Joe Colombo

"The possibilities presented by the extraordinary development of audiovisual processes are enormous…… Distances will no longer have much importance; no longer will there be any justification for the 'megalopolis'….Furnishings will disappear…the habitat will be everywhere... Now, if the elements necessary to human existence could be planned with the sole requirements of maneuverability and flexibility..., then we would create an inhabitable system that could be adapted to any situation in space and time..." (Joe Colombo in 1965).

Cesare (named Joe) Colombo was born in Milan on July 30th in 1930. For a couple of years, the autodidact attended the Academy Brera and the Faculty for Architecture at the Politecnico in Milan. Before he became a designer, he worked as painter, engineer, car dealer (he never gave up his passion for cars) and entrepreneur in the electro-branch-.

The utopia of Joe Colombo’s design seized many of the hopes that predominated in Italy and Europe in the 60’s, without being attached too much to ideological barriers. Below a couple of the most important stations in Colombo’s advancement to a designer of international repute, the epitome of an era.

• in 1963 he opened his first design studio in Milan
• in 1964 he won 3 medals at the XIII. Triennale in Milan
• in 1967 he won the first “Compasso D’Oro”
• in 1968 he gained his first “Design International Award” in Chicago
• in 1969 three of his products were already part of the permanent collection of the MOMA
• on July 30th in 1971, his 41st birthday, he died far to early

Website by Joe Colombo