{"id":1737,"date":"2015-06-05T19:17:43","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T18:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=1737"},"modified":"2018-02-09T21:33:30","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T21:33:30","slug":"the-short-happy-life-of-joe-colombo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/the-short-happy-life-of-joe-colombo\/","title":{"rendered":"The Short Happy Life of Joe Colombo"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-1737 gallery-columns-4 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/BOBY-trolley-1968-designed-by-Joe-Colombo.jpg' rel=\"lightbox[1737]\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAYYAAADcAQMAAABOLJSDAAAAA1BMVEUAAACnej3aAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAACJJREFUaIHtwTEBAAAAwqD1T20ND6AAAAAAAAAAAAAA4N8AKvgAAUFIrrEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail lazy-img\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/BOBY-trolley-1968-designed-by-Joe-Colombo-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/BOBY-trolley-1968-designed-by-Joe-Colombo-38x38.jpg 38w, https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/BOBY-trolley-1968-designed-by-Joe-Colombo-800x800.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/BOBY-trolley-1968-designed-by-Joe-Colombo-150x150.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-wp-pid=\"1749\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ELDA-armchair-1964-designed-by-Joe-Colombo.jpg' rel=\"lightbox[1737]\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAYYAAADcAQMAAABOLJSDAAAAA1BMVEUAAACnej3aAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAACJJREFUaIHtwTEBAAAAwqD1T20ND6AAAAAAAAAAAAAA4N8AKvgAAUFIrrEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail lazy-img\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ELDA-armchair-1964-designed-by-Joe-Colombo-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ELDA-armchair-1964-designed-by-Joe-Colombo-38x38.jpg 38w, https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ELDA-armchair-1964-designed-by-Joe-Colombo-200x200.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ELDA-armchair-1964-designed-by-Joe-Colombo-150x150.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-wp-pid=\"1750\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/KD-27-lamp-by-JoeColombo.jpg' rel=\"lightbox[1737]\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAYYAAADcAQMAAABOLJSDAAAAA1BMVEUAAACnej3aAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAACJJREFUaIHtwTEBAAAAwqD1T20ND6AAAAAAAAAAAAAA4N8AKvgAAUFIrrEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail lazy-img\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/KD-27-lamp-by-JoeColombo-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/KD-27-lamp-by-JoeColombo-38x38.jpg 38w, https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/KD-27-lamp-by-JoeColombo-200x200.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/KD-27-lamp-by-JoeColombo-150x150.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-wp-pid=\"1751\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Total-Furnishing-Unit-1971.jpg' rel=\"lightbox[1737]\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAYYAAADcAQMAAABOLJSDAAAAA1BMVEUAAACnej3aAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAACJJREFUaIHtwTEBAAAAwqD1T20ND6AAAAAAAAAAAAAA4N8AKvgAAUFIrrEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail lazy-img\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Total-Furnishing-Unit-1971-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Total-Furnishing-Unit-1971-96x96.jpg 96w, https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Total-Furnishing-Unit-1971-38x38.jpg 38w, https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Total-Furnishing-Unit-1971-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Total-Furnishing-Unit-1971-298x300.jpg 298w, https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Total-Furnishing-Unit-1971.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Total-Furnishing-Unit-1971-150x150.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-wp-pid=\"1752\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Modern life and the future in the vision of an enlightened designer<\/p>\n<p>This year, 2011, is the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy.<\/p>\n<p>But in the very same year there\u2019s not only one anniversary to take notice of: Forty years ago, Joe Colombo \u2013 one of the top Italian industrial designers of all times \u2013 died of heart attack, aged only 41.<\/p>\n<p>This coincidence (1971-2011) brings to light an age when Italian design \u2013 along with the Finnish one \u2013 represented the aesthetics of a whole cultural phenomenon, which I personally would like to call Modernism.<\/p>\n<p>Born in Milan, 1930, Cesare \u2018Joe\u2019 Colombo had a vision of the future dominated by an almost childish dream of re-building people\u2019s living spaces and everyday life. Childish, I said, therefore incredibly serious (who said that children\u2019s games are easy?), while paying attention to the smallest details. In his vision, simple objects like tables, armchairs and even ashtrays, clothes and shoes had to become something more. More appealing to the view, but also more practical, like a late Sixties science-fiction film (2001: A Space Odyssey was Colombo\u2019s favourite film \u2013 you can easily perceive what interiors, volumes and general aspects that he wanted to highlight in his own work).<\/p>\n<p>His contribution to the most important Italian furniture design houses was (and still is) immense. During the 60s, his revolutionary ideas and concepts were realized in an industrial quantity by the likes of Kartell, Zanotta, Oluce, Boffi, Arflex and Alessi, to name but a few.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Colombo loved being photographed, often comfortably seated on one of his creations, with a grin and his pipe, a proper living-trademark of his own style. A white Elda armchair with its soft black or brown leather padding would have been fine for that, as he lived his design, like every user \u2013 he imagined &#8211; was supposed to do.<\/p>\n<p>Contemporary life, from the early Eighties till now, demonstrates how mass cultural philosophy changed from the \u2018design for living\u2019 concept of the late Fifties to early Seventies to the \u2018living for design\u2019 ethos that explains \u2013 so far \u2013 how the more recent culture of brands replaced the whole concept of \u2018life improvement through design\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>According to Colombo, design was the way to morally and physically make human life more enjoyable, in an age \u2013 the Sixties \u2013 when the term \u2018future\u2019 was about to be dominated by modular furniture and compact, all-purpose spaces that could have been taken from popular TV series like Star Trek or UFO, Joe Colombo had the intuition to turn \u2018space age\u2019 shapes, concepts and materials into normal life objects, with a fairly optimistic view of what the years to come should have looked like. The future is in your hands, the future is now.<\/p>\n<p>But such a revolutionary man did not survive to his creations and had no time to see that the Seventies \u2013 aesthetically speaking \u2013 were about to be pretty much the way he imagined them. A good visual proof is the 1971-1976 seasons of European and American TV series, wherein interior design, furniture and accessories echoed Colombo\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n<p>What remains of Joe Colombo\u2019s concept of the future? In an age \u2013 the twenty-first century \u2013 with a strong emphasis upon dull square\/cubical shapes (probably suggested by the lack of creativity of designers and users); there is still a need for more rounded, compact environments. They now call it \u2018vintage\u2019 or \u2018retro\u2019 furniture, just to dismiss that very idea and bury it into an indefinite past, but \u2013 as we know \u2013 it couldn\u2019t be more modern than that.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s neither vintage, nor retro. It\u2019s not past at all.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the future.<\/p>\n<p>By Max Galli<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Modern life and the future in the vision of an enlightened designer. But in the very same year there\u2019s not only one anniversary to take notice of: Forty years ago, Joe Colombo \u2013 one of the top Italian industrial designers of all times \u2013 died of heart attack, aged only 41.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,115],"tags":[121,236,179],"series":[],"class_list":["post-1737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design","category-objects","tag-eyeplug","tag-joe-colombo","tag-max-galli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1737"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8643,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737\/revisions\/8643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1737"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=1737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}