Ettore Sottsass: Minimum Design

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Patrizia Ranzo

24 Ore Cultura, Milan, 2012, English

Nonfiction, Architecture; Nonfiction, Product/Industrial Design

12.4 x 9.4 inches, hardcover, 120 pages

ISBN: 9788866480273

Suggested Retail Price: $45.00

From the Publisher: The “Minimum Design” series includes books about the major figures in the field of design—creators of objects that have become a part of our daily lives. The lamp on our desk, the chair we are sitting on or the glasses we are wearing have a genius behind them to be discovered. Each volume includes a selection of the designer’s most famous objects arranged in chronological order and a critique of his or her work summarizing the most significant reviews published in magazines and newspapers.

This book covers the work of Italian architect and designer Ettore Sottsass (1917–2007), which included furniture, jewelry, glass, lighting, and office machine design. His work was unique, much of it influenced by a desire to avoid corporate work, believing that to confine himself to the realms of mass-produced consumerist products would stifle his creativity. His design style shifted dramatically during his career, from the modernist typewriters and office furniture commissioned by Olivetti in the 1960s to the vibrant and iconic pieces of furniture created for the collection from the Memphis Group, a group of architects and designers that he co-founded in the 1980s and 1990s.

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