Test your design IQ'
MANILA, Philippines - Who is the German-born, Milan-based industrial designer who is considered one of the most important designers of his generations with designs like the ThinkPad laptop for IBM and the Tizio lamp for Italy’s Artemide?
He was born in Munich in 1932 where he attended university from 1952 to 1952. In 1956, he was working in the design division of Mercedes Benz.
He then went to Milan, where he worked in the practice of Alberto Roselli and Gio Ponti, and became a designer in the design division of La Rinascente department stores.
In 1958, he worked in the practice of Mario Zanuzo, with whom he developed several extremely innovative designs for furnishings, lamps, and electrical appliances, including the Lambda chair of diecast aluminum developed for Gavina.
Since then, he has become one of the most important designers of his generation, with his products typically featuring a combination of technical innovation, simplicity of form, and an element of wit and surprise.
For Kartell, he and Zanuso designed a stackable children’s chair of pressure-molded polyethelene, which is the first piece of seat furniture to have been made of this material. For Brionvega, they designed the TS502 cult radio that opens out in 1964, and the Doney (1964), Algol (1965), and Black Box (1969) portable televisions. They also designed the Grillo telephone in 1966. The first to feature a flip down mouthpiece, the Grillo is considered a precursor to the clamshell designs of today’s mobile phones.
In 1970, he opened a design practice of his own, and esigned the high tech Tizio work lamp for Artemide. Considered an iconic design, it was one of the first desk lamps to use halogen bulbs with low voltage current conducting arms to eliminate the need for wires.
He then continued to create what are now considered to be classic designs: the Office Chair series for Knoll in 1979, a series of stop watches for Tag Heuer in 1976, and Nena folding chair for B&B Italia in 1984.
Starting in 1978, Alessi commissioned him for a series of products — the stove top espresso maker 9090, the two note whistling kettle Bollitore in 1984, the Bandung teapot in 1990, and the Coban espresso machine in 1997, the Todo cheese grater in 2006, and the Cintura di orione cookware series in 1986.
In 1980, he was appointed principal industrial design consultant at IBM, where he began designing numerous portable computers, including the first ThinkPad in 1992, a break from the company’s pearl grey machine tradition. Today, he continues to oversee the ThinkPad as design consultant to Lenovo, after it acquired the IMBM PC division in May 2005.
Throughout his career, he has devoted a great attention to transportation issues, working with Fiat on cars and with Pirelli on the development of pneumatic structures.
He has received numerous international design awards including 10 prestigious Compasso d’oro awards and the Raymond Loewy Foundation’s Lucky Strike Award. In 2012, he received the Merit Cross of the Order of Merit from the President of the Federal Republic of Germany.
His products are part of the permanent collections of many museums around the world, with over 15 represented at New York’s Museum of Modern Art as well as London’s Victoria and Albert design museums.
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Last weeks’ question: Who is the New York celebrity chef who has nine award winning books including the Now Eat This! and Now Eat This! Diet, which features healthy makeovers of America’s favorite comfort food?
Answer: Rocco DiSpirito
Winner: Villa G. Pagaspas of Mandaluyong City
