Eric Degenhardt

Eric Degenhardt was born in Cologne, Germany. He studied Architecture at the Rheinisch Westfälisch Technische Hochschule in Aachen and has worked on several architectonical projects before he switched his focus towards furniture and industrial design - after spending a time in London.
Taking his idea of space and architecture, it was a logical step to move away from the big scale and move towards the smaller scale. It is the furniture and the products, together with the users, that finally define the function of an architectonical space.

Edward Moore

A practice born from varied design backgrounds and a vision for a studio that provides not only a professional service but bespoke architectural solutions.
Driven by a belief in the art of architecture as a global resource, and equally our place within it. We are a studio that promotes collaboration across the board, to achieve a high degree of support for the design, encouraging new insights that can lead to design innovation.
Paring back the brief to see past the conspicuous, we seek to provide inspirational spaces and a connection to nature and the individual.
From the large scale to the small, for public or for private, we are unassuming by nature, acknowledging the non-linearity of the process.
With an open mind and without preconceptions, we approach each project as an opportunity for architecture as a discourse.
Backed by critical thinking and a design methodology that eliminates compromise and crystallizes the brief, no matter how challenging.
Social milieu and place in time is fundamental, prompting innovation that takes its cue from the essence of local culture, while retaining relevance to the wider context of the world.
Driven by curiosity and exploration, yet bearing in mind budgetary constraints, we work with the client to achieve crafted, considered and provocative results.......more

ERAVOLUTION

ERAVOLUTION is a British design company in contemporary furniture and furnishings founded in 2010. The company challenges the traditional preconceptions of design in pursuit of creating a brand new concept of beauty, functionality, and sustainability.
Eric graduated from The Bartlett School of Architecture in 2004 and practiced architecture before starting up his own company in 2009. During his professional career Eric worked for celebrated architects Zaha Hadid and Future Systems. Amongst projects he worked on are some of the most prestigious such as the BMW Plant in Leipzig, the MAXXI Museum of Contemporary Arts in Rome, and the Condé Nast International Headquarters in London. Also are products such as the Fruit Bowl for Materialise MGX, acquired by MoMA New York and now forms part of The Collection.

Eric Gizard

Eric Gizard finds his sources of inspiration in the contemporary Decorative Arts. Passionate about contemporary design without ever forgetting the past, his spaces and objects always have a very innovative yet strongly personal feeling. Strong contrasts, unusual uses of materials and colours, creating a “chiaroscuro” effect of lights and darks, and an intelligent mixture of tradition and modernity – these are some of the things that define his trademark style.

As an intrepid explorer of design from around the world, his broad range of interests and talents has led him to work on a variety of different projects: apartments in Japan, a boutique for Jean Patou in Paris, a jewellery store in Miami, a private residence in London’s Notting Hill, and lounges for Air France around the globe…

His taste for discovery and eclecticism has evolved over time into a refined style that is about the creation of simple, elegant forms that come from contemporary ideals of lightness, fluidity, and clarity.

EOOS

The first floor of Zelinkagasse 2 can look back on an eventful past, because when the EOOS team took up residence in 2007, they were not the first creative group to have occupied this space. Before Martin, Gernot and Harald had decided on the 400 square meter floor of the late nineteenth century building near the town center, fashion designer Helmut Lang had already resided here, just as the architects of Coop Himmelb(l)au and not least the election campaign team of current Federal President of Austria. This exclusive circle of tenants can be explained by the especially convenient location of the building: lying on the direct route between the stock exchange and Schottenring, it is also only
a short 10-minute walk to Stephansplatz. And thank God there is a large selection of good cafés and restaurants in the area, so Gernot's, Martin's and Harald's celebrated daily lunch together is not ever likely to be endangered!

Electric Dreams

Electric Dreams is a Stockholm-based architecture/design studio formed by Joel
Degermark and Catharina Frankander in 2006. Joel is a product designer
trained at the Royal College of Art, London and Beckmans School of Design,
Stockholm. Catharina is an architect trained at the Architectural Association,
London, and Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. We specialize in brand environments and products. Our designs are much
about story-telling and themes, a fascination of playful exaggeration. We
like things that are too colourful, too weird, too beautiful, too dark, too many…
Our design is a lot about shifting scales, bringing two familiar things together
to create the unfamiliar, and playing with visual effects.

Elena Manferdini

In 2004 Elena Manferdini founded Atelier Manferdini, a design office that has been highly visible advocate of design excellence and has been recognized internationally for its ability to create imaginative architecture, fashion and object design. Currently the firm is designing a 250,000sft master plan in Macerata (Italy) including 80 apartments, a museum, a public library and an open theater. Atelier Manferdini has been selected to design a 150,000sft residential tower in Guiyang (China) along with other 9 leading design firms from all around the world. Her architectural projects have been exhibited internationally in both architecture and art museums: her work is currently showcased at IIC, in Los Angeles. Two years ago she was invited to design the West Coast Pavilion representing USA at the Beijing Biennale in the Chinese Millennium Museum. This year she is curating the West Coast USA session of the upcoming Beijing Biennale exhibition. Recently the firm has collaborated with numerous industries: MTV, Fiat, Nike, Alessi, Ottaviani, Valentino and FolliFollie are selected examples. In addition to leading her design practice, Elena Manferdini teaches design studios and technology seminars at SCI-Arc.

Eva Zeisel

Born in Budapest in 1906, Eva Stricker entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at age 17, intending to become a painter, but her mother prevailed upon her to learn some trade whereby she could earn a living, the world of fine art being chancy.
So Eva apprenticed herself to a traditional potter and began learning her trade.
The life of the apprentice in any of the trades was not always easy or pleasant, but Eva persisted and soon graduated to journeyman status.
Just a year after that her work was displayed at the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial, where she won an honorable mention.
By then she was working as a designer in the Kispester Factory in Budapest. She then advertised in the trade papers that she was a qualified journeyman seeking a position and received several responses.
When asked recently why she chose the particular one she did she replied, "Because it was the furthest from home." She wanted to travel and widen her experience of the world and at the same time increase her skills.
She moved to Schramberg, Germany,where she acquired skills in all phases of industrial production and became one of the first (and certainly the first woman) to move the ceramic arts into contemporary mass production.

Schramberg tea set & cake plate She later moved to Berlin and to other factories in Hamburg and throughout Europe.
In 1932 she went to Russia on vacation in order to experience the new artistic and social movements there, as did many other idealistic young artists and intellectuals.
As an experienced industrial designer she was soon offered a position assisting in the modernization of the ceramic industry, where her creativity and dynamism stood her well.
She traveled to many parts of Russia in order to understand and coordinate efforts to create a central manufactory which would make products for the homes of the everyday citizenry.
Her efforts were recognized, and she was soon transferred to the Lomonosov factory in Leningrad (the former Imperial Porcelain Factory).
This in turn led to her appointment as Artistic Director for the Porcelain and Glass Industries for the entire country.

In 1936, however, she was caught up in one of the Stalinist purges, accused of plotting against the life of Stalin.
She was imprisoned in the NKVD prison for 16 months, most of the time in solitary confinement. She was subjected to early forms of brainwashing, torture, and the constant possibility that each day would be her last. (Arthur Koestler, a lifelong friend, based his book Darkness at Noon on her prison experiences.)

Then one day she was unexpectedly led out of her cell to what she feared was to be her execution but was instead put on a train to Austria in the clothes she was standing in.
Just as the reason for her imprisonment was never really known, so is the reason for her release.

Once in Austria, she left on the last train out at the time of the Anschluss and went to England, where she married Hans Zeisel, who had waited seven years for her. In 1938 they went to New York where they settled permanently.

In 1939 she created the department of ceramic arts industrial design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where she taught until 1952.
One of her first designs in the U.S. was for Sears, Roebuck. She has since designed for Hall China, Red Wing China, Castleton China, Norleans Meito (Japan), Western Stoneware, Hyalyn, Phillip Rosenthal (Germany), Mancioli (Italy), Federal Glass, Heisey Glass, Noritake (Japan), Nikkon Toki (Japan), and almost too many others to mention.

Eva Zeisel has received many honors for her outstanding achievements, beginning with her selection in 1942 by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, to design a line of fine porcelain dinnerware for the Castleton China Company of Pennsylvania. The designs were not completed and produced until 1945, due to wartime restriction, but were presented at a one-woman show at MoMA in 1947.
Eva Zeisel website

Edward van Vliet

Dutch designer Edward van Vliet creates and realises projects for both national and international companies. In each case, the multidisciplinary designer focuses on introducing the client’s corporate identity or another specified image into a fully integrated design. An important factor is achieving a good balance of function, atmosphere and emotion, while following a path impervious to trends. The designer who started his career in textile design has evolved into product and interior design. The tactility of fabric still features in his exclusive interiors. Every interior features purpose-designed furniture, lighting and graphics melted into a strong concept. Add to all that an inspired incorporation of elements from various cultures.
Edward van Vliet website

eero aarnio

Eero Aarnio as pioneer in using plastic in industrial design

Aarnio was - and still is - one of the pioneers in using plastic in industrial design. Plastic material set the designers free to create every shape and use every color they wanted. This gave birth to objects oscillating between function and fun - but always fascinating ones.

The finnish designer Eero Aarnio, born in 1932, studied from 1954 to 1957 at the Institute of Industrial Arts in Helsinki and started in 1962 with his own office as an interior and industrial designer.

Engaged in new ideas of furniture he designed the Ball Chair (or globe chair) already in 1963.

It was produced some years later. Material (fibreglass) and shape were complete novelties for that time's furniture industry. The fibreglass ball is build on a metal swiveling base, and upholstered with foam/fibrefill. The original colors were white, red, black and orange.

website:http://www.eero-aarnio.com/