Biography of Joe Colombo

Cesare "Joe" Colombo was born on July 30, 1930, in Milan, Italy. On that historic day, Colombo entered the world as host nation Uruguay defeated Argentina 4-2 in the final of the first FIFA World Cup. However, it was also the year following the October 1929 stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression, with all its hardships and deprivations, into which young Cesare was born.

It's no wonder, then, that Cesare, who would later call himself Joe, would develop a taste for good food, fast cars, and fine clothes as a result of the hardship he experienced. He spent his free time skiing with friends, playing jazz, and in jazz clubs. He mixed fantastic cocktails, and the tobacco pipe, a moralizing symbol of excess or vanity in painting, became his trademark. During his lifetime, he would have a reputation as a bon vivant, and one could Joe Colombo undoubtedly to be described as a dandy, a virtuoso of the art of living and lifestyle.

Gianni and Joe

As the eldest son of an electrical goods retailer – his brother Gianni was born in 1937 – Cersare Colombo grew up in the initially modest circumstances of an entrepreneurial family that suffered second-largest losses during the Great Depression. For the growing Cesare, it was natural to help out in the family business, and when his father died in 1959, the 29-year-old Colombo took over the family business and introduced a number of innovations, including innovative manufacturing techniques and modern materials. The family stuck together, and in 1962, Joe, together with his younger brother Gianni, presented a self-designed lamp that utilized the advantages of the new thermoplastic material acrylic glass, directing light from the source and radiating it indirectly: the Model 281. It quickly gained popularity. table lamp Due to the material used in its construction, it earned the nickname "Acrilica," under which it is still produced today by the Italian lighting manufacturer Oluce. But 1962 is not only the year of the Colombo brothers' first product development. In the same year, Joe opened a studio for industrial design and interior architecture in Milan. He saw his future in the (re)design of objects and living spaces.

Training and car dealership

Colombo's design training proved invaluable here. Until 1949, he had studied fine arts, specifically painting and sculpture, at the Accademia di Belle Arte di Brera, followed by architecture studies at the Polytechnic University of Milan until 1954. There, alongside Enrico Baj and Sergio Dangelo, Colombo was also a member of the design group "Movimento Nucleare," an artists' collective formed in 1950 in response to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, and the arms race between the superpowers, the USA and the USSR. In 1954, Colombo curated a ceramics exhibition for the tenth Milan Triennale. Following his studies, Joe Colombo earned his living as a sculptor and painter, specializing in abstract expressionism, and occasionally as a car salesman to make ends meet.

meteoric rise

Colombo's creative period lasted less than a decade, beginning in 1962 and ending in 1971. During this exceptionally productive time, he created a number of works, primarily commissioned pieces, as he became a rising star in the design world. His industrial design work included cars, watches, and the in-flight catering service for the Italian airline Alitalia. Abet Laminati, Alessi, Bayer, Bernini, Boffi, Bonacina Pierantonio, Candy, ICF Industrie Carnovali, Kartell, Olivari, Oluce, Progetti, Rosenthal, and Zanotta are just some of the many clients who continue to produce Joe Colombo's designs, some of which are still in production today. B—Line will reissue some of Colombo's design classics from the late 20th century that were later discontinued. Above all, the Roll container „Boby“", the "„Multichair“, both from 1970, the „Ring“ shelving module and the Crossed seat cushion, both from 1963, which he liked to use in his Milan apartment. In general, Colombo used his private rooms as a showroom in which he tested his design concepts and, incidentally, subjected them to the best possible practical test.”.

Design approach and design concept

The "Universale" stacking chair exemplifies Colombo's multifunctional design approach and distinctive design concept. Designed as early as 1964, the plastic chair could not be mass-produced by Kartell until 1967 due to the necessary technological advancements. The stackable chair is characterized by its modular construction: legs attached to a base frame could be individually extended to the desired height. In this way, Universale could serve not only as a kitchen and dining room chair, but also as a bar stool. The use of plastic, combined with the bold colors and organic forms employed by Colombo, is typical of 1960s design. However, the striking forms and multifunctionality are what make it truly impressive and exceptional. A bed is not just a bed, a shelf not simply a shelf.

Individual needs and changing residents

With "Ring," for example, a single, cuboid base element, made of metal and wood, can be multiplied and expanded into a decorative shelving system. Additional casters give the shelf an unusual degree of mobility. A completely new approach in an era of built-in wardrobes and wooden wall units. The "Multichair" and "Tube Chair" follow precisely the same principle, offering virtually limitless possibilities for use. Colombo envisioned the living space of the future not as a fixed, immobile backdrop, but as a multifunctional, interactive unit that adapts to the individual needs of changing occupants. Besides Colombo's own apartment from 1970, it is primarily the "Visiona 1" room installation, created for the Cologne Furniture Fair in 1969, that brings Joe Colombo's visionary utopias to life. It is said that Joe Colombo saw enormous potential in the extraordinary development of audiovisual processes and predicted that distances would no longer be of great importance in the future. Colombo also believes that the need to live in a metropolitan area like a large city will disappear, as will classic furnishings, since living space will simply be everywhere.

Greater efficiency – less ballast

Colombo's "Total Furnishing Unit" was first shown as part of the Visiona 1 installation and exhibited three years later at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Colombo's living unit consists of convertible furniture. At the Visiona 1 exhibition, it was complemented by a television built into the ceiling and a minibar integrated into swiveling walls. The "Total Furnishing Unit" comprises furniture that combines various functions in individual units. The result: the furnishings interact with the user, require significantly less space, and support an efficient, uncluttered life. If the elements necessary for human existence could be designed solely with the requirements of mobility and flexibility in mind, we would create a habitable system that could be adapted to any situation in space and time, Colombo argues.

Nomadic workers and open kitchens

What seemed futuristic during Joe Colombo's lifetime has become reality today: working nomads who travel the world with little personal baggage and work here today and there tomorrow, mobile furniture that is sometimes used as a bedside table, sometimes as a coffee table or as a shelf in the bathroom, or open kitchens adjacent to the living space or even integrated into it – all of this was indeed Joe Colombo's vision.

Driven by work

But Joe Colombo is not only a bon vivant, but also a workaholic. The extreme workload eventually takes its toll, and so his personal physician advises Colombo to slow down. On July 30, 1971, Colombo finally goes for a walk. While strolling through Milan, he is struck by... Designer A heart attack. The sudden cardiac death abruptly takes Colombo's life on his 41st birthday.

The Colombo design studio has been run by Ignazia Favata ever since. The Milanese designer has been Colombo's assistant since 1968. In 2004, in collaboration with the Italian furniture manufacturer B—Line, Favata launched the "Spinny" and "Spinny Fixed" shelving systems for Studio Joe Colombo. Joe Colombo's work is shown in rotating exhibitions worldwide and is part of permanent design collections, for example at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York, USA.

Cesare „Joe“ Colombo died young – his designs from the TAGWERC However, the visionary designer of Design STORE will live on forever.