin Visser |
 Martin Visser
1922
Martin Visser (1922) studied Civil Engineering at Technical School. Later he worked as an architectural draughtsman, designing his first furniture for a friend. He worked in the furniture department in De Bijenkorf, the famed department store in Amsterdam. Through his work for De Bijenkorf, Visser came into contact with De Ploeg Weavers and ‘t Spectrum, and was asked by Spectrum to work for them as designer and head of collection in 1954.
Since the end of the ‘fifties, Martin Visser’s functional design approach has determined the look of the Spectrum collection. Developments in his furniture designs then ran parallel with the spirit of the collection (settee BR 02.7, armchairs SZ 01, SZ 02 and SZ 03, dining chairs SE 05, SE 06 SE 07 and SE 08 and tables TE 06.7 and TC 06).
Visser has a strong preference for craft-built furniture. Many of his designs have an industrial style, but are usually craft made. He also stretches techniques to the limit; he loves to make what is almost impossible! An example of this is that he does not bend the tubing, but cuts and welds it. Honest use of materials, simple construction and absence of decoration give the impression that Visser has a great admiration for Berlage and pre-war functionalism. He loves to make simple furniture using as little material as possible but with the clearest possible shapes.
In the ‘60s, his furniture became less austere and looked more solid, with greater volume and comfort. These designs have also become more dated.
In the period 1978-1983, Visser was Head Curator of modern art at the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. After this period, he returned to furniture design. In his latest designs, Visser expresses his conceptions about simplicity and clarity of form. This new work is more baroque than the austere designs with which he made his name. His inspiration now comes more from the art world than that of design. But the constructive aspect remains important; he experiments with new forms and materials, including cardboard and perforated sheet steel.
And colour plays a more important role now, under the influence of his wife, Joke van der Heijden. She is responsible for the colour and decorative elements, which highlight the shape and construction.
As well as all these activities, Visser is building an important private collection of modern art. Martin Visser’s career was crowned in December 1998 with the oeuvre prize for design.
source: www.spectrumdesign.nl
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Michele De Lucchi |
 Michele De Lucchi
1951
Michele De Lucchi was born in 1951 in Ferrara and graduated in architecture in Florence. During the period of radical and experimental architecture he was a prominent figure in movements like Cavart, Alchymia and Memphis.
De Lucchi has designed lamps and furniture for some of the best-known Italian and European makers. At Olivetti he was Director of Design from 1992 to 2002, He has developed various personal theories on the evolution of the workplace, as well as experimental projects for Compaq Computers, Philips, Siemens and Vitra.
His architectural designs have been mainly for office buildings, in Japan for NTT, in Germany for Deutsche Bank, in Switzerland for Novartis, and in Italy for Enel, Telecom Italia and Piaggio. In 1999 he was appointed to renovate some of ENEL's (the Italian Electricity Board's) power plants.
For Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Bundesbahn, Enel, Poste Italiane, Telecom Italia, Banca Popolare di Lodi, Banca 121, Banca Intesa and for other Italian and foreign banks he has collaborated on the evolution of their corporate images, introducing technical and aesthetic innovation.
He has curated numerous art and design exhibitions and designed buildings for museums such as the Museo Diocesano in Ivrea, the Triennale di Milano, the Permanente di Milano, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome and the Neues Museum in Berlin.
His professional work has always been closely associated with a personal exploration of architecture, design, technology and crafts.
In 1990 he set up Produzione Privata, a small-scale concern through which Michele De Lucchi, unsolicited by clients, designs products made using artisan techniques and crafts.
He is currently working on the Fondazione Cini in Venice, on the renovation of the Sforzesco Castle museums with David Chipperfield, on the refurbishment of the Franco Parenti Theatre in Milan and on projects for the redevelopment of urban areas and quarters in Italy and abroad.
His firm, aMDL, has its offices in Milan and Rome.
In 2003 the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris acquired a considerable number of his works, which were exhibited for one year in two rooms in the permanent museum.
Selections from his works are exhibited in the most important design Museums in Europe, the United States and Japan.
In 2000 he was honoured with the title Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana by President Ciampi, for services to design and architecture.
In 2001 he was nominated Professor at the Faculty of Design and Art at the University of Venice.
In 2006 he received an Honorary Doctorate from Kingston University, for his contribution to the quality of living.
source: www.amdl.it
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Matteo Thun |
 Matteo Thun
1952
A man in between
Matteo Thun was born in Bolzano, Italy, in 1952, studied at the Salzburg Academy under Oskar Kokoschka,
took his degree in architecture in Florence in 1975 with Adolfo Natalini and moved to Milan in 1978,
where he met and started working with Ettore Sottsass. In 1981, he was a co-founder of the Memphis group,
the design movement that so shaped events in the eighties. The next year, the Vienna Academy for Applied Arts
appointed him to the chair in product design and ceramics. Leaving Memphis, he founded the Studio Matteo
Thun in Milan in 1984 and served as Creative Director with Swatch in 1990-93.
Matteo Thun has won the ADI Compasso d’Oro Award for design excellence three times and was shortlisted again
for the Girly product line for Catalano in 2004. His Side Hotel in Hamburg was chosen as Hotel of the Year in 2001,
the Vigilius mountain resort won the Wallpaper Design Award in 2004 and the Radisson SAS Frankfurt was chosen
as the “best hotel opened in the year” in the Worldwide Hospitality Awards in 2005.
Matteo Thun designed the new look for the façade of the Palazzo del Cinema during 61st, 62nd and 63rd editions
of the Venice Film Festival, in September 2004/05/06. He was inducted into the Interior Hall of Fame in New York in
December 2004 and is a member of RIBA, the Royal Association of British Architects.
source: www.matteothun.com
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Michael Young |
 Michael Young
1966
Among some of the most successful and exciting designers of his generation, Michael Young was born in Sunderland in 1966 and graduated in 1992 from Furniture & Product Design at Kingston University.
While still a student he began working with Tom Dixon at Space Studio in London and in 1994 launched his first collection of furniture in Paris and Tokyo. With support from the E&Y, Tokyo Young set up MY-022 Ltd in London.
In 2000 he founded M.Y. Studio in Iceland with his partner and wife, Katrin Petursdottir. Working between London and Iceland his clients include: Cappellini, Magis, Rosenthal, Laurent Perrier , Danese E&Y, Dupont, Dunhill ,
amongst others. Young's work has been exhibited in the Design Museum in London, the Musee d'Arts Decoratifs and Centre Pompidou in Paris, Neue Sammlung in Munich and the Portuguese Museum in Lisbon. Michael was Guest of Honour of
the Interieur Design Biennale in Kortrijk 2002 and more recently has set up an office in Taipei to concentrate on projects in Shanghai and Beijing. He is designing interiors in Antwerp and Berlin for Mandarina Duck and was recently commissioned to design two buildings in Taipei.
source: www.magisdesign.com
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Mogens Lassen |
 Mogens Lassen
1901 - 1987
Arkitekt Mogens Lassen (1901 - 1987) var blandt pionererne i den danske funktionalisme og introducerede allerede i 1930'erne den hvide stil, der gik som en løbeild gennem Europa.
Mogens Lassens huse blev hovedværker i dansk arkitektur, og selvom inspirationen tydeligvis stammer fra Le Corbusier, viser de personlighed, udstråling og nærvær, som karakteriserer stor arkitektur.
Mogens Lassens kubusstage fra 1960 blev skabt med nærmest matematisk præcision, som en skarp, terningformet ramme med påsatte holdere til lysene.
Frem til 80'erne var det kun Mogens Lassens egen familie og venner, der kendte Kubusstagen, men i dag består de kvadratiske lysestager i kraft af Mogens Lassens barnebarn Søren Lassen, der i samarbejde med Paustian har løftet sin farfars arv og står for produktionen.
kilde: www.paustian.dk
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Morten Voss |
 Morten Voss
Morten Voss er autodidakt designer og er en af de bedste repræsentanter for den ”nye” generation af danske designere.
I starten af 90'erne startede Morten Voss at eksperimentere med beton og i 1994 stod det første bord klar "FlightDeck". I dag har Morten Voss designet en perlerække af unikke produkter der udstråler orden og enkelthed.
kilde: www.kadec.dk
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Maarten van Severen |
 Maarten van Severen
1956 - 2005
Maarten van Severen's modus operandi was to take the Modern legacy of strict geometry and use of industrial materials to its logical conclusion. The results were often severe, minimalist objects of great presence and form.
Trained in architecture at the Ghent Art School, van Severen continued the tradition of architect-designed furniture with his first steel and aluminum tables. Van Severen approached the design of his suite of furniture - tables, credenzas, shelvings, chairs - as he did a building, so although they are simple in appearance, details of his pieces require a technical complexity worthy of a large building. Van Severen extended the palette of his materials to include both solid wood and plywood, leather, glass and polycarbonates. Although most of his designs were custom-made for individual clients, for major manufacturers like Vitra and Bulo, he adapted his technical feats for mass-production without loss of form or integrity of structure.
Van Severen often collaborated with architects, most notably Rem Koolhaas, for whom van Severen designed the metal stairs for the Villa d'Ava in Paris and the kitchen and infamous elevator/room at the House in Bordeaux.
source: www.dwr.com
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Paolo Rizzatto |
 Paolo Rizzatto
1941-
Paolo Rizzatto was born in 1941 in Milan. He took his degree in Architecture in I965 at the Milan Polytechnic. *In his studio he works as a freelancer in the field of architecture, design and interior design and continues to develop his experience as interior lighting designer. *In 1978 founded Luceplan together with Riccardo Sarfatti. *He has designed for Arteluce, Artemide, Luceplan, Alias, Cassina, Nemo, Molteni, Knoll, Kartell, Philips, Montina, Thonet and Guzzini.
*Projects by him presented at Seminars or Exhibitions of architecture and design, are included in the permanent collections of numerous Foundations and Museums: Architectural Associations in London, Milan Triennale, Wave Hill Museum Centre in New York, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, *He has been awarded numerous prizes, some of which are: *Three 'Compasso d'oro' Prizes in 1981,1989, 1995 *Industrie Forum Design Prize/Hannover 1996 *Swiatlo'99 / Varsavia 1999 *'Good Design' Award Chicago Athenaeum Museum/ Chicago 1999
source: www:designconsious.com
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Patricia Urquiola |
 Patricia Urquiola
The Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola, a complete unknown in her own country, is warranted by experts to become one of the big names in architecture and interior design in the future.
She was born in Oviedo and studied at the Faculdad de Arquitectura de Madrid as well as graduating from the Milan Polytechnic in 1989, with a thesis supervised by Achille Castiglioni.
"Professionally I was born in Italy, from masters like Bruno Munari, the intellectual father of the Milanese school. At the same time I consider myself very Spanish: an Asturian of Basque descent".
After graduating in '89, she started working for Maddalena De Padova's "product development office", eventually being put in charge of it, and there she met Vico Magistretti, with whom she was later to work.
Magistretti and Castiglioni, two key figures in Milanese design, influenced her outlook and led her to cultivate her talents and abilities.
In 1998 she began working with Moroso: her upholstered furniture, elegant and comfortable, captured not only the attention of insiders but also the general public. "I realize just how much people like one of my products when they touch it, I need people to get close to it, feel the need to stroke it. I'm much less bothered about critics".
She devised a new conception of seating, with interchangeable components for a truly modifiable living room. Patricia does not believe in boring modular elements, but an informal arrangement, flexible and easy to modify by mixing sofas and armchairs. In her furniture, she tends to create a setting that is invitingly intimate and comfortable, one that encourages togetherness.
She opened her own practice in Milan in '98, continuing to work on numerous commissions.
Her sofas Step and Lowland were selected for the International Design Yearbook 1999/2000, Lowseat was chosen to represent Italian design in the Furniture Design Tour 2001.
She took part in the editions of Abitare il Tempo in 1998, 1999 and 2000 (Crystal Vases for the 1998 edition, Armchair and Pouf for the 1999 edition, Stone Sofa System for the 2000 one). In 2001, with the experience and influences absorbed from the worlds of art and architecture and above their Milan-based protagonists, she participated in the international seminars of the Domus Academy Design Exhibition in Australia, and chaired the jury of the 19th CDIM Award.
source: www.depadova.it
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Philippe Starck |
 Philippe Starck
1949-
School drop-out Philippe Starck jump-started his career by designing two nightclub interiors in Paris in the 1970's. The success of the clubs won the attention of President Francois Mitterand, who asked Starck to refurbish one of the private apartments in the Elysee Palace.
Two years later, Starck designed the interior of the Café Costes, Paris, and was on his way to becoming a design celebrity. In quick succession, he created elegant interiors for the Royalton and Paramount hotels in New York, the Delano in Miami and the Mondrian in Los Angeles. He also began to produce chairs, lamps, motorbikes, boats and a line of house wares and kitchen utensils, like his Juicy Salif for Alessi.
During the 1980's and 90's Starck continued his prolific creativity. His products have sensual, appealing forms suggestive of character or personal identity and Starck often conferred upon them clever, poetic or whimsical names (for example, his Rosy Angelis lamp, the La Marie chair and playful Prince Aha stool.) Starck's furniture also often reworks earlier decorative styles. For example, the elegant Dr. No chair is a traditional club chair made—unexpectedly—of injection-molded plastic. While the material and form would seem to be contradictions, it is just such paradoxes that make Starck's work so compelling.
Starck's approach to design is subversive, intelligent and always interesting. His objects surprise and delight even as they transgress boundaries and subvert expectations. During the 90's Starck has also begun to promote product longevity and to stipulate that morality, honesty and objectivity become part of the design process. He has said that the designer's role is to create more "happiness" with less. One can almost hear echoes of Charles and Ray Eames, who "wanted to make the world a better place."
For all his fame and fashionableness, Starck's work remains a serious and important expression of 20th century creativity.
www.dwr.com
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--- Peter Holmblad |
 Peter Holmblad
1934
Peter Holmblad født 1934, adm. direktør for Stelton A/S til 2004.
Ansat i 1963 som prokurist/eksportchef og indehaver af virksomheden siden slutningen af halvfjerserne.
En nær tilknytning til Arne Jacobsen førte til et samarbejde om Cylinda Line serien i rustfrit stål. Siden har Peter Holmblad været ophavsmand til flere produkter bl.a. den kendte blomstervandkande og en række af tilbehør til baren. Han er i dag meget beskæftiget med produktudvikling i samarbejde med free-lance designere og produktionen.
kilde: www.stelton.dk
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--- Robert Dudley Best |
 Robert Dudley Best
1892-1984
Engelske Robert Dudley Best forstod betydningen af at søge inspiration i et internationalt studentermiljø. Han studerede industriel design i Düsseldorf og på Interior Design Atelier i Paris. I denne periode var han tæt forbundet med 20'ernes designpionerer og det historiske opbrud omkring Bauhaus Skolen i Dessau, Weimar og Berlin. Her indledte han venskabelige relationer til bl.a. daværende rektor for Bauhaus Skolen, Walter Gropius.
Robert Dudley Best anses i dag som en af det 20. århundredes store engelske designere.
kilde: www.kadec.dk
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