Henry Van de Velde (1863 – 1957) Belgian artist, architect, interior designer
2022-08-07
Henry van de Velde was a Belgian architect, industrial designer, painter and art critic. He worked in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.Read More →
Alessi Italian Design sophistication in the everyday
2022-07-31
Alessi is an Italian domestic metal products factory. You would think that Alessi Italy’s foremost design factory would have its headquarters in an imposing palazzo in Milan. Instead, the company is nestled near a small northern Italian lake called Lago d’Orta, a mountain range from its more famous big brother, Lago Maggiore.Read More →
Pierre Vágó (1910 – 2002) Hungarian Architect and Designer
2022-07-24
Pierre Vago was a Hungarian Architect and designer. He studied at the École Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris.
He settled in France in 1928, where he was editor-in-chief on three issues of the review L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui. After World War 2, he was active in reviving the journal and set up his architecture office. In 1948 he left the journal, and it was in 1948 that he became a member of UAM (Union des Artistes Modernes). He built the Basicila de Saint-Pi X (with architect Pierre Pinsard and engineer Eugéne Freysinnet) in Lourdes.Read More →
Paul Poiret (1879 – 1944) – King of Fashion
2022-07-24
In the early decades of the 20th century, Paul Poiret was a crucial figure in the French fashion industry, notably by adding a deep oriental flavour and rich colours to contemporary clothing. Read More →
Domus (1928) magazine devoted to design & architecture
2022-07-23
Gio Ponti founded Domus in 1928, this journal devoted to architecture and design, originally named “L’ Arte della Casa,” has been at the forefront of design debate in Italy. In the 1930s, it was mainly concerned with a Novecento aesthetic, but it also paid attention to more radical tendencies, as Persico’s 1934 article “A New Start for Architecture” exemplifies. Read More →
František Zelenka (1896 – 1942) – Czech architect and stage and graphic designer.
2022-07-22
František Zelenka (1896 – 1942) was a Czech architect and stage and graphic designer. He was born in Prague. Zelenka’s career in the theatre was initiated by K.H. Hilar, the National Theatre director in Prague in 1926.Read More →
Gino Valle (1923 – 2003) Italian architect, designer and town planner
2022-07-22
Gino Valle (1923 – 2003) was. Italian architect, designer, and town planner. He was born in Udine. He studied at the Instituto Universitario di Architettura, Venice, to 1948. From 1951, he was at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Read More →
Steve McGugan (b.1962) Canadian Industrial Designer
2022-07-18
Medical Technology and Telecommunications Steve McGugan (b.1962) is a Canadian industrial designer. He was bornRead More →
Paul Rand (1914 -1996) – Designer who led the way
2022-07-16
Paul Rand, was a seminal figure in graphic design who made innovative visual identities for some of America’s major corporations and book and magazine publishers
We all have seen the designs of Paul Rand at some stage of our lives. He had a career spanning nearly seven decades. There is the seminal logo for IBM and the logo for ABC. There is the Westinghouse logo, the logo for NeXT computers. There are posters and packaging, book covers, record covers and a multitude of magazine covers.Read More →
Design History – 40s & 50s the age of the Graphic Designer
2022-07-15
The 1940s and 1950s the age of the Graphic Designer. Designers, illustrators, and artists used their talents to disseminate information.Read More →
Lucky Strike Designer Award
2022-07-15
The Lucky Strike Designer Award is the most prestigious design award in Europe, valued at € 50,000. Since 1991, the Raymond Loewy Foundation has given it out annually. The Raymond Loewy Foundation was established by the world’s second-largest tobacco company, which handed over the foundation to Stilwerk GmbH in 2013.Read More →
Steen Østergaard (b.1935) Danish furniture designer
2022-07-07
Steen Østergaard is a Danish designer. He studied Kunsthandvraekerskolen, Copenhagen to 1960. 1962-65, he worked with architect Finn Juhl…Read More →
Rodolfo Bonetto Italian furniture and industrial designer
2022-07-05
Rodolfo Bonetto (1929 – 1991) was Italian furniture and industrial designer. He began his design career at the Pininfarina automobile body design firm. In 1958, he founded his studio. Between 1963-69, was a member of ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale) advisory committee and participated in numerous other professional organisations. Read More →
Roger Fry (1866 – 1934) British painter, writer, art critic and designer
2022-07-02
Roger Fry was a British painter, writer, art critic, designer, and lecturer. He was born in London. Between 1885 – 1890, he studied natural sciences, Cambridge University, and Académie Julian, Paris, 1892. Read More →
Functionalism a design and architectural principle
2022-07-02
With his motto ‘form follows function,’ American architect Louis Sullivan is considered the founder of 20th-century Functionalism. Functionalism became a label for an extremely wide variety of avant-garde architecture and design in the first half of the 20th century, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s classical Rationalism, Erich Mendelsohn’s Expressionism, Giuseppe Terragni’s unadorned, heroic structures, Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture, and Le Corbusier’s Cubist solids. Read More →
Ulrich Franzen (1921 – 2012) German-born American architect and designer
2022-07-01
Ulrich Franzen, the German-born American architect, was a leading figure in the first post-war generation of American architects; including Paul Rudolph, Harry Cobb, John Maclane Johansen, and Philip Johnson. Read More →
Dada Art Movement – Making Mischief
2022-07-01
As a designer, I am passionate about the history of art and their influence on ‘visual design.’ In art history, Dada is the artistic movement that preceded Surrealism, it began in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1916 by a group of mostly painters and painters. Dada artworks challenged the preconceived notions of what art meant. Many Dadaists felt that the way to salvation was through political anarchy, the natural emotions, the intuitive and the irrational.Read More →
1959 Cadillac Eldorado – Temple Rather than Automobile
2022-07-01
The 1959 Cadillac is more of a temple than an automobile, a Gothic memorial to America’s glory years. It was overly long, low, and overstyled, and it’s the 50s’ final flourish. The 59’s outlandish space-age appearance, weird fins, and lavish 390 cubic inch V8 are fascinating, but the most striking aspect of the car is its blatant arrogance.Read More →
Aldo Cibic (b.1955) self-taught Italian architect and designer
2022-06-30
Aldo Cibic is a self-taught architect, designer, researcher, environmentalist and humanist. He was born in Vicenza and professionally active in Milan.Read More →
Fibreglass exciting early design medium
2022-06-30
Known as glass-enhanced plastic (GRP) in Britain, fibre-enhanced plastic (FRP) in the USA or by the trade name fibreglass (after the manufacturer Fibreglass Ltd.), GRP has been used for a wide range of applications from car body panels and boat hulls to furniture and tennis rackets. Read More →