We Love the ’70s!

A recent design sale in Italy featured furniture, lighting and objects from the 1970s. Though many of the pieces sold were designer prototypes, the sale at Incanto auction house displayed a flair that was unmistakably 1970s. A low natural wood table with two sliding panels on top that each open to an interior compartment, designed […]

George Nelson

Furniture from the 1950s continues to be hot among both new and longtime collectors. And no designer says “fifties” like George Nelson (1908-1986), the design director at Herman Miller Furniture Co. from 1945 to 1972. His contract allowed him to work outside the Herman Miller Furniture Company, and in 1947 he opened his own design […]

Ettore Sottsass Jr.

Austrian-born Ettore Sottsass Jr. (1917–2007) studied architecture in Turin, Italy, then set up a studio in Milan in 1945. As a consultant for Olivetti in the 1960s, he designed office equipment, including the bright red plastic body for the Valentine typewriter. In the late 1970s, Sottsass joined Studio Alchimia, where he designed plastic-laminate-covered furniture. He […]

Other Italian Designers

Many other Italian designers who have worked from the 1950s to the present have created pottery of exceptional quality. Ettore Sottsass began designing ceramics in 1956 and has made many ceramic pieces, including huge, colorful columns called totems. Fausto Melotti (1901-1986) made terra-cotta sculptures, tiles, and architectural panels, as well as commercial coffee sets, vases […]