Mid2Mod: Venini

Showing posts with label Venini. Show all posts

Friday, February 24, 2012

Massimo and Lella Vignelli

Massimo (1931- ) and Lella (1934- ) Vignelli both studied architecture in their native Italy. He came to the United States in 1957 on fellowships from Towle Silversmiths in Massachusetts and the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. In 1958 she received a fellowship from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and joined Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in Chicago as a designer in 1959.

In 1960 they returned to Italy to form the Vignelli Office of Design and Architecture in Milan. In 1965, he became the co-founder and design director of Unimark International Corporation, and she was the head of the interiors department in Milan and New York. They established the office of Vignelli Associates in 1971 and Vignelli Designs in 1978.

Their work includes corporate branding, publication design, architectural graphics, furniture and product design and has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Montreal and Die Neue Sammlung in Munich.

From vignelli.com

Vignelli chairs for Heller
3rings.designerpages.com

Dinnerware for Heller
materialicious.com

Bernini desk
vignelli.com

Convertible sofa for BK Italia
vignelli.com

Handkerchief chair for Knoll
vignelli.com

Sigaro light fixture
antiquehelper.com

Creso table
vignelli.com

CEO Cube table
bonluxat.com

Fungo table lamp for Venini
forbes.com

Pronunciation Guide

Friday, October 21, 2011

Tobia Scarpa

Tobia Scarpa (1935- ), the son of architect Carlo Scarpa, was born in Venice, Italy, and educated at the Instituto Universitario di Architettura there. He has designed for nearly every major international furniture company, including Flos, Cassina, Knoll and B&B Italia.

In the late 1950s, he and his wife Afra began their careers working with the Venini glassworks. In 1960 they opened their own design office. One of their first designs was Chair Model 917 for Cassina. Their Bastiano line was designed for Gavina and later reissued by Knoll. Knoll also sold his André table. In 1966 Scarpa designed the extremely successful Coronado series of armchairs for B&B Italia. In 1968 he and his wife designed the Ciprea armchair, which, along with the 1970 Soriana armchair, were included in the 1972 MoMA Domestic Landscape show.

Scarpa and Pier Castiglioni designed the first products for Flos, the lighting company started by Dino Gavina. His Papillona lamp for Flos, which he designed in 1973, was one of the first to use halogen technology.

With his wife, he later worked in commercial architecture and interior design. Scarpa has been a lecturer at the School of Industrial Design in Venice.

My SIL just picked up an André dining table for the store, and I'll be posting photos soon.

From r20thcentury.com and knoll.com