Contemporary
1970 onward is the era of postmodern, and eventually contemporary furniture design as we know it today. Designers became less concerned with function and structure and more fascinated with the ideological message of their work.
Designers from the Contemporary Era
Bouroullec Brothers
Ronan Bouroullec born in Quimper, Brittany 1971, his brother Erwan Bouroullec in 1976. They are the rising stars of today's latest wave of French designers in modern and contemporary furniture. After Ronan, graduated from Ecole Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, he was discovered by legendary Italian furniture manufacturer Giulio Cappellini; his younger brother Erwan was still at college at the time, eventually graduating from Ecole Nationale d'Arts de Cergy.
The Bouroullec brothers' rise has been rapid. In 2002 the Design Museum of London paid them a glowing tribute in the form of a retrospective, and in 2004 the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Boijmans Museum of Art, Rotterdam exhibited Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.
In 2006, their design ingenuity continues with developing a new tiling system for the walls of the Kvadrat showroom, conceived using an ingenious folding system. New products are designed for Vitra, Kartell and Ligne Roset. They are probably the most feted young designers in the world. Their work, which includes jewelry, office furniture systems and conceptual pieces of architectural scale, is remarkable in its ability to invent new typologies, new forms, and new uses for materials.
Campana Brothers
Humberto Campana was born in the Rio Claro area of São Paulo in 1953, originally studied law, and began to design furniture in the mid 1980s. His brother Fernando, born in 1961in Brotas, studied architecture.
During our current contemporary furniture era they are two of the most famous South American furniture designers. Since 1983 when Fernando graduated in architecture, the brothers have worked together in the field of design, in their joint studio in São Paulo, Brazil.
By experimenting with high and low tech materials and using artisan techniques, the Campanas are able to harness the energies of their inherited tradition while defining a new aesthetic based on experimentation and advanced technologies. Thus, Many of their furniture designs are based on everyday, ready-made materials, waste products as well as industrial goods.
Many of their designs are manufactured by Edra, like the azul chair or the famous Anemona Chair, and more recently the Alligator Chair, and the Corallo Chair, which has a large seat formed out of an irregular structure of hand-bent steel wire with coral-pink epoxy paint finish.
The Campana brothers have enjoyed international fame. In 1998, the Museum of Modern Art in New York became so taken by the obvious ingenuity and humanity that pervaded the Campanas’ work that they showcased their work in an installation entitled “Projects 66.”
Mario Bellini 1935-
Born in Milan, Bellini graduated with his doctorate from the Milan Polytechnic in 1959. He was a strong figure in the lucrative flood of Italian design in the international market between 1955 and 1965. Bellini started his career in 1961 as the design director at the department store, La Rinascente, where he remained until 1963, when he was hired as a consultant for the company Olivetti.
His strength in architecture allowed him to design the layout for exhibitions and museums and other architectural creations like the Villa Erba Exhibition and Congress Centre, Cernobbio, or the Yokohama Business Park In Japan, 1991, the Tokyo Design Center, the Natuzzi Americas Headquarters in High Point, NC, and many more.
His fame started with his early furniture designs of the le bambole, manufactured by B&B Italia in 1972, or the basilica, manufactured by Cassina, 1977, and continued with the later Cab chair and sofa (1976, 1982) which had removable leather coverings that zipped around the frame. His series of rolling, swivel office chairs designed for Vitra were close forefathers to the office chairs mass-produced today his career and designs have been superb.
The bulk of Bellini's work did not grow out of contemporary design, but rather out of the "classical design school," which was driven by marketability, the possibility of mass industrial production and commercial viability. Thus, his work tends to be rather formal.
Marc Newson 1963-
Born in Sydney, Australia, Newson is one of the world’s most accomplished and influential self-taught architect and designer. He graduated in 1984 from the Sydney College of the Arts in jewelry and sculpture.
He is a prolific and passionate designer who employs the latest computerized techniques. His furniture designs are contemporary in every sense, but he draws his inspirations from the 1950s and 1960s.
Although his work often alludes to the culture of his home country, most of his designs have been created in Tokyo, Paris, and London, where he moved to in 1997. Many of his designs through his furniture and other products have already achieved a culturally significant status, landing in museums, the pop culture and even movie sets.
His most famous furniture designs are probably the wooden chair that was created for Cappellini, constructed from long strips of bent beech wood, the Embryo Chair, also manufactured by Cappellini, and the Orgone Lounge Chair, which is made entirely from fiberglass, available in a range of bright colors.
Philippe Starck 1949-
Starck is probably the best known designer in the New Design style and modern and contemporary furniture. Inspired by his father, who worked as an aircraft designer, he spent his childhood under his father's drawing boards working on all sorts of objects early on in his life, eventually being educated in Paris at Ecole Nissim de Camondo.
He founded his first design firm in 1968 specializing in inflatable objects. In 1969 he became art director of the furniture arm of the Pierre Cardin empire. In the 1970s he fitted out the Paris night-clubs La Main Bleue and Les Bains Douches, quickly claiming to fame. He was assigned to decorate a suite in the Elysée Palace in Paris by French President Francois Mitterand.
Since then he has reached a phenomenal international reputation in hotel interiors, furniture design and domestic products, including designs for the large American retailer Target Stores. His designs range from spectacular interior designs to mass produced consumer goods such as toothbrushes, and even houses. However, it was his furniture and lighting design that won him the most plaudits, producing such era-defining styles as the WW Stool for Vitra and the Ara lamp for Flos.
Ron Arad 1951-
Born in Tel Aviv, he was educated at the Jerusalem Academy of Art between 1971-73 and the Architectural Association in London from 1974-79, becoming an industrial designer, artist and architect.
He has produced furniture and lighting design for many Italian companies including Alessi, Vitra, Flos, Artemide and Kartell. Un-Cut limited editions in 1997, Fpe for Kartell in 1998, and Victoria & Albert Collection for Moroso in 2000 amongst them.
His most notable industrial design works include the Tom Vac stackable chair for Vitra, and the Book Worm for Kartell. Many of these works are in the collections of the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Victoria & Albert Museum London and the Vitra Design Museum in Germany.
Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991
Born in Tokyo between the wars, the son of an administrator who became vice-director of a scientific institute, Kuramata grew up during World War II and the American occupation of Japan. In 1953 he graduated from Tokyo Polytechnic High School, where he studied woodcraft, and went to work for a furniture company. Soon afterwards he enrolled in the Kuwasawa Institute of Design institute that taught Western concepts of interior design, and graduated in 1956.
Kuramata was the finest and most influential designer in modern Japanese history. A true poet of creative vacancy, he introduced abstract and minimalist elements to western Bauhaus Modernism and integrated this with his oriental cultural perspective and integrated contemporary design in his furniture.
He was mainly known for his use of industrial materials such as wire steel mesh and lucite to create architectural interiors and furniture. He truly had revolutionary pieces such as the "How High the Moon" chair (1986) reflect the emerging dynamism and maturing creativity of postwar Japan, and His "Miss Blanche" chair , which was sold at Christie's in London, USD 86,000.00 in October 1997, and the "How High the Moon" two seater was sold for USD 24,000.00 at Bonhams London in May 1998. This ranks Kuramata amongst the most desirable of artists/designers of the 20th century
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