Designers hanging out together

Memphis
The Memphis Group was an Italian design and architecture group founded in Milan by Ettore Sottsass in 1981 that designed Post Modern furniture, fabrics, ceramics, glass and metal objects from 1981-1987. Here they are hanging out in the Tawaraya boxing ring bed by Masanori Umeda, a Japanese architect collaborating with Memphis at the time.

and here they are again.

Bauhaus students
Bauhaus was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. This is a photo from Edmund Collein’s collage ‘extension of the preller building’ 1928, a farewell gift for teacher Walter Gropius.

Front
Front Design is a design group composed of three women (one appears to have left the group) based in Stockholm, Sweden: Sofia Lagerkvist, Charlotte von der Lancken and Anna Lindgren. They have created some of the most innovative designs seen in the last five years using animals, throwaway doodles, 3D printing and humour in their designs.

Kaj Franck & co
Franck was the artistic director at Arabia and here he is taking a much deserved break together with other artists at the factory. Pictured: Kaarina Aho, Saara Hopea, Ulla Procope and Kaj Franck.

Snowcrash
Snowcrash was a collective of Finnish designers who came together in the late 1990s to revitalize Finnish design. During a short time they made several classics and later moved on to have individual prosperous careers. Pictured:  Ilkka Terho, Timo Salli and Ilkka Suppanen as well as the Chip and Airbag chairs.

Kurt Ekholm & co
Most of the artists at Arabia next to the furnaces in 1945. Pictured from the left are Aune Siimes, Michael Schilkin, Toini Muona, Friedl Holzer-Kjellberg, Kurt Ekholm, Lea von Mickwitz, Birger Kaipiainen and Rut Bryk.

More people hanging at Arabia
These folks are designers at Arabia in the 1940s, from left to right: Kyllikki Salmenhaara, Sakari Vapaavuori, Toini Muona, Hilkka Säynäjärvi, Lea von Mickwitz, Aune Siimes, Birger Kaipiainen, Frield Kjellberg, Kurt Ekholm, Raija Tuumi and Rut Bryk.

Wirkkala family
This is just a normal family photo but there are three designers and one artist at the table: Tapio Wirkkala, Rut Bryk, Maaria Wirkkala and Sami Wirkkala.

Bauhaus #2
Inauguration of the new Bauhaus in December 1926. Left to Right: Wassily Kandinsky, Nina Kandinsky, Georg Muche, Paul Klee and Walter Gropius. Photo by Walter Obschonka.

Wilhelm Kåge & Stig Lindberg
Two of Gustavsberg’s artistic directors together discussing new ceramic models.

Robin and Lucille Day
Both were designers, she making fabrics and he making mostly furniture. They met at an RCA dance in Britain in 1940 and spent their lives together in a creative partnership. Both lived into their 90s and passed away in 2010.

Eames, Bertoia, Saarinen & co
This is from a Playboy shoot in July 1961 and they managed to get all the American greats in one photo: George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames and Jens Risom.

Alvar Aalto and Aino Aalto
These two lovebirds have between them designed enough classics to last you a lifetime. In this early 1930s’ photo they’re relaxing next to a river somewhere in Europe.

Percy von Halling Koch, Verner Panton, Inger and Poul Henningsen
Verner Panton, Poul and Ingrid Henningsen were all directly involved in product design in one way or another. They were also quite famous. Halling Koch on the other hand is perhaps not. He was a Danish businessman and among other things he worked with designer Nanna Ditzel to develop a furniture fabric, now sold and used in many places.  Curiously enough he also did an ad for the headache cure Samarin.

The designers Sylvia Leuchovius, C-H Stålhane, Birger Kaipiainen, Hertha Bengtsson och Marianne Westman hanging out at Stålhane’s place.

The designers at Arabia’s sister company Rörstrand in Sweden created iconic designs in the 1940-1960’s and managed to find some time to sit down together for this lovely portrait.

Shogo Suzuki, Yki Nummi, Lisa Johansson-Pape and Svea Winkler playing with lamps at the Stockmann-Orno lamp department in the early 1960s.

Ejner Larsen (1917-1987), Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen (1907-1993), Peter Hvidt (1916-1986), Hans J Wegner (1914-2007), Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971), Aksel Bender Madsen (1916-2000), Ib Kofod-Larsen (1921-2003) & Finn Juhl (1912-1989) hanging out together with their respective chairs. This one probably mirrors the one with Eames, Bertoia, Saarinen & co.

Pauli Ernesti Blomstedt in the middle with his wife Märta Blomstedt (née von Willebrand) on the far right, both architects and designers from the 1920s until Pauli’s death in 1935. The others are employees at their architectural firm.