Donald Deskey | Industrial Designer with a Luxury Look
Donald Deskey, an innovate industrial designer was among the leading figures to introduce modern design to the United States in the late 1920s. Born in 1894, in Blue Earth Minnesota, studied architecture at the University of California Berkeley and then painting at the California School of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago and Art Students […]
Pierre Chareau | A Lyrical Machine and Master of Materials
Pierre Chareau (1883–1950), a French architect, interior and furniture designer born in Bordeaux, France attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from the age of 17 to a family of shipbuilders. Together with Le Corbusier, Pierre Chareau was one of the first modern architects of France to experiment with new materials such as glass and […]
Warren Platner | From Steel Wire to Sculptural Form
Warren Platner, architect, furniture and interior designer is an icon of 1960’s Modernism. As a graduate from Cornell University in 1941 with a degree in architecture, he worked for some of the most prominent architectural practices in the country, including the iconic firms of Raymond Loewy, I.M. Pei, Eero Saarinen and Kevin Roche – before […]
The Design Culture and Whimsical Work of Ettore Sottsass
Born in 1917, in Innsbruck Austria, Ettore Sottsass brought ironic wit, bold colors and contemporary styling to everyday objects. In 1958, he started to work with Olivetti as a design consultant for more than twenty years. In 1967, together with Fernanda Pivano and the poet Allen Ginsberg, he founded the magazine ‘pianeta fresco’. In the […]
Charlotte Perriand | Functional and Fantastique
Charlotte Perriand, born in Paris in 1903, is deemed one of the most important furniture designers of the mid 20th century. At the age of 24, she produced a number of critically acclaimed pieces of furniture constructed from anodized aluminium and chromium-plated steel that drew the attention of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. She began a […]
Walter Lamb | A Totally Tubular Outdoor Collection
Following World War II, Robert Brown (Brown Jordan) sought to introduce a product utilizing reclaimed materials. Collaborating with well-known designer, Walter Lamb, these modern prototypes were crafted utilizing bronze and copper tubing salvaged from sunken naval ships at Pearl Harbor. Lamb’s’ signature ultra-cool curvy furniture pieces, lounge chairs, dining tables, benches and more, combine extruded […]