Ettore Sottsass: Minimum Design

Minimum Design: An indispensable compendium on important designers of the modern era
An ideal and accessible introduction suitable for students and lovers of design today

Ettore Sottsass was an Italian architect and designer. His work included furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting and office machine design. His work was unique, much of it influenced by a desire to avoid corporate work, believing that to confine himself to the realms of mass-produced consumerist products would stifle his creativity. His design style shifted dramatically during his career, from the modernist typewriters and office furniture commissioned by Olivetti in the 60s to the vibrant and iconic pieces of furniture created for the collection from the Memphis Group, a group of architects and designers that he worked within the 80s and 90s.

Published in the same style as the successful Minimum Architects series, the Minimum Design series includes books about the major figures in the field of design, creators of objects that have become a part of our daily lives. The lamp on our desk, the chair we are sitting on or the glasses we are wearing have a genius behind them to be discovered.

These volumes will introduce in a practical manner the personalities and the works of the world's major designers by way of an historical-critical introduction to the work and life of each individual designer. An accurate selection of the designer's most famous objects arranged in chronological order and a critique of his or her work summarising the most significant reviews published in magazines and newspapers will complete the subject.