Luigi Colani (1928), is a German industrial designer of Kurdish descent .
His long career began in the 1950s when he designed cars for companies such as Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Volkswagen, and BMW. In 1957, he dropped his given first name Lutz and henceforth went by the name of Luigi. In the 1960s, he began designing furniture, and as of the 1970s, he expanded in numerous areas, ranging from household items such as ballpoint pens and television sets to uniforms and trucks and entire kitchens. A striking grand piano created by Colani is manufactured and sold by the Schimmel piano company.
His unconventional designs have made him famous, not only in design circles, but also to the general public. He has received numerous design awards, although his unconventional approach has left him largely an outsider from the mainstream of industrial design
After studying aerodynamics at the Sorbonne and a period spent in the United States working for aircraft-maker Douglas, where he was able to study the use of new materials, in 1953 he moved to SIMCA in France where he developed the very first fully plastic carbody. And ever since, the design and use of plastic has played a crucial role in his cosmos.
In 1955, Colani returned to his native Berlin, with a head full of great visions and a portfolio of international experience. Back in the former capital, he started to devise prize-winning chassis designs for high-end carbody makers Erdmann & Rossi and Rometsch. At the same time, he advanced his plastic designs and this culminated in the 1960s in his compact Colani GT sportscar, which was available as a DIY kit on a VW platform and swiftly emerged as an icon of life in the 1960s.
The plastic furniture Colani produced in the 1960s for German manufacturers made him a world-famous Pop star of design. In 1972, in the moated Castle Harkotten in Central West Germany, Colani the multi-talented genius established a "Designfactory" that gave a new shape to almost all spheres of life by bringing innovative shapes and revolutionary concepts to bear. In the 1970s, he prepared studies for high-performance gliders ready to sail across the Atlantic, oil tankers with new types of propellers, ecological cars that set world records using only 1.7l of gas for 100 kilometers, not to mention epoch-making products for the ceramic and sanitary industries, brought to market by the likes of Grohe and Rosenthal. The VW corporation paid Colani immense sums to gaze into the future and compile studies for the autos of tomorrow for them, and allowed him to use their works wind tunnel to test his fuel-saving carbodies and his high-speed vehicles.
By this time, Colani was the best-known designer the world over - recognizable by his "Colani" signature on all his designs and products as well as by the biodynamic forms he created, modeled after nature itself.
In the early 1980s, Colani started work for Canon, the leading camera manufacturer of the day, for Sony, the home electronics giant, and for carmakers Mazda, not to forget countless companies with a lifestyle focus. His SLR camera, the T90, became world famous and in 1988 Colani's organically shaped headphones for Sony, the very first of their kind, were purchased for the permanent collection at the New York Museum of Modern Art.
© 2018. All images are copyrighted © by Luigi Colani. The use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained.
Product and furniture design
Transportation design
Wallpaper design
His long career began in the 1950s when he designed cars for companies such as Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Volkswagen, and BMW. In 1957, he dropped his given first name Lutz and henceforth went by the name of Luigi. In the 1960s, he began designing furniture, and as of the 1970s, he expanded in numerous areas, ranging from household items such as ballpoint pens and television sets to uniforms and trucks and entire kitchens. A striking grand piano created by Colani is manufactured and sold by the Schimmel piano company.
His unconventional designs have made him famous, not only in design circles, but also to the general public. He has received numerous design awards, although his unconventional approach has left him largely an outsider from the mainstream of industrial design
After studying aerodynamics at the Sorbonne and a period spent in the United States working for aircraft-maker Douglas, where he was able to study the use of new materials, in 1953 he moved to SIMCA in France where he developed the very first fully plastic carbody. And ever since, the design and use of plastic has played a crucial role in his cosmos.
In 1955, Colani returned to his native Berlin, with a head full of great visions and a portfolio of international experience. Back in the former capital, he started to devise prize-winning chassis designs for high-end carbody makers Erdmann & Rossi and Rometsch. At the same time, he advanced his plastic designs and this culminated in the 1960s in his compact Colani GT sportscar, which was available as a DIY kit on a VW platform and swiftly emerged as an icon of life in the 1960s.
The plastic furniture Colani produced in the 1960s for German manufacturers made him a world-famous Pop star of design. In 1972, in the moated Castle Harkotten in Central West Germany, Colani the multi-talented genius established a "Designfactory" that gave a new shape to almost all spheres of life by bringing innovative shapes and revolutionary concepts to bear. In the 1970s, he prepared studies for high-performance gliders ready to sail across the Atlantic, oil tankers with new types of propellers, ecological cars that set world records using only 1.7l of gas for 100 kilometers, not to mention epoch-making products for the ceramic and sanitary industries, brought to market by the likes of Grohe and Rosenthal. The VW corporation paid Colani immense sums to gaze into the future and compile studies for the autos of tomorrow for them, and allowed him to use their works wind tunnel to test his fuel-saving carbodies and his high-speed vehicles.
By this time, Colani was the best-known designer the world over - recognizable by his "Colani" signature on all his designs and products as well as by the biodynamic forms he created, modeled after nature itself.
In the early 1980s, Colani started work for Canon, the leading camera manufacturer of the day, for Sony, the home electronics giant, and for carmakers Mazda, not to forget countless companies with a lifestyle focus. His SLR camera, the T90, became world famous and in 1988 Colani's organically shaped headphones for Sony, the very first of their kind, were purchased for the permanent collection at the New York Museum of Modern Art.
© 2018. All images are copyrighted © by Luigi Colani. The use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained.
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| Mr Luigi Colani |
Car design
Product and furniture design
Transportation design
Wallpaper design
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