Richard Sapper
Encyclopedia
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
industrial design
Industrial design
Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...
er based in Milan, Italy. He is considered one of the most iconic designers of his generation, his products typically featuring a combination of technical innovation, simplicity of form and an element of wit and surprise. He has received numerous international design awards, including 10 prestigious Compasso d'Oro
Compasso d'Oro
Compasso d'Oro is the name of an Industrial Design award originated in Italy in 1954 by the La Rinascente company from an original idea of Gio Ponti and Alberto Rosselli. From 1964 it has been hosted exclusively by Associazione per il Disegno Industriale . It is the first and most recognized award...
awards and the Raymond Loewy
Raymond Loewy
Raymond Loewy was an industrial designer, and the first to be featured on the cover of Time Magazine, on October 31, 1949. Born in France, he spent most of his professional career in the United States...
Foundation's Lucky Strike award. His products are part of the permanent collections of many museums around the world, with over 15 represented at New York's Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
(MoMA), as well as London's Victoria and Albert and Design Museums.
After beginning as a designer in the styling department at Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
, Sapper relocated to Milan in 1958 where he initially joined the offices of architect Gio Ponti
Giò Ponti
Gio Ponti was one of the most important Italian architects, industrial designers, furniture designers, artists, and publishers of the twentieth century.-Early life:...
and subsequently the design department of La Rinascente
La Rinascente
La Rinascente is a Thai owned Italian retailer operating upscale department stores in the area of clothing, household and beauty products, founded in Milan in 1865 by Luigi and Ferdinando Bocconi....
. In 1959 he partnered with Italian architect and designer Marco Zanuso
Marco Zanuso
-The early years:Marco Zanuso was born in Milano May 14, 1916.He was one of a group of Italian designers from Milan shaping the international idea of "good design" in the postwar years. Trained in architecture at the Politecnico di Milano university, he opened his own design office in 1945...
, a collaboration that would last on and off for 18 years until 1977. The pair were hired in 1959 as consultants to Brionvega
Brionvega
Brionvega is an Italian electronics company, established in Milan in 1945, now located in Pordenone, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy.Former part of the Seleco-Formenti Group, after the crack down of the company, following price dumping from Turkish manufacturers, has been split in two parts.The rights...
, an Italian company trying to produce well-designed electronics that would compete with products manufactured in Japan and Germany. Together they designed a series of radios, televisions and other consumer electronics that became enduring icons. Amongst their more notable designs were the rounded, compact and portable Doney 14 (1962), the first television to feature completely transistorized construction, and the radio TS502 (1965), a rectangular box with hinges that upon opening reveals speakers and controls. Using the aesthetic of sculptural minimalism, they created the compact folding Grillo telephone
Grillo telephone
The Grillo telephone was designed in 1965 by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper. The telephone was manufactured in Italy by Società Italiana Telecomunicazioni Siemens...
for Siemens and Italtel in 1965. The Grillo was the first telephone featuring the flip-down mouthpiece, a precursor to the clambshell designs of today's mobile phones. In 1964, Sapper and Zanuso designed the lightweight K1340 stacking children's chair for Kartell
Kartell
Kartell is an Italian company that makes and sells plastic contemporary furniture.The company, headquartered in Milan, began manufacturing automobile accessories in 1949. It expanded into home furnishings in 1963....
, the first chair produced entirely in plastic.
Upon starting his own independent studio in 1959, Sapper designed the Static table clock for Lorenz, which won him the first Compasso d'Oro
Compasso d'Oro
Compasso d'Oro is the name of an Industrial Design award originated in Italy in 1954 by the La Rinascente company from an original idea of Gio Ponti and Alberto Rosselli. From 1964 it has been hosted exclusively by Associazione per il Disegno Industriale . It is the first and most recognized award...
prize and is still in production today. In 1972 Sapper designed the iconic Tizio
Tizio
Tizio is a desk lamp created by Richard Sapper for Artemide in 1972. It has been selected for the Compasso d'Oro industrial design award in 1979. An item of it is part of the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and of the Museum of Modern Art....
lamp for Artemide
Artemide
ArtemideArtemis , in the religions of ancient Greece is the daughter of Zeus and Leto and twin sister of Apollo. She was one of the most revered gods of Olympus and its origin dates back to ancient times. [1] In Roman times she was associated with Diana, while the Etruscans with the name...
, one of the first desk lamps using halogen bulbs with low-voltage current conducting arms to eliminate the need for wires. The Tizio
Tizio
Tizio is a desk lamp created by Richard Sapper for Artemide in 1972. It has been selected for the Compasso d'Oro industrial design award in 1979. An item of it is part of the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and of the Museum of Modern Art....
remains one of the best selling lamps ever produced. Sapper continued to create design classics including the Sapper Office Chair series for Knoll
Knoll (company)
Knoll is a design firm that produces office systems, seating, files and storage, tables and desks, textiles , and accessories for office and for the home. The company also manufactures furniture for the home by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Harry Bertoia, Florence Knoll , Frank Gehry, Maya Lin and...
in 1979, a series of stop watches for Heuer in 1976 and the Nena folding chair for B&B Italia
B&B Italia
B&B Italia SpA is an Italian modern furniture company whose luxury products are sold worldwide. The company was founded in 1966 by the Busnelli family, who currently manages the company. On March 1, 2011, the Busnelli family officially became majority shareholders of the company once again and now...
in 1984. In 1978 Alessi commissioned Sapper with the first product in a long series to come, the stove-top espresso maker 9090. It was followed, amongst other products, by the two-note whistling water kettle Bollitore in 1984, the Bandung teapot in 1990, the Coban espresso machine in 1997, the cheese grater Todo in 2006 and the Cintura di orione cookware series in 1986 and 2009, conceived with the collaboration of renowned chefs such as Roger Verge, Pierre and Michel Troisgros, and Alain Chapel
Alain Chapel
Alain Chapel was a French Michelin 3 starred chef, credited with being one of the originators of Nouvelle Cuisine.Chapel was born in Lyon, the son of Maître d' Charles and his wife Eva...
.
In 1980 Sapper was appointed principal industrial design consultant at IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and began designing numerous portable computers, including the first ThinkPad 700C
ThinkPad
ThinkPad is line of laptop computers originally sold by IBM but now produced by Lenovo. They are known for their boxy black design, which was modeled after a traditional Japanese lunchbox...
in 1992, which broke with the company's tradition of pearl-grey machines as a simple and elegant black rectangular box that would reveal a surprise inside: a small red button amidst the keyboard which would serve to control the screen cursor. Sapper continues today to oversee the iconic ThinkPad brand as design consultant to Lenovo after it acquired the IBM PC Division in May 2005.
Throughout his career, Sapper devoted great attention to transportation issues. He worked with Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
on experimental cars, especially on pneumatic bumper systems, and with Pirelli
Pirelli
Pirelli & C. SpA is a diverse multinational company based in Milan, Italy. The company, the world’s fifth largest tyre manufacturer, is present in over 160 countries, has 20 manufacturing sites around the world and a network of around 10,000 distributors and retailers.Founded in Milan in 1872,...
on the development of pneumatic structures. In 1972 he formed with architect Gae Aulenti
Gae Aulenti
Gae Aulenti is an Italian architect, lighting and interior designer, and industrial designer. She is well known for several large-scale museum projects, including Musée d'Orsay in Paris , the Contemporary Art Gallery at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Palazzo Grassi in Venice , and the Asian Art...
a study group for the development of new urban transportation systems, a theme which he pursued further for an exhibition at the XVI Triennale in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
in 1979 and which included the design of a bus for Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
that enabled passengers to stow their bicycles in a rack. His research culminated with the design of the Zoombike (no longer in production), a lightweight bicycle designed with aircraft technology to achieve the required strength and speed acceleration, which can fold as quickly and simply as an umbrella and easily fit into a car trunk.
Sapper's roster of clients include Alessi, Artemide
Artemide
ArtemideArtemis , in the religions of ancient Greece is the daughter of Zeus and Leto and twin sister of Apollo. She was one of the most revered gods of Olympus and its origin dates back to ancient times. [1] In Roman times she was associated with Diana, while the Etruscans with the name...
, B&B Italia
B&B Italia
B&B Italia SpA is an Italian modern furniture company whose luxury products are sold worldwide. The company was founded in 1966 by the Busnelli family, who currently manages the company. On March 1, 2011, the Busnelli family officially became majority shareholders of the company once again and now...
, Castelli, Heuer, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Kartell
Kartell
Kartell is an Italian company that makes and sells plastic contemporary furniture.The company, headquartered in Milan, began manufacturing automobile accessories in 1949. It expanded into home furnishings in 1963....
, Knoll International, Lenovo, Lorenz, Magis, Molteni Unifor, Pirelli
Pirelli
Pirelli & C. SpA is a diverse multinational company based in Milan, Italy. The company, the world’s fifth largest tyre manufacturer, is present in over 160 countries, has 20 manufacturing sites around the world and a network of around 10,000 distributors and retailers.Founded in Milan in 1872,...
.
Sapper has taught and lectured at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, the Kunstakademie Stuttgart, the University of Beijing, the Royal College of Art in London, the Domus Academy in Milan, the University of Buenos Aires, and the Hochschule fuer Angewandte Kunst in Vienna.
Sapper is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
in England and a Member of the Akademie der Kuenste in Germany. The German Design Council awarded Sapper a lifetime achievement award for his design work in 2009 and he was bestowed an Honorary Doctor degree from the University of North Carolina in 2010.