Joe Colombo

Cesare "Joe" Colombo (30 July 1930 – 30 July 1971) was an Italian mid-century modernist industrial designer. He studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan until 1949 and then architecture at the Politecnico di Milano…

Biography

Background

Cesare "Joe" Colombo (30 July 1930 – 30 July 1971) was an Italian mid-century modernist industrial designer. He studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan until 1949 and then architecture at the Politecnico di Milano until 1954. In 1951 he joined the Movimento Nucleare and worked as an abstract painter and sculptor before giving up painting for design. In 1959 he took over the family company, which produced electrical appliances, and in 1962 he opened his own interior design and architecture practice.

Signature Style

Colombo was driven by living systems and variability: modular containers, furniture that could be assembled in many positions, and compact "micro-living" units in which furniture became architecture. He experimented with new materials and production technologies, from moulded fibreglass to ABS plastic.

Notable Works

Acrilica lamp (1962, with his brother Gianni)
Elda armchair (1963) for Comfort
Spider lamp (1965) for Oluce, Compasso d'Oro 1967
Universale chair No. 4860 for Kartell, the first adult chair in ABS
Boby trolley, Tube chair (1969–1970) and Multi chair (1970)
Total Furnishing Unit, shown at MoMA's "Italy: The New Domestic Landscape" (1972)

Legacy

Colombo designed for Oluce, Kartell, Bieffe, Alessi, Flexform, Stilnovo and Boffi. He received the IN-Arch prize (1964), ADI prizes (1967, 1968) and the Compasso d'Oro (1970), and his work is held by museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He died of a heart attack on his 41st birthday in 1971.