Ettore Sottsass

Ettore Sottsass was an Austrian designer, born in Innsbruck in 1917. He studied Architecture at the Turin Polytechnic, where he graduated in 1939. After his studies, Sottsass enlisted in the Second World War, and after his release, he returned to Italy in 1947 and began working in Milan. In 1958, he began his long-term collaboration with Olivetti as a design consultant; this collaboration lasted for more than thirty years and earned Sottsass numerous awards, including three Golden Compasses.

In 1980, Sottsass first founded “Memphis” in collaboration with other designers, and during this time, he developed a vision of design as an instrument for social criticism. He believed that design is a way to discuss society and politics, and a way to build a possible figurative utopia or to build a metaphor of life.

"It's clear that if I am designing architecture, I need to know things that are not the same as what I have to know to design a glass vase. But apart from these technical differences, there still remains, deep down, what I think of life, why I do things, and what I imagine happens when I design something. So I don’t see the point of any clear-cut distinction between disciplines." - Ettore Sottsass