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Gordon Guillaumier, the explorer
Harmonies Magazine

Harmonies Magazine

Gordon Guillaumier, the explorer

by
September 15, 2020
gordon-guillaumier-face-to-face-tacchini-override
Face to Face sofa for Tacchini

It is with a singular lightness, a worked minimalism, a pure line and a soft geometry that Gordon Guillaumier has conquered the largest international companies. It stands out for its modern style and the search for shapes, revitalizing our daily life while being suitable for practical and comfortable use.

Maltese of origin, it is in Switzerland and England that the talented Gordon Guillaumier studied, before obtaining his diploma in Industrial Design, from the prestigious IED in Milan, in 1991, then a Master in the same discipline, from the Domus Academy the following year. Before presenting his designs for the brands Foscarini, Artemide and FontanaArte, he began his career with an apprenticeship at Baleri Associati in 1993, and in the same year worked with the architect and designer Rodolfo Dordoni. He then worked as a team and artistic strategy coordinator alongside Enrico Astori on two collections, Atlantide and Dhouse for Driade, teaches Italian interior architecture.

Ten years after graduation, in 2002, he launched his studio in Milan, designing products for important international companies, such as Minotti, Moroso, Tacchini, Bosa, Paola C, Gebrüder Thonet Vienna, DeSede, Montina , Roda, Foscarini, Lema, Oluce, Pamar, Kronos Ceramiche and Ceramiche Piemme. In March 2018, Guillaumier was appointed artistic director of Desalto, the domain’s benchmark in Milan. His minimalist style is appealing, because he handles, with great skill, the combination of utility and aesthetics. Indeed, its parts are designed to be stable and practical, designed in flexible and light materials. His work touches every room of the house, from furniture and lighting, to handles, bathroom accessories and outdoor furniture.

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Contemporary concept, sober and elegant lines, colors and muted tones resolutely in tune with the times, noble and quality materials… The multiple creations designed and sculpted by Terry Dwan have everything to seduce us. Take a look at this outstanding talent. An architect and designer at the same time, Terry Dawn has, for a long time, established his notoriety on the international scene, thanks to his remarkable style. Based in Milan, this native American but adopted Italian uses a language of her own. Born in 1957, in Santa Monica, California, United States, she began her career after studying engineering and architecture at Rice University, Houston, in addition to training in Fine Arts at Studio Arts Center International (SACI) in Florence, Italy. The designer, who won the Fulbright Fellowship to study the architecture of cemeteries and war monuments in Italy, graduated from Yale University in Architecture in 1984. After an experience alongside Antonio Citterio, with whom she collaborated from 1985 to 1996 and founded the Citterio/Dwan office, working on several projects and residential complexes, fairs and exhibitions, notably in Switzerland, Japan, Germany and Italy, she opened her own design agency in 1992 and got involved in great designs, whether in architecture or decoration. A book entitled Antonio Citterio & Terry Dwan: Ten years of Architecture and Design, signed by Pippo Ciorra, was published on the occasion of the exhibition that the duo organized in Bordeaux in 1993. At the same time, it multiplies design projects for the biggest publishers and won numerous awards at international competitions. In 1996, she began by developing industrial design plans for firms such as Sawaya and Moroni, Electrolux, San Lorenzo and Driade. An accomplished designer, she juggles with forms, materials and concepts, questions obvious codes, experiments and explores eclectic universes: from the architecture of private residences, public buildings and interior decoration, through the design and the from salon and exhibition design to furniture and porcelain or silver objects, she is interested in everything and comes out with flying colors. Marrying current vision with everyday functionality, some of her works are part of the permanent collection of the Design Museum at the Milan Triennale. Passionate, her career is marked by numerous explorations of the material where wood, her material of choice, occupies a privileged place. She enjoys working with it revealing its multiple aesthetic qualities, through several everyday basics, many models of which have become emblematic, such as Maui, seat in scented cedar wood, edited by Riva 1920, and the Napa armchair, object oscillating between functional piece of furniture and biomorphic sculpture, or even Implement, a desk composed of two juxtaposed and misaligned wooden boards. Her collaboration with Driade is crowned by the timeless Burgos and Bedda sofas. A sought-after speaker around the world, Terry Dwan has taught architecture at SACI, Florence, and co-taught architectural heritage conservation at the University of Milan. Since 2006, she has been Dean of the Council of the School of Architecture at Yale University and a member of the SACI Board of Trustees.
Terry Dwan, multifaceted designer

He received numerous awards, including Interzum 2011 Award for its Maniglia Loop porcelain handle for Pamar, Wallpaper Design Award 2014 for the elegant outdoor furniture, including the Orson wooden lounge chair for Roda, ADI XXIV 2016 Compasso d’Oro for the Brick extendable table for Roda, Adi Ceramic Design Award, Cersaie 2016 for the Bits & Pieces interior furniture collection and, finally, Archiproducts Design Award 2016 for the original and pragmatic Chill-Out desk system, made for Tacchini. While the pursuit of perfection is often the primary concern in industrial styling, Gordon is, in his own words, intrigued by the imperfection of objects and the spontaneousness of creation. The artistic spirit is his common thread in the design of his works, since what he seeks, above all, is to grant emotion to forms, to transmit them a spirit by giving them movement. He communicates his knowledge by teaching at the Faculty of Industrial Design of the Politecnico in Milan.

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