Tag: Product design

Designer Desire: Ron Arad

Montage of Ron Arad designs

Justin was watching an episode of George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces programme on television recently (see below) that highlighted the Design Museum in Holon, Israel. It’s an incredible, one-of-a-kind building, designed in 2010 by Ron Arad.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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Ron Arad studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Art prior to emigrating to London in 1973. In the early 1980s, he founded his own practice in London and set up One Off Ltd with his partner Caroline Thorman, focusing on limited-edition objects.

Throughout his career to date, Arad (b. 1951) has created sculpture, furniture, jewellery and audio equipment using materials including glass, textile, metal, wood, ceramic, marble and plastic.  He is a master of design!

Designers accuse me of being an artist, artists accuse me of being an architect, and architects accuse me of being a designer. But it doesn’t bother me too much; that’s just the way the fragmented world works. Ron Arad

Arad has worked with many leading design firms such as Kartell, Vitra, Driade, Guzzini and Moroso. He has collaborated with Fiat, Swarovski, KENZO, Samsung, Adidas and many more.

His more famous works include the award-winning ‘This Mortal Coil’ bookshelf, ‘Big Easy’ chair and ‘Victoria and Albert’ sofa.

There are over 50 examples of his work in the V&A collection in London and at least half a dozen in MoMA in New York.

Portrait of Ron Aradcredit

Additional image credits:
Bukowskis | Phillips

Designer Desire: Bruno Munari

Montage of Bruno Munari designs

Bruno Munari (1907-1998) is probably as close as you’d get to an all-encompassing creative. Born in Milan, he was a graphic designer, industrial & product designer, children’s toy designer, painter, sculptor, film-maker, book illustrator & author and educator.

In the 30s & 40s, he worked as art director on Tempo Magazine, Grazia and for a short while, Domus. He also later became a consultant on the fledgling Epoca Magazine. In 1948, he was one of the founder members of Movimento Arte Concreta (MAC), the Italian concrete art movement.

He designed for many of the top Italian design houses including Danese Milano, Olivetti, Pirelli, Robots and Zanotta. For Danese, he created the iconic Falkland suspension lamp and Cubo ashtray (both shown in the montage above). For Zanotta, he created the whimsical Singer chair – described by the company as a, “Chair for very brief visits”.

There are many books by and about Munari available on Abe Books and Amazon.

Art shall not be separated from life: things that are good to look at, and bad to be used, should not exist. Bruno Munari, 1966

Portrait of Bruno Munaricredit

Additional image credits:
1stDibs | Pamono

Designer Desire: Gino Colombini

Montage of Gino Colombini designs

It was only last week when we bought a vintage bright orange plastic waste paper basket that we learned anything about Gino Colombini.

Gino Colombini (1915-2011) was an Italian product designer who worked primarily in plastic. From 1933 to 1952, he worked in the Milan practice of the architect and designer, Franco Albini. Together, they co-designed the rattan ‘Margherita’ chair in 1951. From 1953 until 1960, Colombini was the first technical director of Kartell for whom he created many domestic products including the waste paper basket that we bought.

His designs are featured in the book Kartell: The Culture of Plastics published by Taschen in 2013.

Colombini won the Compasso d’Oro award on five occasions; 1955, 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960. The Museum of Modern Art in New York have a number of his designs in their permanent collection.

Our orange bin will shortly be for sale in our space at Valley Antiques in Hebden Bridge. However, if you can’t get over to West Yorkshire, you can often find examples of his products on 1stDibs, Bukowskis and Etsy.

Portrait of Gino Colombinicredit

Additional image credits:
Bukowskis | Pinterest

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