Designers

At an international furniture show organised by Kho Liang le, Pierre Paulin (1927) made a considerable impression with a contemporary shell fauteuil. Shortly after the show, he became a freelance designer for Artifort. This marked the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration. What makes his designs so distinctive is their striking sculptural shape, which earned Paulin many prizes worldwide. His work remains timeless and progressive even today. This is not form for form’s sake but applied design. With comfort as the constant starting-point. Artifort still includes many of Paulin’s designs dating from the nineteen-sixties and seventies in its permanent collection. His work can be admired in museums throughout the world. Apart from furniture, he also designed interiors for the French presidents Pompidou and Mitterrand in the Elysée Palace in Paris. Pierre Paulin died on 13 June 2009 in a hospital in Montpellier (France). The French president Sarkozy honoured him as 'the man who made design an art'.In November 2009, Paulin was posthumously awarded the distinction of 'Royal Designer for Industry' (RDI).

Verner Panton (b. 1926, d. 1998). Worked from 1950-52 in the architectural firm of Arne Jacobsen. Panton's collaboration with Vitra began in the early 1960s, when the firm decided to develop what became his best-known design, the Panton Chair, which was introduced in 1967. This was also the first independently developed product by Vitra.  

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe began his career working in his father's stonemasonry business. After an apprenticeship with furniture designer Bruno Paul in Berlin, he joined the office of architect Peter Behrens, whose work presaged the modern movement. In 1912, Mies established his own office in Berlin, and later became a member of the Deutscher Werkbund and Director of the Bauhaus. He immigrated to the United States in 1938, setting up a practice in Chicago. His buildings include the German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona Exposition, the Tugendhat Villa in Brno, Czechoslovakia, the Seagram Building, designed with Philip Johnson, a cluster of residential towers along Chicago's Lakeshore Drive in Chicago, and the Illinois Institute of Technology campus, where he was the director of architecture.

Italian sculptor, university lecturer and furniture designer Harry Bertoia displayed a unique stroke of genius with his patented Diamond Chair for Knoll International in 1952.

Holten (1961) is a graduate of the Design Academy in Eindhoven. His first design for Artifort was the DoDo in 1997, which immediately won the prize for best Dutch Furniture Design in 1998. Holten likes the sober, clean lines of Artifort seats and sofas, and his designs fit in with these entirely. A large number of them are now included in the Artifort collection. His previous design, the Lotus, received the award for Good Industrial Design 2009. And his Mare & More Mare sofa series is a favourite item in many living rooms. The Pinq Lounge bears his unmistakeable signature – an almost sculptural design and yet surprisingly comfortable.

Geoffrey Harcourt (1935) trained at the Royal College of Art in London. In 1962, he designed his first series of small office fauteuils for Artifort. His designs introduced Artifort to the international market for contract design. In the beginning, Harcourt designed mostly seats for reception areas. His first design for Artifort, the 042 series in 1963, was an immediate international success. His philosophy is that the chair should focus on the person and not the other way around. “First the person, then the chair.” Harcourt has won many prizes and in 1978 was awarded the title of 'Royal Designer for Industry'.

David Lamolla Kristiansen studied Architecture at the Politechnical University of Catalunya. He has collaborated in many prestigious projects: with the famous Belgian architect Mario Garzanitti and with the hotel chain El BulliHotel. After four years as Co-Director in the architectural firm ToolStudio SL, in 2009 he decided to embark on the project of building children`s playhouses, with his family`s support. In 2009 SmartPlayhouse was founded. Throughout these years he has incorporated the talent of various experts from other fields and brought his dream to life:  

It was when Michiel van der Kley (1962) became acquainted with the design of the nineteen-twenties (Bauhaus, Mackintosh) during his study of history that he decided to become a designer himself. He has been working for manufacturers at home and abroad since 1987, including Artifort.  Van der Kley produces designs with a great eye for detail, from which he believes that the object derives its individuality.

While a student at the Kingswood School on the campus of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Florence Knoll Bassett (née Schust) became a protegée of Eero Saarinen. She studied architecture at Cranbrook, the Architectural Association in London and the Armour Institute (Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago). She worked briefly for Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Wallace K. Harrison. In 1946, she became a full business and design partner and married Hans Knoll, after which they formed Knoll Associates.

Rud Thygesen (1932) and Johnny Sørensen (1944) both graduated from the Danish School of Arts, Crafts and Design in 1966 and the same year they opened their own design studio. While still at school they established a co-operation with Magnus Olesen, which in 1971was expressed in the first models of a collection of laminated furniture, whose mutual connection, both technologic and aesthetic, is a stringent and functional design. Since then Thygesen and Sørensen have created a number of furniture - mainly in laminated wood. They have contributed considerably to the development of furniture in laminated and moulded wood and designed some of the most successful Danish furniture. They have also designed tubular steel furniture and worked with the design of textiles, lightings etc. Their work is purchased by among others The Danish Arts Foundation, Danish Museum of Art and Design, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, National Museum of Decorative Arts in Norway, Staatliches Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Cologne, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Art Gallery and Museum, The Royal Pavillon in Brighton and Modern Art in New York.  

Protégé of Bauhaus founder, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer embodied many of the School's distinctive concepts and was and one of the School's most famous students. He returned shortly thereafter to teach carpentry from 1925 to 1928, and during this time designed his tubular-steel furniture collection: functional, simple and distinctly modern.

Arne Jacobsen was born and raised in Copenhagen. In 1927, he graduated as an architect from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. After graduating, he obtained his first job at the office of the City Architect of Copenhagen launching his own office only two years later. Arne Jacobsen is a world famous Danish modernistic architect. His buildings are numerous in Denmark, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Among his more famous projects are the National Bank in Copenhagen (1971), SAS Royal Hotel & Terminal, Copenhagen (1960), and St. Catherine’s College in Oxford, UK (1963). It is said that his fear of flying inhibited him from making a full impact on the American Architectural environment. As an architect, Arne Jacobsen had very strong decision making skills, making it possible for him to influence not only the design of the building itself, but the majority of the details. Over the years, he ventured into various fields related to his work, such as light fixtures, furniture, cutlery, door handles, sanitary fixtures, fabrics, and wallpaper patterns. 'The Egg' and 'The Swan' are two famous chairs designed by Jacobsen. During Arne Jacobsen’s lifetime, he received several prestigious awards both at home and abroad. He became a professor at the Royal Danish Academy for 11 years and through that he influenced an entire generation of Danish Architects. Each eventually developed their own architectural language, built upon the same rationalistic and minimalist approach toward architecture.

Edward Barber, born in Shrewsbury in 1969, and Jay Osgerby, born in Oxford in 1969; studied architecture and interior design together at the Royal College of Art in London. They founded their own architecture and design studio – Barber Osgerby – in 1996. Since then, they have worked together at the interface of industrial design, furniture design and architecture.

Born in 1927 in Magelang, Indonesia, of Chinese Parents, Kho Liang Ie came to the Netherlands in about 1949 where he trained as an interior designer and designer at the Rietveld Academy. In 1958, he was appointed aesthetic consultant and designer at Artifort. His contribution shifted Artifort’s focus to the top of the international market. Kho Liang Ie attracted foreign designers such as Pierre Paulin and Geoffrey Harcourt, which has made his influence noticeable right up to the present day. As an interior designer, Kho Liang Ie made his name with his design for Schiphol Airport in the nineteen-sixties. His work reflects purity, warmth and freedom. Kho Liang Ie died on 1st January 1975.

Alfredo Häberli, born in Buenos Aires in 1964; studied industrial design at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Zurich and opened his own studio there in 1991. He not only originates furniture, luminaires and accessories for leading design companies, but also designs exhibitions and interiors of shops and restaurants. Projects: Products in collaboration with Vitra: 2011 “Jill” chair Exhibitions: 2008 SurroundThings, Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich Awards: 2009 Designer of the Year, Internationale Möbelmesse, Cologne 2006 Guest of Honour, 20th Biennale of Design, Kortrijk 2005 Swiss Design Prize Publications: 2006 Alfredo Häberli Design Live, Birkhäuser Verlag 2002 Alfredo Häberli - Sketching My Own Landscape, Frame Publishers  

The Finnish designer Eero Aarnio (b.1932) is one of the great innovators of modern furniture design. In the 1960s, Eero Aarnio began experimenting with plastics, vivid colors and organic forms, breaking away from traditional design conventions.

Diplomat (founded in 2000) is a partnership of the furniture and product designers Ashley Hall and Matthew Kavanagh and is based in London.Ashley Hall - Born in 1967 in Cardiff, Wales. Studied furniture design at Nottingham Trent University and the Royal College of Art. Awarded his MA in 1992, he then worked as a designer of furniture, products, lighting and interiors for various design firms and manufacturers in London.Matthew Kavanagh - Born in England in 1966. He studied product design at the South Bank University, graduating in 1988. Inspired by the Memphis design movement of the late nineteen-seventies and early eighties, Matthew moved to Italy and worked for Olivetti.

Khodi Feiz was born in Iran in 1963. In 1986, he graduated in industrial design at Syracuse University (USA) and then worked for  the Texas Instruments Design Centre for four years. In 1990, he started to work for Philips Design in the Netherlands where he displayed the wide diversity of his designs. Khodi Feiz has no limits. In Eindhoven, he taught at the Design Academy. Feiz has won numerous awards. His work is typified by its purity, elegance and efficiency.

Rene Hougaard (1978) is architect by education from the Aarhus School of Architecture in 2003. The same year he established the furniture company Dnmark, which has created a number of design products causing sensation in Denmark as well as internationally. The Dnmark furniture designs are rooted in the Scandinavian design tradition but with a new angle with an international touch. In 2008 Magnus Olesen took over the furniture company Dnmark. Since then Rene Hougaard has worked in different design studios.  

Design Concern was founded in 1992 by Lone Storgaard (1962), who is an architect specialized in industrial design. Furthermore she has a Ph.D.-degree in research and development of user-friendly products. In close cooperation with customers, partners and specialists within research, trends and new technology Design Concern has developed efficient, sustainable solutions and products to both small, smaller and large international companies - private as well as public - since 1992. Design Concern has a holistic design approach, the key words being people, design, technology and visions. They have specialized in transforming knowledge to user-friendly, innovative and not least sustainable and producible solutions that work. Their peak competence is within their knowledge of users and user-driven design. The foundation of experience is thorough research for more than 10 years. www.designconcern.com