Ettore Sottsass was a 20th-century Italian architect from the twentieth century. He was notable for his furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting, home and office ware designs as well as numerous buildings and interiors, often defined by bold colours.
Gaetano Pesce was an Italian architect and a design pioneer of the 20th century. Pesce was born in La Spezia in 1939, and he grew up in Padua and Florence. During his 50-year career, Pesce worked as an architect, urban planner, and industrial designer. His outlook is considered broad and humanistic, and his work is characterized by an inventive use of color and materials, asserting connections between the individual and society, through art, architecture, and design to reappraise mid-twentieth-century modern life.
Charlotte Perriand was a French architect and designer. Her work aimed to create functional living spaces in the belief that better design helps in creating a better society. In her article "L'Art de Vivre" from 1981 she states "The extension of the art of dwelling is the art of living — living in harmony with man's deepest drives and with his adopted or fabricated environment." Charlotte liked to take her time in a space before starting the design process. In Perriand's Autobiography, "Charlotte Perriand: A Life of Creation", she states: "I like being alone when I visit a country or historic site. I like being bathed in its atmosphere, feeling in direct contact with the place without the intrusion of a third party." Her approach to design includes taking in the site and appreciating it for what it is. Perriand felt she connected with any site she was working with or just visiting she enjoyed the living things and would reminisce on a site that was presumed dead.
Wendell Castle was an American sculptor and furniture maker and an important figure in late 20th century American craft. He has been referred to as the "father of the art furniture movement" and included in the "Big 4" of modern woodworking with Wharton Esherick, George Nakashima, and Sam Maloof.
Alexander Girard, affectionately known as Sandro, was an architect, interior designer, furniture designer, industrial designer, and a textile designer.
Knoll is an American company that manufactures office systems, seating, storage systems, tables, desks, textiles, and accessories for the home, office, and higher education. The company is the licensed manufacturer of furniture designed by architects and designers such as Harry Bertoia, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich, Florence Knoll, Frank Gehry, Charles Gwathmey, Maya Lin, Marcel Breuer, Eero Saarinen, and Lella and Massimo Vignelli, under the company's KnollStudio division. Over 40 Knoll designs can be found in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Joseph Walsh is a self-taught Irish furniture maker and designer. He was born in County Cork, where he established his studio and workshop in 1999. From the outset, he pursued innovation in making through traditional techniques, often from other craft forms, which enabled new making methods and forms. This led to significant early commissions including various ecclesiastical clients, the Embassy of Japan and the National Museum of Ireland.
Michael McCoy is an American industrial designer and educator who has made significant contributions to American design and design education in the latter half of the 20th century. McCoy is best known as the co-chair of the graduate program in Design at Cranbrook Academy of Art where he and spouse Katherine McCoy pioneered semantic approaches to design.
Edra s.p.a. is an Italian manufacturing company specialized in the creation of innovative designer furniture.
Salon 94 is a New York-based contemporary art gallery owned by Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn.
Mattia Bonetti is a Paris-based artist and designer. Bonetti was born in Lugano, Switzerland, and studied textile design at the Centro Scolastico per l’Industria Artistica. Bonetti moved from Switzerland to Paris, where he now lives and works. Prior to designing furniture, Bonetti worked as a stylist and photographer. In 1979 he began designing furniture. All of his work begins as a freehand sketch which is then fabricated. Bonetti has worked with the same fabricators for decades, employing craftsmen to make transform his drawings.
Hella Jongerius is a Dutch industrial designer.
Joris Hendricus Laarman is a Dutch designer, artist, furniture maker, and entrepreneur best known for his experimental designs inspired by emerging technologies. Laarman's projects are a blend of technology, art and design, with a focus on the potential of 3D printing. Major projects include 3D-printed stainless-steel bridge in Amsterdam, which showcases the potential for creating adaptive, lightweight, and uniquely designed structures using 3D printing. Laarman has also explored furniture design, including the 'Bone' series which used 3D-optimization software to achieve optimal construction. The designer's work often evokes a futuristic feel while nodding to historical art movements, exemplified by pieces like his "Digital Matter" series. When Laarman speaks about his work he discussed the implications and responsibilities that come with breakthrough technologies.
Peter Danko is an American inventor, designer, and artist. He focuses on creating sustainable designs that center on living in harmony with nature and creating a comfortable future. His work often involves re-purposing and recycling and he prefers to use resources he calls OMG: materials which can be seen by the casual eye to Obviously Manifest Green.
Marianne Strengell was an influential Finnish-American Modernist textile designer in the twentieth century. Strengell was a professor at Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1937 to 1942, and she served as department head from 1942 to 1962. She was able to translate hand-woven patterns for mechanized production, and pioneered the use of synthetic fibers.
Dakota Jackson is an American furniture designer known for his eponymous furniture brand, Dakota Jackson, Inc., his early avant-garde works involving moving parts or hidden compartments, and his collaborations with the Steinway & Sons piano company.
Myra Mimlitsch-Gray is an American metalsmith, artist, critic, and educator living and working in Stone Ridge, New York. Mimlitsch-Gray's work has been shown nationally at such venues as the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Museum of the City of New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and Museum of Arts and Design. Her work has shown internationally at such venues as the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Stadtisches Museum Gottingen, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and is held in public and private collections in the U.S, Europe, and Asia.
Max Lamb is a British furniture designer who combines traditional, often primitive, design methods with digital design. He is known for employing unusual approaches to using natural materials, including pouring pewter onto sand, and volcanic rock.
Faye Toogood is a British designer based in London. She started her career working as an editor and stylist at The World of Interiors before founding her own studio in 2008. Her work spans furniture, interiors, and fashion.
