Joe Colombo (designer) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Joe Colombo
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Cesare Colombo
30 July 1930 |
| Died | 30 July 1971 (aged 41) |
| Education | Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera Politecnico di Milano |
| Known for | Architecture, design |
| Movement | Italian Pop design |
Cesare Colombo (born July 30, 1930 – died July 30, 1971), known as Joe Colombo, was a famous Italian industrial designer. He created many cool and futuristic furniture pieces, lamps, and other items.
Contents
Joe Colombo's Life and Career
Joe Colombo studied art and architecture in Milan, Italy. He first went to the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera until 1949 to learn painting. Then, he studied Architecture at Politecnico di Milano University until 1954.
In 1951, Joe joined an art group called Movimento Nucleare. For four years, he worked as a painter and sculptor. He showed his art, which was a style called abstract Expressionism, in cities like Milan, Turin, and Venice.
In 1955, Colombo joined another art group, Art Concret. But soon after, he decided to focus on design instead of painting. He helped with an exhibition in 1954, where he showed off ceramic designs. For this, he even made special outdoor seats combined with a display of TVs.
In 1959, Joe took over his family's business, which made electric appliances. This gave him a chance to try out new ways of building and producing things. In 1962, he opened his own design studio. He mostly worked on interior design and architecture projects, especially for hotels and ski resorts.
Joe Colombo designed products for many well-known companies. These included Oluce, Kartell, Bieffe, Alessi, Flexform, Stilnovo, and Boffi.
Sadly, Joe Colombo passed away in 1971, on his 41st birthday.
Amazing Designs by Joe Colombo
Joe Colombo was known for his innovative and futuristic designs. He loved to create things that could change and adapt to different needs.
With his brother Gianni, Colombo came up with the idea for lamps that looked like prisms, such as the Acrilica lamp (1962). His first design for Kartell was the No.4801 chair (1963–1967). This chair was made from three pieces of plywood put together.
His later designs often used plastic, like the universale No.4860 chair (1965–1967). This was the first chair for adults made from a type of plastic called ABS.
Colombo also designed many other cool items:
- Furniture
- Lamps
- Glassware
- Doorknobs
- Pipes
- Alarm clocks
- Wristwatches
He even created a professional camera called Trisystem (1969) and the Candy air conditioner (1970). He designed dinnerware for Alitalia airlines in 1970, which is still used today!
Living Systems and Futuristic Spaces
From the start of his career, Joe Colombo was very interested in "living systems." This meant creating furniture and spaces that could be easily changed and used in many ways.
His early Combi-Centre (1963) was a modular storage unit. This idea led to designs like the Additional Living System (1967–1968) and the Tube (1969–1970) and Multi (1970) chairs. These chairs could be put together in many different ways to create lots of sitting positions. This showed Colombo's main goal: making things variable and flexible.
Colombo's futuristic designs aimed to create "micro-living-worlds." His Visiona-Livingroom of the future was shown at an exhibition in 1969. This room looked like something from a space movie. Furniture became part of the room's structure, and traditional furniture was replaced by useful elements.
For example, he designed sitting cubes like Night-Cell and Central-Living. He also created the Kitchen-Box (1963), which was a kitchen on wheels! It measured 90x75x75cm and had a stovetop, oven, grill, refrigerator, cutting board, and storage. A slightly larger version of this kitchen box is still made today by Boffi Spa.
For his own apartment, Colombo designed the Roto-living and Cabriolet-Bed (both 1969). Later, his Total Furnishing Unit was shown at an exhibition in New York in 1972. This unit was a complete "living-machine" that included a kitchen, wardrobe, bathroom, and sleeping area, all in just 28 square meters!
Some of his other famous works include:
- The Elda Chair (1963)
- The Brillio Chair (1971)
- The Topo Lamp (1970)
Exhibitions and Awards
Joe Colombo's work has been shown in many museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
He also received several awards for his amazing designs:
- In 1964, he won the IN-Arch prize for his hotel room design in Sardinia.
- In 1967 and 1968, he received the ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale) prize.
- In 1970, he was awarded the prestigious Compasso d'Oro award.
See also
In Spanish: Joe Colombo para niños
