3/29/2023 0 Comments Vintage lemon squeezer![]() Kartell’s earliest designs tended to be small tools for the kitchen. In the 1950s, polypropylene plastic was still widely thought to be an unusual material for domestic settings. In 1953, however, Kartell launched its Housewares Division and began to produce the eye-catching, molded plastic interiors objects for which the company is internationally known today. At first the company concentrated on automotive accessories, like the K101 Ski Rack (1950). In the early years of the postwar era, Castelli and Ferrieri were eager to contribute to their country’s reconstruction through high quality and innovative industrial design. Ferrieri, meanwhile, studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano under influential, neo-rationalist architect-designer Franco Albini. The son of a plastics researcher, Castelli was attracted to experimental, new materials from an early age and went on to study chemical engineering under Nobel Prize winning chemist Giulio Natta. Specialized in luxury plastic furniture and decorative objects, Italian design brand Kartell was founded by Giulio Castelli (1920-2006) and his wife Anna Ferrieri (1918-2006) in Milan in 1949. Notable projects include some of the most iconic designs of the 1960s, such as his 1963 Elda Armchair, made completely of fiberglass the 1964 Ragno outdoor light, which doubled as a seat the stackable Universale chair (1965/67), which came in varying heights and was created completely from polypropylene his 1967 modular furniture series known as the Additional Living System, which was composed of different-size curved pieces that could be pinned together in various configurations to form chairs, sofas, or entire living areas, and which ultimately included the famous 1969 Tubo lounge chair and the Optic alarm clock and Bobby trolley (both 1970). However, he was remarkably prolific during his near decade as a designer. ![]() His furniture designs were characterized by optimistically bold, round forms, and he championed the notion of using modern technologies to create new design solutions.Ĭolombo’s design career was cut tragically short in 1971 when he died of heart failure at age 41. In 1962, Colombo opened a design studio in Milan, from which he worked primarily on architectural commissions-including several ski lodges and mountain hotels-as well as product design. When his father became ill in 1958, Colombo abandoned painting altogether he and his younger brother, Gianni, took over the family business, using the factory as an experimental space for the latest production techniques and materials, including fiberglass, PVC, and polyethylene. Inspired by these experiences, Colombo enrolled as an architecture student at Milan Polytechnic. In 1954, he made a series of television shrines for the Milan Trienniale. In 1953, Colombo made his first foray into design by creating a decorative ceiling for a Milan jazz club. Spurred on by international anxiety surrounding the nuclear bomb, this group of painters aimed to break free of the static boundaries of traditional painting. While there, he joined the Movimento Nucleare, an avant-garde art movement founded by Enrico Baj and Sergio Dangelo in 1951. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Brera, Milan, in the early 1950s. Colombo came to design relatively late, having spent most of his twenties pursuing painting and sculpture. His father, Giuseppe, was an industrialist who inherited a ribbon factory and turned it into an electrical conductor manufacturer. Born in Milan in 1930, designer Cesare Colombo-who went by Joe-was the second of three brothers.
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