The Backbones of Contemporary Design

In the last two articles, we looked at the European design stars of the last century. As Zweig wrote in When the Stars of Mankind Shine, "I want to look back on some of these moments when the stars shone - I call them that because their light never dims, shining on the fading night". These designers in the hall of fame changed the history of design forever, and their design values have illuminated the way forward for future generations.

Today, let's take a look at five rather new stars in the design world: Piero Lissoni, Mauro Lipparini, Ferruccio Laviani, Gordon Guillaumier, Rodolfo Dordoni, who have been influenced by the masters that came before them, but have also found a balance between design tradition and innovation, bringing new energy to many top home furnishing brands.

01 Piero Lissoni - Minimalist Gentleman of Humanistic Elegance

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Piero Lissoni was born in Seregno, Northern Italy in 1956 and graduated from Politecnico di Milano in 1978 under the tutelage of Italian design master Achille Castiglioni. Seregno is a famous furniture producing area in Italy and Piero's father is an antique furniture restorer. Piero was influenced by his hometown environment and his father's interest in painting and home deco aesthetics, which later laid the foundation for his design career.

Today Piero Lissoni is the creative director of many top home furnishing brands and has worked with brands such as Alpi, Boffi, Bonacina1889, B&B Italia, Cassina, De Padova, Desalto, Fantini, Flos, Fritz Hansen, Kartell. In 1986, Piero Lissoni and Nicoletta Canesi founded the interdisciplinary studio Lissoni & Partners in Milan, working in the fields of architecture, interior and product design. In 2013, Piero Lissoni founded Lissoni Architecture to undertake international architectural projects and in 2015 opened a New York office for interior design for the US, Canadian, Central and South American markets, with global projects including private villas, residences, offices, factories, theaters, restaurants, hotels and yachts.

” Piero Lissoni is known for his minimalist designs, on the one hand, his designs are rigorous and simplistic, focusing on the fluidity and elegance of details and the harmony of proportions, and on the other hand, his designs contain a sense of humanism. He believes that as an architect, he should respect architecture as much as he respects people, considering every detail of the building from the outside to the inside, because "those details are as important as the nerves and veins of the human body."

In Piero Lissoni's designs, the word "simplicity" always means something, his design mentality is flexible and open, even when designing a yacht, he gives it an architectural and philosophical dimension "It is a floating building... a coherent, open space, a floating villa at sea. " He is also an excellent product designer, and has always maintained a childlike enthusiasm for design, regardless of the size of the project and whether it is important in the definition of others.

Piero Lissoni's designs are also a representation of his character. His understanding of human nature and life, his understated and restrained elegant gentleman style, which are distilled in each of his works, convey an aesthetic value that nourishes people. Piero Lissoni's creations always have a quiet power, precious in the design world, allowing people to leave out the disturbing noise for a while and return to their true nature.

02 Mauro Lipparini - 自然极简主义代表 The Leader in Natural Minimalism

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Mauro Lipparini was born in Florence, Italy in 1956 and graduated from the University of Florence in 1980 with a degree in architecture. From an early age, he was inspired by Florentine Renaissance architecture and art, and after graduating from university, he went to Japan, where he lived and worked for several years, and these experiences both back home and abroad have profoundly influenced his subsequent design work.

Later, Mauro Lipparini still chose Italy as the ideal place for his research and creation. He is one of the leading figures of Italian minimalism, which is characterized by clean and powerful shapes and lines, to which Mauro Lipparini adds his own hint of playfulness, a surprising possibility, by freely using bold colors, organic textures and imaginative visual concepts that expand the range of traditional minimalist tones. If we use one word to sum up his style, it is natural minimalism.

Over the past decades, Mauro Lipparini's designs have included a wide range of projects from furniture to textiles, as well as interior design for private residences, commercial showrooms, offices, restaurants and more in Europe and Japan. He inherits the Renaissance tradition while maintaining an almost friend-like relationship with his clients, who enjoy a very personal and customized service that has developed a reputation in the industry.

Mauro Lipparini's influene has been recognized globally. In 2011, he was a winner of the Good Design® Global Awards, the world's most prestigious honor in design. He is a past champion, as well, of the Young & Design Milano and International Du Pont Award Köln international design competitions. In the home furnishing world, he has collaborated with brands like Arflex, Arketipo, Bonaldo, Giorgetti, Knoll, Lago, Ligne Roset, MisuraEmme, Natuzzi Italia, Potocco etc.

For Mauro Lipparini, design exists between the tension of aesthetics and functionality. Design is the art of democratization. It is the object itself; it is also the tradition and the culture; it pursues beauty and poetry through the interweaving of material, color, thickness of surface, light and shadow. It is no wonder that he calls his natural minimalism "essentialism". Perhaps to create good design, one is also to understand the essence of life.

03 Ferruccio Laviani - The Designer Who Doesn't Want To Be An Artist

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Ferruccio Laviani was born in 1960 in Cremona, the violin capital of Italy, and graduated in 1978 from the International Institute for Woodworkers and Luthiers (Istituto Professionale Internazionale per l’Artigianato Liutario e del Legno di Cremona). He soon realized that he did not want to be a luthier and decided to follow his true passion, entering the Faculty of Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and graduated in 1986, under the tutelage of national treasures Achille Castiglioni and Marco Zanuso. In 1983 he started working in the De Lucchi studio, became a partner in 1986, left the firm in 1991 and opened his own studio in Milan.

He works as an architect in product design, interior design, art direction and graphic design. In the field of home furnishing, he has collaborated with brands such as De Padova, Frag, Flos, Foscarini, Kartell, LEMA, MisuraEmme, Moroso, etc. and has been the artistic director of Kartell. In 2008, an exhibition of lamps he designed for Kartell was held in Milan. Two of the lamps, Bourgie and Take, are in the permanent collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art in the USA.

With his extensive experience as a designer, he is frequently invited to speak at universities, design schools, exhibitions and cultural design institutions, and in 2018 he was invited to Shanghai to lead a conference for Tongji University's College of Design and Innovation.

Born in the 80's, Ferruccio Laviani is a big fan of the Memphis School and likes to listen to 80's disco music. The design brands he admires are those that made design history in the late 80s and early 2000s, such as Cappellini, Moroso, Driade... He believes that these companies incorporated the highest artistic value into industrial products, without losing the industrial character. For Ferruccio Laviani, industrial design is a scientific discipline with clear rules, where products are mass produced, so he has never been very interested in limited edition design. However, even though industrial products follow the mass production rules, it does not mean that the design cannot be poetic, and Ferruccio Laviani is very fond of experimenting with new materials and constantly exploring new paths.

Unlike many mavericks, Ferruccio Laviani wants his products to be liked, which for him is the first condition for an object to be called "successful". Ferruccio Laviani is one of those designers who does not want to be an "artist" and whose experience is perhaps less eye-catching than those with an artist label, but it is the perfect reflection of the Italian artisan spirit.

04 Rodolfo Dordoni - Design With No Expiration Date

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Rodolfo Dordoni was born in Milan in 1954 and graduated from the Politecnico di Milano in 1979 with a degree in architecture, following in the tradition of the Italian masters like Castiglioni, Zanuso, Magistretti and de Lucchi.

Over the years, his designs have covered furniture, commercial showrooms, exhibitions, residential projects, industrial buildings, restaurants and hotels. He has collaborated with home furnishing brands such as Cassina, Flos, Flou, Foscarini, MDF Italia, Minotti, Poliform, Poltrona Frau, Roda, Zanotta, etc. In 2005, he founded the Dordoni Architecture Studio with Alessandro Acerbi and Luca Zaniboni, specializing in architectural planning and interior design. In 2014 he received the Compasso D'Oro Award, one of the highest honors in the design world.

Rodolfo Dordoni is a true Milanese who has never settled in another city and has many similarities with the city of Milan. He is discreet and does not like to attend grand events in public. Just like his style, his design style is rational, minimalist, not to be a crowd pleaser and has a calm power.

He doesn't like to think about design in terms of fashion or a trend, and doesn't like designs that last only a few years. He wants to create designs that have no expiration date. In his design philosophy, the word "continuity" can often be found, which runs counter to today's desire-filled consumer market, and is something that leaves a mark in time.

He says that since he has already completed many projects, in the future he would like to take more time for himself, his friends and his dog, to have more time to feel the details of life around him, and perhaps get more inspiration from this "proximity". For Rodolfo Dordoni, he doesn't want to tell users directly who he is, but allow the users to see everything that happens around him through his perspective, to "borrow his eyes" in a sense, and the users' understanding of his works is the best understanding of himself.

05 Gordon Guillaumier - The Wisdom of the Relaxedness

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Born in Malta in 1966, Gordon Guillaumier studied in Malta, England, Switzerland and Italy before graduating in 1991 from the Industrial Design Department of the IED European School of Design in Milan and later obtaining a Master's degree in Industrial Design from the Domus Academy in Milan.

From 1992 to 1995, he worked with the aforementioned Rodolfo Dordoni, launching his career. By 1995, he started a collaboration with the well-known Italian furniture brand Driade, assisting in the design of new collections, and in 2002, he set up Studio Gordon Guillaumier in Milan, taking on various product design, interior design, architectural design, showroom design and consulting projects.

Gordon Guillaumier's designs cover a wide range of categories, including interior and exterior furniture, lighting, ceramics, rugs, tableware and ornaments, and has collaborated with home furnishing brands such as Minotti, Lema, Moroso, Roda, Thonet, Tacchini, Desalto, Driade, Oluce. Foscarini, DeSede, Frag, Bosa, Paola C, Ceramiche Piemme, Azzurra, etc. After having worked as design director for Desalto, Dornbracht Interiors, Pamar and Ceramiche Piemme, since 2016 he has been working with Rodolfo Dordoni as artistic director of the outdoor furniture brand Roda.

Gordon Guillaumier is known for his elegant and minimalist style, and his works can often be seen with a comfortable and relaxed "looseness" that always seems to speak the language of sunshine. At a time when people increasingly need to slow down their lives, his works eschew the noise of the world while make people feel at peace. Perhaps this power of calmness is also due to the wisdom that comes from his rich life experience.

Over the years, Gordon Guillaumier's products have won numerous awards, including the Wallpaper Design Award in 2014 (Roda's Orson lounge chair) and the Compasso D'Oro Award in 2016 (Roda's Brick table). Guillaumier has taught at Italy's top design schools, including Politecnico di Milano and Abadir Design Academy in Catania, among others.

Today Guillaumier works with the young talents in the studio to come up with ideas for various customized projects. As a small but agile team, they deliver the emotional value of elegance and freedom with a flexible and innovative design culture.

From these designers, we can see the shadow of Memphis, the spirit of modernism, and various design and cultural wealth left by their predecessors. Perhaps their lives are not as sensational and legendary as those of the masters who passed away, but in a way they also better serve this current era.

In this environment of information noise, some people choose to be a steady, non-artist designer, while some integrate the concept of "proximity" and "slow life" into the kernel of design value. In their own ways, they found themselves at ease, not chasing any one trend, but constantly polishing, trying to perfect, making designs with no expiration date, and perhaps this is exactly why they are such stars in the design world today.

Planning：JP Concept China

Supervisor：Yi

Editor：Xinwei

Images' copyright：brands' and designers' websites