Hi guys
I am an Aussie Journalist, writing a feature story about famous designer/manufacturer partnerships that endured. I already have the obvious two - Eames/Herman Miller and Jacobsen/fritz Hansen. Can anybody suggest any others, perhaps more contemporary, and not too obscure as it is a mainstream publication.
Cheers
Stephen
"The" historical exemples are
of course the very first one:
Peter Behrens for AEG and in the U.S.
Henri Dreyfuss for Singer. Although the first one was employed by AEG and Dreyfuss was a consultant. I do not know how relevant this is for your article but some relations were almost exclusive like (in chronological order:
Alvar Aalto/Artek
Elliot Noyes/IBM
Dieter Rams/Braun
Carsten Jorgensen/Bodum
Jonathan Ive/Apple
and a zillion others
and others very loyal and significant, like:
Joe Colombo/Kartell (Philippe Star only did a few pieces)
Enzo Mari/Danese
Erik Magnussen/Stelton...and why not
Sir Terence Conran/Habitat
I disagree with the Eames Herman Miller combination which should be
George Nelson/Herman Miller
and than there are of course a multitude of designers that are manufacturers of there own products. Most known is probably Dyson for the vacuumcleaners and David Mellor for cutlery of the same name.
I am going to reply both questions..
at the same time. As you might expect Martin, I was going to put Poul Kjaerholm and E. Kold Christensen right on the top for a unique synergy that started the interest of the world for Danish furniture, but without underestimating the scope of the article I felt that it was difficult to do justice to that special relationship in what Stephen calls "Mainstream media"...I might be wrong. As to my preference for George Nelson over the Eames's, I think it is simply a matter of historical fact that the collaboration between the "entrepreneur" that Max De Pree was and the "designer" points to George Nelson and not to the different designers he introduced into the Herman Miller company.
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