Designer

RON ARAD
• Combining playful forms and experiments
with advanced technologies, RON ARAD
(1951-) has emerged as one of the most
influential designers of our time. Born in Tel
Aviv, he moved to London in 1973 to study
architecture and made his name in the early
1980s as a self-taught designer-maker of
sculptural furniture. He now works across
both design and architecture
 MANOLO BLAHNIK
• Working alone without assistants or
apprentices, MANOLO BLAHNIK (1942-) is
solely responsible for the design of every one
of the thousands of shoes that bear his name.
He has dominated shoe design since setting
up in business in London in the early 1970s.
 SAM BUXTON
• From the MIKRO series of fold-up sculptures
to his electroluminesent tables and clocks, the
work of the British product designer SAM
BUXTON is dominated by his experiments with
advanced materials and technologies.
 Hussein Chalayan
• Hussein Chalayan is one of the most visionary
designers working in fashion today. His first UK
retrospective From fashion and back currently
showing at the Design Museum, illustrates his
innovative use of materials, meticulous
pattern cutting and a progressive attitude to
new technology
 JOE COLOMBO
• In his brief but brilliant career, JOE COLOMBO
(1930-1971) produced a series of innovations
which made him one of Italy’s most influential
Italian product designers. From the
Universale, the first chair to be moulded from
one material, to the all-in-one Boby Trolley,
everything Colombo created was intended for
“the environment of the future”.
 CHRISTIAN DIOR
• The most influential fashion designer of the
late 1940s and 1950s, CHRISTIAN DIOR (1905
to 1957) dominated fashion after World war II
with the hourglass silhouette of his
voluptuous New Look. He also defined a new
business model in the post-war fashion
industry by establishing Dior as a global brand
across a wide range of products.
 KONSTANTIN GRCIC
• By ‘defining function in human terms’ the
German designer KONSTANTIN GRCIC (1965-)
has developed a design language that
combines formal rigour with subtle humour in
the design products and furniture for
manufacturers such as Authentics, Flos, Krups
and Magi
 Thomas Heatherwick
• One-part architecture, another-part product
design, with an equal dash of sculpture and
urban planning, Thomas Heatherwick’s body
of work defies definition. The London-based
designer has completed nearly 200 projects
since establishing his studio in the mid-
nineties, and with each new commission,
merges engineering and design to give his
projects a magical, transformative feel.
 MATALI CRASSET
• In her of objects and spaces, the French
designer MATALI CRASSET encourages us to
question the way we go about our daily lives.
Born in 1965, Crasset worked for Philippe
Starck for five years before opening her own
studio in Paris.
 CHRISTOPHER DRESSER
• Among the first independent industrial
designers, CHRISTOPHER DRESSER (1834-
1904) championed design reform in 19th
century Britain while embracing modern
manufacturing in the development of
wallpaper, textiles, ceramics, glass, furniture
and metalware.
 RICHARD BUCKMINSTER FULLER
• Driven by the design philosophy of “more for
less”, RICHARD BUCKMINSTER FULLER (1895-
1983) worked simultaneously on plans for
houses, cars, boats, games, television
transmitters and geodesic domes, all of which
were designed to be mass-produced using the
simplest and most sustainable means
possible.
 IRMA BOOM
• Many of the most beautiful books to have
been designed in recent years are the work of
IRMA BOOM. Born in Lochem, the
Netherlands in 1960, Boom has won
international acclaim for the iconoclastic
beauty of her books.
 MATHIAS BENGTSSON
• By experimenting with industrial materials and
processes, MATHIAS BENGTSSON, the Danish-
born, London-based furniture designer
produces sculptural furniture which is visually
arresting and technically innovative