January 6, 2016 at 20:50ThinkPad Design Creator Richard Sapper Dies
Over his sixty-year career, Richard Sapper has been designing for the IBM ThinkPad line, Mercedes-Benz, Fiat, Alessi, Brionvega and other companies. He worked on things of all types, from cars to dummies and watches, but he is best known as IBM's chief industrial design consultant and developer of the first ThinkPad in 1992.
Richard Sapper died in Milan on December 31, 2015 at the age of 83.
Richard Sapper was born in Munich on May 30, 1932. Most of his life he worked in Italy, in Milan. He was one of the most influential designers of his generation, his products combined technical innovation, simplicity of form and witty solutions. Over sixty years of work, Sapper has received many prestigious design awards, including a dozen Premio Compasso d'Oro andLucky Strike Award . Sapper's products have become part of the permanent collections of many museums around the world, including the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the world's largest museum of decorative art and design.
The designer began his career at Mercedes-Benz, after which he joined the architectural company Gio Ponti and the design department of La Rinascente in 1958. In 1959, Sapper began working with Italian architecture and designer Marco Zanuso, their collaboration lasted 18 years until 1977. In 1959, they were both hired by the Italian Brionvega, an electronics manufacturer trying to compete with Japanese and German companies. Together, Sapper and Januso designed a series of radios, televisions and other consumer electronics items that later became icons in their field. This is primarily a portable Doney 14 TV and TS502 radio.
TV Doney 14 for Brionvega, 1962
Radio TS502 for Brionvega, 1963
In 1965, Sapper and Januso designed the Grillo phone by order of the Italian division of Siemens. For the sixties, this was a revolution in this area: the phone became miniature, and it can be called one of the first “clamshells”, although it was not mobile. A little earlier, designers developed chairs for children K1340 commissioned by Kartell - these were the first chairs made entirely of plastic.
Grillo for Siemens, 1965.
The Static desk clock for Lorenz allowed Sapper to take his first Compasso d'Oro award. In 1972, Sapper designed the Tizio table lamp. This lamp is one of the best selling that has ever been produced. Then there were office chairs, stopwatch for Heuer, coffee makers and kettles for Alessi. Richard Sapper opened his own studio in 1959.
Table Clock Static for Lorenz
Table lamp Tizio, 1972
In 1980, Richard Sapper became an IBM industrial design consultant and began designing laptop computers, including the ThinkPad 700C in 1992. IBM's gray machines turned into elegant, minimalistic black cases. And he created a surprise in the form of a red button in the middle of the keyboard - the famous trackpoint that allows you to control the cursor. For the rest of his life, Sapper continued to work with ThinkPad, a lineup that Lenovo Chinese bought in 2005, along with the entire IBM personal computer division.
ThinkPad 700c for IBM, 1992
ThinkPad X1 for Lenovo, 2012
Richard Sapper died at the age of 83 in the city where he spent most of his life in Milan. His daughter confirmed the death of the designer to Co.Design.
Sapper called one of his mistakes a rejection of Steve Jobs’s offer to go to work at Apple , where he would take Joni Ive’s place: “Of course, I regret it - the person who did this makes $ 30 million a year. So how not to regret it? ”
Richard Sapper died in Milan on December 31, 2015 at the age of 83.
Richard Sapper was born in Munich on May 30, 1932. Most of his life he worked in Italy, in Milan. He was one of the most influential designers of his generation, his products combined technical innovation, simplicity of form and witty solutions. Over sixty years of work, Sapper has received many prestigious design awards, including a dozen Premio Compasso d'Oro andLucky Strike Award . Sapper's products have become part of the permanent collections of many museums around the world, including the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the world's largest museum of decorative art and design.
The designer began his career at Mercedes-Benz, after which he joined the architectural company Gio Ponti and the design department of La Rinascente in 1958. In 1959, Sapper began working with Italian architecture and designer Marco Zanuso, their collaboration lasted 18 years until 1977. In 1959, they were both hired by the Italian Brionvega, an electronics manufacturer trying to compete with Japanese and German companies. Together, Sapper and Januso designed a series of radios, televisions and other consumer electronics items that later became icons in their field. This is primarily a portable Doney 14 TV and TS502 radio.
TV Doney 14 for Brionvega, 1962
Radio TS502 for Brionvega, 1963
In 1965, Sapper and Januso designed the Grillo phone by order of the Italian division of Siemens. For the sixties, this was a revolution in this area: the phone became miniature, and it can be called one of the first “clamshells”, although it was not mobile. A little earlier, designers developed chairs for children K1340 commissioned by Kartell - these were the first chairs made entirely of plastic.
Grillo for Siemens, 1965.
The Static desk clock for Lorenz allowed Sapper to take his first Compasso d'Oro award. In 1972, Sapper designed the Tizio table lamp. This lamp is one of the best selling that has ever been produced. Then there were office chairs, stopwatch for Heuer, coffee makers and kettles for Alessi. Richard Sapper opened his own studio in 1959.
Table Clock Static for Lorenz
Table lamp Tizio, 1972
In 1980, Richard Sapper became an IBM industrial design consultant and began designing laptop computers, including the ThinkPad 700C in 1992. IBM's gray machines turned into elegant, minimalistic black cases. And he created a surprise in the form of a red button in the middle of the keyboard - the famous trackpoint that allows you to control the cursor. For the rest of his life, Sapper continued to work with ThinkPad, a lineup that Lenovo Chinese bought in 2005, along with the entire IBM personal computer division.
ThinkPad 700c for IBM, 1992
ThinkPad X1 for Lenovo, 2012
Richard Sapper died at the age of 83 in the city where he spent most of his life in Milan. His daughter confirmed the death of the designer to Co.Design.
Sapper called one of his mistakes a rejection of Steve Jobs’s offer to go to work at Apple , where he would take Joni Ive’s place: “Of course, I regret it - the person who did this makes $ 30 million a year. So how not to regret it? ”