Ross Lovegrove for Vondom

Ross Lovegrove: industrial designer

Born in Cardiff, Wales, in 1958, Ross Lovegrove graduated with an honours degree in industrial design from Manchester Polytechnic in 1980, then a Master of Design from the Royal College of Art in London in 1983. He started out at Frog Design in Germany, working on projects for Sony and Apple, before joining Knoll International in Paris and creating the Alessandri Office System. In 1984 he joined the Atelier de Nîmes alongside Jean Nouvel and Philippe Starck, working with houses such as Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Dupont, before opening his own studio, Studio X, in London in 1990.

An "organic essentialism" in the service of form

Ross Lovegrove sees himself as an organic designer, in the tradition of figures such as Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames. For him, plastic means above all the ability to keep fluidity and movement in objects that are nonetheless inanimate. Fascinated by what borders on science fiction, he believes the future can be shaped, unlike the past, and has a near trance-like devotion to the sensuality of the materials and forms around him. He sums up his philosophy this way: perfection belongs to industry, imperfection to craft.

The collection designed by Ross Lovegrove for Vondom

For Vondom, Ross Lovegrove designed the Vondom Biophilia collection, which explores a new language of dialogue between time, form and space, with thin, tapering backrests reminiscent of Gaudí's Sagrada Família.