Joseph Cesare Colombo

Joe Colombo, pictured as always with his pipe

Joe Colombo was born in 1930 and died in 1971. He lived just 41 years but in that time he became a hugely influential and well known designer. Colombo was clearly a very colourful figure studying painting and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan before studying architecture at University.

It was by inheriting the family business that Colombo was able to apply his creativity to design. His father's factory manufactured electrical conductors. This allowed Colombo to experiment with the latest manufacturing techniques and materials.

Colombo believed that everyday problems could be solved with the use of modern materials, namely plastics. He believed that good industrial design should be available to the masses and not just the preserve of the very wealthy.

This is perhaps Colombo's most famous creation, the tube chair. Although it his not his only piece of modular furniture, in my view it is his most successful. I think it's an incredibly clever and stylistic piece of design. It allows the user to construct a chair using four modular components. The innovative connectors allow the product to be infinitely customisable with a huge array of shapes possible. When not in use, the tubes can be stored neatly inside each other like Russian dolls. It is a truly unique and elegant piece of design.

The smoke glass is a product that allows a user to hold a glass using just their thumb so that they can smoke with the same hand. This is obviously a design which is very much of its time but nonetheless, I like it for its eccentricity. It does solve a problem if a very minor one.

The 4801 is one of Colombo's many designs for contemporary Italian furniture manufacturers, Kartell. Designed in 1965, the chair remains in production to this day and still looks incredibly striking and modern. Colombo had originally envisioned the 4801 as a plastic product but the 1965 technology was simply not sufficient and so it was manufactured from wood. As of 2012 however, technology has finally caught up and a 4801 can now be bought in glossy PMMA.

Unfortunately, Colombo's ideals of his designs being available to the masses have not been realised. Below is a link to a page on the website of Wright's auction house documenting the sale of some of Colombo's furniture pieces. It shows that an example of the tube chair was sold at $12 650 with other items fetching similarly high sale prices.

http://www.wright20.com/search/COLOMBO 

Surely the idea of the tube chair being an exclusive, high priced item negates the whole point of it being modular and adaptable. It isn't designed to be a showpiece in someone's luxury apartment, it's designed as a practical solution to shortage of space and a changing living environment. I can't help but feel that Colombo's products have been taken hostage by elitist design snobs.

Despite its modern day price tag, I do like Joe Colombo's work. It doesn't always solve a big problem or solve the problem well but it is always quirky and interesting.