Brave Delta Desk by Brave Space

I have recently been looking for a table. I’m not actually planning on buying one, but sometimes I like to think, Hey, this will look great in our next apartment! Even though I probably won’t ever be able to throw down $1,500 for a designer table, I still love them. To me they are the epitome of minimalist design.

This table escapade reminded me of some research I recently did on the Castiglioni brothers – two Italian, modernist industrial designers. Thier influential industrial and furniture design impacted the formation of print and graphic work today. To be honest, I never really took the time to learn the real origins of these forms of design. I’ve always been very interested in typography and letterpress but that’s about as far as my historical studies delved. To say that these brothers changed my perspective would be an understatement.

A few of their works that I loved, and some you may recognize:

RR126 Record Player/Radio

If only I could get my hands on this record player. The RR126 (not sure why they named it that, but for some reason it fits) is a playful yet functional piece. I imagine it in Invisible Creatures’s or Grain Edit’s office. The speakers detach and can be placed wherever you would like; it can be configured into one large box, or the speakers can sit on the ground. You can tell that they had fun with this one – it looks like the face of a happy little creature you might find roaming in the woods.

Record Wristwatch by Alessi

The Castiglionis gave their objects minimal names. This wristwatch is called Record, exactly what it is. The numbers are sharply rendered (set in Berthold Bodoni) and constrasted against the white background. Pier Giacomo Castiglioni died in 1968, so Record was designed only by Achille Castiglioni. This watch is so function over form it’s not even funny. The only decoration this watch could possibly have is the ridges on the metal ring that wraps the exterior of the watch. It’s a beautifully-designed watch and is as timeless as any object could ever be.

Arco Lamp by FLOS

The Arco lamp is  the most famous object designed by the Castiglioni duo. I always tell my wife that I’m going to buy this lamp, and she rolls her eyes at me every time. The lamp is absolutely massive, with a span of 8 feet. But, come on; this lamp is awesome. That’s why its used in a bunch of old James Bond movies. The base of the lamp is a giant marble slab. There is a little hole in the base, so one could stick a broom pole through it to transport the lamp. This is another one of the Castiglioni’s extremely functional objects. They realized that many rooms had electrical sockets for lights in the center of a ceiling, but many people didn’t want to place their dining room table right in the middle of a room. This mega-lamp solves this problem by reaching pretty much anywhere and provide suitable lighting. It’s really nice to see that FLOS hasn’t modified the lamp at all. It’s the exact same object as the one that was released in 1962.

The thing that astounded me the most about the Castiglioni designs is how forward-thinking they are. These all look like they could have come out of this last decade but they were all from the 60s and 70s. It’s people like this – the ones that really think outside of the box – that are able to produce truly remarkable objects. Regardless of what people are currently producing, we need designers that can design for the future.