Konstantin Grcic

Konstantin Grcic (born 1965) is a German industrial designer known for creating mass-manufactured items, such as furniture and household products. Described as having a pared down aesthetic, his functional designs are characterized by geometric shapes and unexpected angles.[2][3][4]

Konstantin Grcic
Born1965 (age 54–55)
Munich, Germany
OccupationIndustrial designer
Known forFunctional designs, geometric shapes, simplicity and high tech materials
Notable work
Chair_ONE, Mayday lamp, MIURA stool[1]
Websitehttp://konstantin-grcic.com

Background

As a child Grcic loved to build things and during high-school he restored furniture.[5]

Grcic studied cabinetry making at the John Makepeace School in London, starting in 1985.[2] Three years later, he took a class in furniture-design at London's Royal College of Art. Grcic worked with British designer Jasper Morrison in the late 1980s until 1990, when he began designing furniture for SCP, one of London's largest design stores.[2] He credits his time in London for helping develop his individual style, describing "... his experiences in England as stirring his creative potential."[6]

Career

Portfolio

Grcic founded his studio, "Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design" (KGID), in 1991 in Munich, Germany. Working with a staff of five, he creates "... pieces that have been described as both revolutionary and intelligent."[3] According to the New York Times, he has a "... rigorous focus on logic, utility and simplicity".[7]

With an emphasis on usability, Grcic is known for having a spartan approach to design, relying on geometric forms, unusual angles and hard edges. He has created installations and developed products such as furniture, lighting, watches, tableware, espresso makers, and even umbrellas.[7][8] Grcic became recognized for his 1995 Refolo trolley, 1997 Wanda dish rack, 1998 award-winning Mayday lamp, 1999 ES shelf and 2001 Chaos chair.

His iconic 2004 Chair_One and 2006 Miura stool are both described as being comfortable to sit on, despite their oddly shaped compositions.[2] Grcic has a philosophical approach to design, especially when it comes to seating products, his favourite objects to tackle, "Designing chairs touches issues of society, how we live...How life changes - that’s most interesting.".[6]

He has used cutting edge technology, such as high-tech ceramics and 3D modeling software, to create his mass-produced items. Advanced engineering plastics were the basis of his award-winning Myto Chair, launched at the Milan Furniture Fair in 2008.[9][10][11] Grcic also relies on low-tech solutions to advance the design process, manually creating and deconstructing rough paper models.[12] An engineering-oriented approach and extensive research make up his methodology, something attributed to his upbringing, "...his penchant for amassing large amounts of data before he starts to work is nothing if not German."[6]

Chair_One, 2004

His furniture and lighting designs, including the likes of OK pendant light and Noctambule lighting pay testimony to his signature ability to thread the needle between restraint and playfulness.[13]

Exhibits and media

In 2009, the Chicago Art Institute held a retrospective of Grcic's work.[14] Zoë Ryan, who curated the exhibit, states that the designer "is very mindful of how we interact with and use objects".[6] In 2014, a Grcic exhibition of fictional products was showcased at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany.[10][15] His design pieces are also found in the permanent collections of the MoMA in New York City and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.[16][17][18]

In 2005, London's Phaidon Press published the first book examining Grcic's body of work.[19] Other publications include monographs accompanying his museum exhibitions.[20][21] He is also the subject of various design books like "How to Design a Chair", as well as "Chroma: Design, Architecture and Art in Color" where he mentions how the Lego color palette has inspired him.[22][23] A film about Grcic's developmental process was screened at "A Design Film Festival 2017" held in Singapore.[24]

In 2009, Grcic curated an exhibition called "Design Real" at the Serpentine Gallery in London, England. He selected products with a practical function, from well known and lesser known designers, which reflected the first ten years of the millennium.[25][26][27] In 2010, he curated two shows, one for France's "St. Etienne Design Biennale"[28][29] and the other for the Istituto Svizzero (Swiss Institute) in Rome.[30][31]

Grcic has also participated in design initiatives happening in Belgrade, Serbia, such as speaking at "Belgrade Design Week" or sitting on the juries of the "Mikser Festival" and the "University of Arts in Belgrade" final year competition.[32][33][34] Concerning the burgeoning design scene in Serbia's capital city, Grcic has said,"I was not sure what to expect but I encountered a fantastic atmosphere and amazing people."[33][35] The 2014 retrospective exhibition on Grcic's work, Panorama, held at the Vitra Design Museum, featured the installation Life Stage. Life Stage was a fictitious product meant as a mobile power source made of the eco-friendly resin Acrodur.[36]

Awards and honours

In 2001, Grcic received a "Compasso d’Oro" award for his Mayday lamp.[37] He won another "Compasso d’Oro" in 2011 for his Myto chair.[38][39] He won two "Designpreis Deutschland" prizes, from the Government of Germany, for his Chair_ONE and Miura stool in 2006 and 2007 respectively. In 2006, his Miura stool also received a "Best of the Best" Red Dot award and an IF Design Award.

In 2010, Grcic was named "Designer of the Year" at Design Miami, where he also created an installation consisting of seating made with polypropylene netting.[7][40] In 2016, Dezeen magazine listed him as number 14 on their list of top 100 designers, based on the 48 articles written about him.[41] That same year he also received the "Best Designer of the Year" award at the Salone del Mobile in Milan.

gollark: I mean, my phone is vaguely waterproofed and could be used probably okay as long as all the ports are closed.
gollark: Of course, osmarks interweb notes™ lack such problems, and do not need to use fixed-size ordered pages, which are a mere implementation detail of real-world systems.
gollark: You actually can, it's just hacky and bad.
gollark: Easy portability and stuff is together.
gollark: I doubt the "covid measures" will be gone before mid-2021 at best.

References
  1. "MIURA stool".
  2. Rawsthorn, Alice. "Utility Man".
  3. "Designer Konstantin Grcic on His Meteoric Career and What the Future Holds".
  4. "Designer: Konstantin Grcic - Genuine Designer Furniture and Lighting". cultdesign.com.au.
  5. "Konstantin Grcic". www.hermanmiller.com.
  6. McGrane, Sally. "Industrial Designer Focus: Konstantin Grcic".
  7. McKeough, Tim. "Konstantin Grcic on Being Designer of the Year at Design Miami".
  8. "Konstantin Grcic redesigns Rado's Ceramica watch". 7 September 2016.
  9. "Myto chair by Konstantin Grcic - Dezeen". 23 March 2008.
  10. "A Witty Designer's Time Travel".
  11. "'Let's just assume this is possible and see what happens': Konstantin Grcic's design ethos". 24 October 2017.
  12. Rawsthorn, Alice. "Utility Man".
  13. "Konstantin Grcic, the master mind".
  14. "Konstantin Grcic: Decisive Design - The Art Institute of Chicago". The Art Institute of Chicago.
  15. Sisson, Patrick. "Q&A: industrial designer Konstantin Grcic".
  16. "Konstantin Grcic. MYTO chair. 2007 - MoMA". www.moma.org.
  17. "Konstantin Grcic - Centre Pompidou".
  18. "Konstantin Grcic - Magis". www.magisdesign.com.
  19. "Konstantin Grcic | BD Barcelona Design". Bdbarcelona.com. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  20. Kries, Mateo; Lipsky, Janna (21 September 2018). "Konstantin Grcic: Panorama". Vitra Design Museum – via Google Books.
  21. Grcic, Konstantin; Nollert, Angelika; Filser, Hubert (21 September 2018). "Konstantin Grcic". König – via Google Books.
  22. Museum, Design (15 November 2010). "How To Design a Chair". Octopus Books – via Google Books.
  23. Glasner, Barbara; Schmidt, Petra (16 October 2009). "Chroma: Design, Architecture and Art in Color". Walter de Gruyter – via Google Books.
  24. "A Design Film Festival 2017: Konstantin Grcic". Designfilmfestival.com. 2017-10-29. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  25. "Design Real".
  26. "Design Real at the Serpentine Gallery - Dezeen". 24 November 2009.
  27. Gallery, Serpentine (21 September 2018). "Design Real". Serpentine Gallery – via Google Books.
  28. "konstantin grcic: 'comfort' exhibition at saint étienne biennale 2010". 23 November 2010.
  29. "Biennale 2010 / Home_". www.biennale2010.citedudesign.com.
  30. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-04-03. Retrieved 2018-04-02.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  31. "GRCIC, Konstantin in "Enciclopedia Italiana"". www.treccani.it.
  32. "Young Balkan Designers 2015 — 'Common Grounds' competition winners announced". 27 March 2015.
  33. "KONSTANTIN GRČIĆ / KGID (DE)". 29 June 2016.
  34. "Belgrade Design Week". DisegnoDaily.
  35. Beaumanis, Viia. "On the Verge - Belgrade, Europe's Latest Urban Success Story".
  36. Rawsthorn, Alice (2014-03-24). "A Witty Designer's Time Travel". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  37. "Konstantin Grcic to receive Designer of the Year Award at Design Miami/ - Dezeen". 18 October 2010.
  38. www.webservicesrl.com, Web Service Internet Solutions S.r.l. -. "ADI - Associazione per il Disegno Industriale". www.adi-design.org.
  39. "Konstantin Grcic".
  40. "Netscape by Konstantin Grcic at Design Miami/ - Dezeen". 9 December 2010.
  41. "Konstantin Grcic - Dezeen Hot List 2016".
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