Designer Desire: Kurt Østervig

Montage of Kurt Østervig furniture designs

Furniture designer, Kurt Østervig (1912-1986) trained as a shipbuilder and naval architect in Odense, Denmark’s third largest city. He soon switched to furniture design, working in the studio of manufacturer E. Knudsen prior to founding his own studio in 1947.

Kurt Østervig worked as a freelance designer for the remainder of his long career, collaborating with a range of Scandinavian furniture companies during the mid 20th century; these included Bernh, Bramin, Brande Møbelindustri, Jason, Pedersen & Son, Rolschau, Schillers Polstermøbelfabrik, Sibast and Vamo.

Østervig’s designs were primarily manufactured using oak – sometimes with the addition of leather; however, some pieces were produced in rosewood and teak. Among Østervig’s most important and popular designs are the Model 12 Easy Chair & footstool for Schillers (1961; re-launched in 2014) and the Butterfly Dining Chair (1950s) for Brande (a set of six with turquoise upholstered seats are shown in the montage above).

Some of Østervig’s furniture designs continue to be manufactured to this day; visit the Finnish Design Shop.If you prefer vintage examples, try 1stDibs, eBay and Etsy.

Portrait of Kurt Østervig, furniture designercredit

Additional image credits:
Artnet

Designer Desire: William Plunkett

Montage of William Plunkett furniture designs

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/may/15/william-plunkett

William Plunkett (1928 – 2013) was born in India, moving to Britain in 1946 to join the Royal Artillery. After leaving the army in 1959, he attended Kingston School of Art to study basic design, furniture design and sculpture. After a stint working for A. and R. Duckworth Ltd (Aidron Duckworth had been a tutor at college), he founded William Plunkett Ltd in 1963. By 1977, he had sold William Plunkett Ltd to Giroflex, setting up Plunkett Plan Ltd the following year.

His upmarket designs retailed in department stores such as Heal’s and Liberty. His modernist pieces furnished embassies and leisure, business and retail outlets; including IBM, Russell & Bromley, Clarks, Ravel, Peter Lord and a bar on the QE2.

He was a multiple winner of Council of Industrial Design (CoID) awards. He won twice in 1968 for his Reigate rocking chair (seen top left in the above montage) and his Coulsdon coffee table (bottom right).

Reflecting on his long career, he revealed:

My generation of designers were idealists. We really believed we could make a difference to Britain by producing well-designed products.

Vintage examples of Plunkett’s furniture designs are available on 1stDibs and Etsy. Alternatively, twentytwentyone have reissued some of his designs.

Portrait of William Plunkettcredit

Additional image credits:
Artnet | Bonhams | Bukowskis |

Designer Desire: Kipp Stewart

Montage of Kipp Stewart furniture designs

Kipp Stewart (b. 1928) is an American furniture designer. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he has settled in Carmel, California. Although best known for his furniture, he trained as an architect; he’s responsible for the design of The Ventana Inn in Big Sur.

Since the 1950s, he’s created a huge number of furniture designs; mainly for Calvin Furniture Co., Directional, Drexel Furniture Company (for whom Kipp Stewart often collaborated with fellow designer, Stewart MacDougall) and, most recently, Summit Furniture. He has even turned his hand at designing urban park furniture (including a rubbish bin!).

Because of his vast output, there’s often a lot of his furniture on the market – in the USA, at least. Check 1stDibs and Pamono.

Portrait of Kipp Stewartcredit

Additional image credits:
1st Dibs

Designer Desire: Luigi Colani

Montage of Luigi Colani designs

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Luigi Colani was an Italian designer. In fact, he was born Lutz Colani in Berlin, in 1928.

Our first introduction to Luigi Colani was the plastic Drumbo money boxes (seen top) that were given away to customers when they opened an account with Dresdner Bank. However, it’s a much-repeated mistake attributing the design to Colani. In fact, the plastic money boxes (later also available in porcelain and metal) were created by Bernd Diefenbach in 1972.

Anyway, we digress. He may not have designed the elephants, however, what didn’t he design? Name any type of product, and Colani has turned his hand to creating a version. Furniture, glassware, sanitary ware, cutlery, fashion, watches, eyewear, cars, boats, planes and even cash machines.

We’re so taken with the sanitary ware that he designed in the 1975 for Villeroy and Boch – we added a few images in our collage above. It was produced in a number of colourways that were popular at the time – green, pink, orange, blue… If we had the right house and came across a salvaged suite for sale, we’d design our entire bathroom around it – it’s absolutely magnificent!

He had a long, varied and successful career collaborating with a number of companies creating over 5,000 product designs. They can be counted on to be colourful, curvaceous, organic, exciting and futuristic!

Here are just a few from the 60s to the 80s:

1968: Loop chair for Poly-COR (pictured above)
1968: Orbis modular seating for Cor
1968: Garden Party chair for Heinz Essmann
1969 Elmar desk for Flötotto
1970: Sadima lounge chair for BASF (4 versions pictured above)
1971: Drop Tea Service for Rosenthal (white set, pictured above)
1972: Zocker chair for Top-System Burkhard Lübke (2  (one yellow, one orange) pictured above)
1973: Tulip armchair for Lusch Germany (pictured above)
1981: Zen tea service for Melitta Friesland (black set, pictured above)
1982: Pelikan №1, №2, and P80 ballpoint pen in various colours (pictured above)

Colani died at the age of 91 in 2019.

Portrait of Luigi Colani
2000 – Luigi Colani sitting on a wooden parquet floor of his design with a striking 3D wave appearance

credit

Additional image credits:
1stDibs | Pamono