December 2011
93 posts
Treston Oy Palaset Storage System, 1970
Ristomatti Ratia (born 1941) is a Finnish designer and son of Armi Ratia, Marimekko’s founder. Ristomatti Ratia has created a wide range of products. Many of these have become familiar classics, such as the popular Marimekko shoulder bag, designed in 1970 for Marimekko, and the Palaset storage line.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1958
Charles Lee Moore (March 9, 1931 – March 11, 2010) was an American photographer most famous for his photographs documenting the American civil rights era.
Moore was born in 1931 in Hackleburg, Alabama. He served three years in the U.S. Marines as a photographer and then attended the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California.
In 1958, while working in Montgomery, Alabama for...
Bolle Bottles, 1968
The Bolle Bottles were designed by Tapio Wirkkala for Venini in 1968.
Tapio Wirkkala (1915-1985) was an artist of exceptional diversity. His work ranges from plastic ketchup bottles and metal ware to advanced unique pieces of glass, ceramic and wood. Wirkkala’s designs from the 1950’s reflect natural forms – such as leaves, mushrooms and melting ice.
Lane Acclaim End Table, 1963
In 1912, John Lane purchased a box plant in Altavista, Virginia. His son Ed Lane, twenty-one at the time and with little manufacturing experience, was encouraged by his father to try his hand at starting a chest factory in the newly acquired plant. From cedar chests, Lane expanded to occasional tables in 1951, casegoods in 1956, and accent pieces in 1965.
1957 Fiat 500
The Fiat 500 is a car produced by the Fiat company of Italy between 1957 and 1975, with limited production of the Fiat 500 K estate continuing until 1977. The car was designed by Dante Giacosa.
Launched as the Nuova 00 in July 1957, it was marketed as a cheap and practical town car. Measuring only 3 metres long, and originally powered by a tiny 479 cc two-cylinder, air-cooled engine, the...
Konditori Valand, 1954
Stellan Åström designed the interior of Stockholm’s Konditori Valand, which features royal boards on the walls, teak tables and chairs and an Italian black stone floor, in 1954.
G-Plan Sideboard, 1963
G-Plan was a pioneering range of furniture in the United Kingdom, produced by E Gomme Ltd of High Wycombe.
In 1953, Donald Gomme, the designer at E Gomme, decided to produce a range of modern furniture for the entire house which could be bought piece by piece according to budgets. The name was coined by Doris Gundry of the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, and the furniture was advertised...
Mesa Coffee Table, 1953
T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (1905 – 1976), who studied architecture at the University of Liverpool and London University, moved to the United States from London in 1930, where he became an advocate of modern design, creating custom contemporary interiors. The largest and most influential line of furniture Gibbings designed was for the Widdicomb Furniture Co., which introduced his first collection in...
Paul Newman, 1955
Born to Russian parents in Philadelphia, USA in 1913, Eve Arnold began her photography career while working at a photo finishing plant in New York City. Having studied photography for just 6 weeks with Alexei Brodovitch at New York City’s New School for Social Research in 1948, Eve Arnold passionately embraced photography as a profession as well as a personal means of self expression. Eve...
Suspension Chair, 1949
Harvey Probber designed the Suspension Chair in 1949.
Harvey Probber (1922-2003), born in Brooklyn, New York, was an American furniture and interior designer.
A design autodidact in a profession largely dominated by formal architectural training, he began his creative career at age 16 when he designed a sofa. Eventually, he established a workshop, Harvey Probber Inc. in Brooklyn.
An astute...
Blenko Tangerine Series, 1964
Blenko Tangerine Series designed by Joel Philip Myers, 1964
Blenko Glass Company, located in Milton, West Virginia, was founded in 1921 by William J. Blenko, an English glass craftsman.
In 1947, Blenko hired a full-time design director, Winslow Anderson, who received the Museum of Modern Art’s Good Design Awards in 1950. Blenko’s historic period, the focus of collector and cultural...
Number 3, 1968
Number 3 by Robert Indiana, 1968
Robert Indiana, an American artist associated with the Pop Art movement, Robert Indiana was born in New Castle, Indiana in 1928. His family relocated to Indianapolis, where he graduated from Arsenal Technical High School. He moved to New York City in 1954 and joined the pop art movement, using distinctive imagery drawing on commercial art approaches blended with...
Braun SK4 Turntable, 1956
Braun GmbH is a German consumer products company based in Kronberg, Germany.
In 1956 the company introduced its famous SK4 record player (Snow White’s Coffin), designed by Dieter Rams with the pioneer of system design, Hans Gugelot. Rams soon became the most influential designer at Braun and a key figure in the German design renaissance of the late 1950s and 1960s.
Sankyo Flip Clock, 1968
The Sankyo Flip Clock was designed in 1968 by the Sankyo Seiki company in Japan, which started up in the aftermath of World War II, using the latest in automation.
Artichoke Pendant Lamp, 1958
The Artichoke Pendant Lamp was designed by Poul Henningsen in 1958.
Poul Henningsen (1894-1967), Danish author, architect and critic, was one of the leading figures of the cultural life of Denmark between the World Wars. In Denmark, he is often referred to as PH.
Eames Hang-It-All, 1953
The classic Eames Hang-It-All was designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1953.
Marilyn Monroe, 1956
Elliott Erwitt (b. 26 July 1928 Paris, France) is an advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white candid shots of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings— a master of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “decisive moment”.
Vogue, 1949
Clifford Coffin, Photographer 1913-1972.
Coffin is known as one of Vogue’s lost photographers. For over a decade, he produced some of its most elegant fashion pictures. His portraits are equally fascinating as a document of art and society across the globe in the early post-war years.
He covered the couture collections for Vogue in 1948 and 1954, and took one of the few photographs of...
The Herron House, 1957
The Herron House, a 1957 mid-century modern residence in Venice, Florida was designed by Victor Lundy, an architect who studied under Walter Gropius during his master’s program at Harvard. After traveling extensively abroad on a Rotch Traveling Scholarship, Lundy worked at different firms in New York City. He established his own firm in Sarasota in 1954.
Coffee Hour, 1972
Jacqueline Casey worked as a graphic designer for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1963 to 1990 and her poster designs promoted activities and events on or around the campus. In 1992, the MIT Museum donated the pasters to the RIT Library, RIT, in accordance with Ms. Casey’s requests upon retirement.
Enamel Coffee Pot, 1957
The Finnish interior designer Antti Nurmesniemi (1927-2003) is considered one of the pioneers of the Finnish design industry. Antti Nurmesniemi studied at the University of Arts and Design Helsinki before entering into an architectural practice from 1951 to 1956. In 1953 he married Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi, a leading textile designer for Marimekko.
During his career Nurmesniemi created a wide...
Teenage Couple on Hudson Street, NYC, 1963
Diane Arbus (1923-1971) was a New York photographer known for her black and white portraits of eccentrics, carnival performers and, as she put it, “freaks.” The daughter of fur merchants, she married Allan Arbus at 18. Together they had a fashion photography business for more than a decade, but in 1959 they ended their partnership and marriage and Diane began studying fine art...
Winter Residence, 1966
William F. Cody was born in 1916 in Dayton, Ohio and studied architecture at USC. Following graduation in 1942, Cody moved to Palm Springs in 1946.
Cody was first employed as a staff architect for the Desert Inn Hotel, before designing the Del Marcos Hotel in 1947. A subsequent project, the conversion of the 1936 Thunderbird Ranch to Thunderbird Country Club, led to design commissions for...
Conference Armchair / Compass Desk, 1953
Jean Prouvé (8 April 1901 - 23 March 1984) was a French metal worker, self-taught architect and designer. His main achievement was transferring manufacturing technology from industry to architecture, without losing aesthetic qualities. His design skills were not limited to one discipline. During his career Jean Prouvé was involved in architectural design, industrial design, structural design...
The Arthur Elrod House, 1968
The Arthur Elrod House in Palm Springs, California was used in Diamonds Are Forever, the 1971 James Bond film. The home was designed in 1968 by Architect John Lautner.
The Frank Sinatra House, 1946
Twin Palms Estate, 1148 Alejo Road, Palm Springs, California.
Designed in 1946 by E. Stewart Williams for Frank Sinatra and his first wife, Nancy Barbato. Located in the Movie Colony neighborhood of Palm Springs, California. This legendary home is noted for it`s piano-shaped swimming pool.
Persol 649S, 1957
Persol is an Italian eyewear company specializing in sunglasses. The name is derived from “per il sole,” which, in Italian, means “for the sun.” Formed in 1917 by Giuseppe Ratti, Persol originally catered to pilots and sports drivers. Presently, the company is famous for its durable sports sunglasses. Its trademark is the silver arrow (often referred to as the...
Poolside Gossip, 1970
Increasingly heralded for his influence, Slim Aarons (October 29, 1916 - May 29, 2006) established his place in the Pantheon of great postwar photographers. It was Aarons who perfected, if not invented, the environmental portrait while photographing the international elite in their exclusive playgrounds during the jet-set decades of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, carrying out his...
Saul Bass
Saul Bass (May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was a graphic designer and filmmaker, best known for his design of motion picture title sequences.
During his 40-year career Bass worked for some of Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Amongst his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of...
Marlon Brando, 1951
Marlon Brando by Richard Avedon, 1951.
Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004) was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that “his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America’s image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century.
BMW E9
The BMW New Six CS (internal name BMW E9) was a two-door coupé built for BMW by Karmann from 1968 to 1975. It was developed from the New Class-based BMW 2000CS coupé, which was enlarged to hold the BMW M30 straight-6 engine used in the E3 sedan.
The E9 platform, especially the 3.0CSL homologation special, was very successful in racing, especially in European Touring Car Championship and the...
Philco Predicta, 1958
Created in 1958 by Philco designers Richard Whipple and Severin Jonassen, this classic is more than just a TV. The Predicta came in a variety of models, colors and materials, some customized specially for the client.
The Kaufmann House, 1946
The Kaufmann House (a.k.a. Kaufmann Desert House) is a house located in Palm Springs, California that was designed by architect Richard Neutra in 1946.
Richard Joseph Neutra (April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970). Educated in Vienna and Zürich, Neutra moved to the U.S. in 1923. His most important early work was the Lovell House, Los Angeles (1927 – 29), which features glass expanses and...
Lampadaire Trois Bras, 1952
Serge Mouille (24 December 1922 - 1988) was a French industrial designer and goldsmith. He is best known for his light fixture designs.
At the age of 13, he was admitted to the École des Arts Appliqués, where he earned a diploma in silversmithing.
After having worked a few years in the workshop of Gabriel Lacroix, he opened his own workshop in 1945 with the intention of creating silverware...
Chieftain Chair, 1949
Finn Juhl (1912–1989) studied architecture at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen and with Danish architect Vilhelm Lauritzen, but as a furniture designer he was self-taught.
Juhl began designing furniture in the late 1930’s, and soon became known for his unusual, expressive and sculptural pieces.
In 1951, Finn Juhl’s design for the interior of the Trusteeship Council Chamber at the UN...
