Luigi Colani

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Luigi Colani, (born in Berlin on August 2 1928 as Lutz Colani), is a Swiss-German industrial designer whose father comes from Madulain near St. Moritz in Switzerland and mother from Poland.

Image:LuigiColani-DesignTrucks.jpg

The prime characteristic of his designs are the rounded, organic forms, which he claims are ergonomically superior to traditional designs. His "kitchen satellite" from 1969 is the most prominent example of this school of thought. Many of his designs for small appliances are being mass-produced and marketed, but his larger designs have not been built in series.

The earth is round, all the heavenly bodies are round; they all move on round or elliptical orbits. This same image of circular globe-shaped mini worlds orbiting around each other follows us right down to the microcosmos. We are even aroused by round forms in species propagation related eroticism. Why should I join the straying mass who want to make everything angular? I am going to pursue Galileo Galilei's philosophy: my world is also round. —Luigi Colani.

His unconventional designs have made him famous, not only in design circles, but also to the general public. He has received numerous design awards.

Colani currently resides in Karlsruhe, Germany.

[edit] Career timeline

1946: Study of sculpture at the Akademie der Künste Berlin(academy of fine arts).

1948: Study of aerodynamics at Université de Paris-Sorbonne in Paris, France.

1953: Head of New Materials project group at McDonnell-Douglas in California.

1954: Receives the Golden Rose international prize for creation and design, in Geneva, Switzerland, for special Fiat bodywork; he is the originator of many Fiat designs in the coming years .

1957: Colani's Alfa Romeo design is the first sports car to clock a lap of under 10 minutes at the Nürburgring; it can now be seen in the Martini Rosso Museum.

1958: Racing catamaran success in Hawaii

1959: The world's first monocoque sports car: BMW 700

1960: World's first kit car in series: 1700 cars, Colani GT

1965: World-wide success with furniture design: Asko, Fritz-Hansen, Cor, Kusch+Co.

1966: Sports coupé, IAA Frankfurt

1970: Headquarters with major design team at Harkotten Castle near Sassenberg, Germany. Enormous success, work and exhibitions world-wide for many companies of major repute.

1972: Design of Eifelland Formula One car. First contacts with Japanese companies.

1973: First Far East study trip; Japan recognizes Colani's potential. Invitation by five companies to establish a Colani Design Center Japan. Rosenthal's Teapot Drop designed by Colani in Cooper-Hewitt Museum in N.Y.

1976: Construction of first plastic sports airplane with rotatary Wankel engine: Fanliner

1978: Revolutionary trucks, aircraft, car and ship studies at exhibitions world-wide

1981: Fuel economy world record set by the Colani 2CV (based on the French Citroën 2CV, 1.7 litres for 100km with the original 2CV engine and chassis.

1982: Relocation to Japan

1983: Professor in Japan/Tokyo

1984: No.1 industrial designer in Japan; Otaru exhibition, 60m large shell

1985: World: Colani Robot Theatre number 1 at the Tokyo Tsukuba Expo

1986: Receives the Golden Camera Award for the Canon T90. Colani motorcycle world record in Italy. Foundation of the Colani Design Bern, Switzerland.

1987: Colani exhibition at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Car design for Mazda, Japan. Pen design for Pelikan A.G., Germany

1988: Toulouse and Bremen branch offices. Professor h.c. of the Hochschule für Gestaltung, Bremen. Preparation on a wide-scale basis for record speed on land, water and air and economy world records in Utah, USA

1989: SONY headphones by Colani in Museum of Modern Art, New York. Formation of the company Colani Trading AG in Zürich, Switzerland

1990: Exhibition in Car Museum of Paris(so called :Centre International de l'Automobile); Presentation of the new SWISSAIR uniforms designed by Colani

1991: Creation of optical frames and jewellery collection; world record with Colani Ferrari on the Salt Lake in Utah, USA

1992: Computer mouse design for Sicos; creation of the Colani cosmetics range; Colani signs a contract with Europe's biggest computer chain VOBIS, Germany

1993: Presentation of the Colani field glasses; Shopping center exposition through Switzerland

1994: Colani Vobis Highscreen computer gets award for the Computer of the Year 1994. Cooperation with Carl Zeiss Jena

1995: Cologne, Germany opens new head office of Colani's design works. Designs for major companies in the construction and building industry. China's ambassador invited Colani for future projects to Shanghai, China, and he gets a professor title of the most famous University of Shanghai, Tongji

1996: Office furniture designs for Grahl, Michigan USA. Architecture project presentation for Shanghai, China, called Bio-City

1997: Creation of the new piano for SCHIMMEL, famous piano constructor. Start of the DESIGN-show through more than 30 shopping centers in Germany

1998: Start of a bank-terminal design project with one of the world's leading computer manufacturers. Design for a new microscope and photo camera at the Colani Shanghai office. Water-bottle design for CAROLINEN-Brunnen-Germany.

1999: Presentation of a new "shower" (bathroom-combination)-generation for the German company DUSAR. Furniture project with Kusch + Co., Germany. A world leader of porcelain, ROSENTHAL, Germany , plans to promote a special edition of the famous teapot "Drop" designed by Colani

2000: "Human-City" architecture model by MW Energie AG-Mannheim-Germany. COLANI-optical-frames presentation at optical-shows in Milano, Paris and Las Vegas.

2001: Design for a new microscope and photo camera (for Seagull) at the Colani Shanghai office.

6 exhibitions through shopping-malls (ECE-group) throughout Germany. COLANI-Calendar for Castrol-Germany.

2002: Leading Swiss mineral-water company VALSER (acquired by Coca-Cola in 2002) presents new bottle-design by Colani.

Start of another exhibition-tour through over 25 shopping-malls (until 2004) by ECE-Group. Opening of a world-leading Design-museum, Pinakothek , in Munich-Germany (including several COLANI-designs). Spitzer-Silo presents new COLANI-truck at IAA-Hannover-Germany.

2003: uniforms designed for the police Hamburg/Germany.

For hp-aircraft.de : design of the tt-62-plane - over 40 units of this business-jet sold already! Futuristic car design : Speedster shark (see "Visions")