Ettore Sottsass

Ettore Sottsass was born in Innsbruck in 1917, grew up in Turin where his father was an architect, and studied architecture at the Politecnico di Torino before opening his own studio in Milan in 1947. His career ran through ceramics, furniture, glass, jewellery, lighting and buildings, with colour and pattern used as the argument of a piece rather than its decoration.

From 1958 he worked as a design consultant for Olivetti, where the red Valentine typewriter of 1969 became his best-known object. In 1980 he founded Sottsass Associati with Aldo Cibic, Matteo Thun and Marco Zanini, and in 1981 he launched the Memphis group, the Milan collective that put laminate, asymmetry and loud colour back into furniture. He won three Compassi d’Oro and died in Milan in 2007.