Philippe Starck was born in Paris on 18th January 1949 the son of an aircraft designer, it is he who probably inspired the young Starck. Even at a very early age Starck showed enthusiasm for design. Starck lives and works in Paris. Products designed by Starck can be seen on display in the collections of a number of European and American museums, among them the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and the Museum of Design in London. Exhibitions of his work, either alone or in conjunction with that of other designers, have been held, among other places, in Paris, Marseille, Rome, Munich, Düsseldorf, Kyoto, Tokyo, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.
Paola Navone is the exception on the Italian design scene. For the past thirty years she has been a welcome feature of the otherwise male-dominated Italian design elite. In the 80s, Navone was active in the avant-garde design movements Alchimia and Memphis. In 1988, she created the Mondo brand together with Giulio Cappellini. After living for many years in Hong Kong, Navone now sees herself as an enlightened and enlightening !Źethnic nomad!—.
Antonio Citterio, born 1950 in Meda, Italy, studied architecture at the Milan Polytechnic. In 1972 he began work as a designer and consultant in the field of industrial design, before joining Terry Dwan as a partner at Studio Citterio/Dwan from 1987 96. He held a teaching position at the Domus Academy in Milan from 1990-92 and was an external examiner for the Furniture Design course at the Royal College of London from 1993-95, before becoming a docent at La Sapienza University in Rome in 1997.
Fabio Novembre was born in Lecce in 1966. In 1984 he moved to Milan where he graduated in Architecture at Politecnico four years later. In 1993 he lived in New York where he attended a Cinema course at the New York University. During his american stay he got to know Anna Molinari and he realized for her his first interior project: the shop “Anna Molinari Blumarine” in Hong Kong. In the same year he opened his studio in Milan. From 2000 to 2003 he become art director for Bisazza, contributing to brand international restyling. In 2008 the Comune of Milan dedicates a solo exhibition in the Rotonda di Via Besana as prestigious location named “ Teach me the freedom of swallows”, while in 2009 the Triennale Design Museum of Milan invited him to create a personal exhibition named “Il Fiore di Novembre”. In 2010 the Comune of Milan charges him of an exhibition inside the Italian Pavillion on the occasion of the Shanghai Expo. An important project that shows the way forward the international dimension that will increasingly involve Fabio Novembre in the upcoming future.
Greta Grossman (1906-1999) maintained a prolific forty-year career on two continents: Europe and North America. Her achievements were many and encompassed industrial design, interior design and architecture. In 1933, having successfully completed her fellowship at the renowned Stockholm arts institution, Konstfack, she opened Studio, a combined store and workshop. During the same year Grossman married jazz musician, Billy Grossman with whom she later emigrated to the United States, settling in Los Angeles. Through the 40's and 50's Grossman exhibited her designs at museums worldwide, including MoMA in New York and The National Museum in Stockholm.
Roberto Lazzeroni, born in Pisa, began his professional life with the study of art and architecture in Florence and the interests he developed during his training, in particular in the conceptual art and radical design movements. In the early 1980s, Lazzeroni made his professional debut with a series of important works in the field of “interior architecture” that immediately attracted attention and were published in Italian and foreign periodicals. Lazzeroni considers “interior architecture” to be a necessary discipline, a sort of “training field” in which to glean varied experience in materials, techniques, and problems inherent to design in the home. A fundamental step for anyone approaching the world of product design. Receptive to the history of design and its “signs,” with a personal stylistic flair that Lazzeroni spontaneously defines as “sentimental design.” It is in fact easy even for the non-expert eye to sense the link between past and future in Roberto Lazzeroni’s projects: his is design that does not parade industrial geometries, but neither does it embody frivolous affectations of aestheticism; it gives objects their correct places in history, in tradition, in an individual and collective autobiography. Lazzeroni’s peculiar understanding of design led him to specialize in concept development: the ideas underlying the creation of new trademarks. The Cecotti Collection experience, begun in 1988, has since been flanked by work with other companies. Roberto Lazzeroni’s life in design is a highly dynamic professional itinerary that, today, sees him involved in many areas, including design collaboration with prestigious firms, art direction, and interior and contract design in many parts of the world.
Robert Dudley Best (1892-1984) was heir to the world's largest lighting factory, founded in Birmingham in 1840. Despite its proud history, Best felt that the lamp designs produced by the factory were outdated. In 1925, Best visited the International Exhibition of Modern Design in Paris, where many of the designs exhibited were influenced by the work of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. Inspired by what he had seen, Best began his studies of industrial design in Paris and Düsseldorf, where he became close friends with Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus movement. It was during this time that he made the first sketches of what would become the iconic Bestlite design.
Patricia Urquiola was born in Oviedo, Spain, and currently lives and works in Milan. She studied at the faculty of Architecture at the Madrid Politecnico and at Politecnico di Milano, where she graduated in 1989. From 1990 to 1996 she served as assistant professor to Achille Castiglioni and Eugenio Bettinelli at the Politecnico di Milano. During this time she has also led the product development department at DePadova, where she designed together with Vico Magistretti. In 2001 she opened her studio of product design, display, and architecture. She has worked with leading manufacturers. Urquiola has received prizes including Designer of the Year, Elle Decor International Design Awards, Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award, and the Design Prize Cologne.