George J. Sowden (born 1942 in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

, UK) is a designer and product developer.

Career

He studied architecture at

Gloucestershire College Gloucestershire College (GC or Gloscol) is a college of further and higher education in the county of Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. It offers a range of education and training programmes, which include: * Apprenticeships and higher apprent ...

of Art in the 1960s. In 1970, he moved to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, where he started working with

Ettore Sottsass Ettore Sottsass (Innsbruck, Austria 14 September 1917 – Milan, Italy 31 December 2007) was a 20th century Italian architect, noted for also designing furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting, home and office wares, as well as numerous buildings an ...

and

Olivetti Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been par ...

. In parallel to the industrial design work on early Olivetti computers., he was involved during the 1970s in experimenta
"radical" design projects
which enabled him to become, in 1981, one of the co-founders of the

Memphis Group The Memphis Group, also known as Memphis Milano, was an Italian design and architecture group founded by Ettore Sottsass. It was active from 1980 to 1987. The group designed postmodern furniture, lighting, fabrics, carpets, ceramics, glass and me ...

, the design movement that had a significant impact on design in the eighties. In the same year, 1981, he founded his design studio, SowdenDesign, collaborating with companies such as

, Alessi, Bodum, Guzzini, Lorenz,

Rancilio Rancilio is an espresso machine manufacturer, founded in 1927 by Roberto Rancilio in Parabiago, Italy. Rancilio's earliest machine was 'La Regina' – a vertical boiler machine, similar to the original Bezzera and Victoria Arduino devices ...

Steelcase Steelcase Inc. is an American manufacturer of furniture, casegoods, seating, and space solutions for offices, hospitals, classrooms, and residential interiors. It is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. History Originally known as Th ...

Swatch Swatch is a Swiss watchmaker founded in 1983 by Ernst Thomke, Elmar Mock, and Jacques Müller. It is a subsidiary of The Swatch Group. The Swatch product line was developed as a response to the "quartz crisis" of the 1970s and 1980s, in which ...

Segis

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

, IPM, Moulinex,

Telecom Italia Gruppo TIM, legally TIM S.p.A. (formerly Telecom Italia S.p.A.), also known as the TIM Group in English, is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples, (with the Telecom Italia Tower) which provides fixed ...

Tefal Tefal S.A.S. (a portmanteau of TEFlon and ALuminium.) is a French cookware and small appliance manufacturer, owned by Groupe SEB (a global manufacturer of cookware) since 1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests t ...

and

Pyrex Pyrex (trademarked as ''PYREX'' and ''pyrex'') is a brand introduced by Corning Inc. in 1915 for a line of clear, low-thermal-expansion borosilicate glass used for laboratory glassware and kitchenware. It was later expanded to include kitchenwa ...

. In 1991, Sowden received the Compasso d'Oro Award for design excellence for

, Fax OFX420.

Notable works

In 2010, Sowden developed the SoftBrew coffee brewing device, which is distributed and sold throughout the world, notably in collaboration with the Danish design company

HAY Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticat ...

References

* Baacke, R.-P., Brandes, U. & Erlhoff, M., ''Design als Gegenstand: der neue Glanz der Dinge'' (Frölich & Kaufmann, Berlin, 1983) *

Barbara Radice Barbara Radice (born 29 November 1943) is an Italian design critic, writer, and editor. Early life and education Barbara Radice was born in Como, Italy, and graduated from the Catholic University of Milan in 1968. Career Radice is one of the s ...

, ''Memphis: research, experiences, results, failures, and successes of new design'' (Rizzoli, New York, 1984) * Silvia Katz, ''Classic plastics: from bakelite to high-tech : with a collector's guide.'' (Thames and Hudson, London, 1984) *

Andrea Branzi Andrea Branzi (, born November 30, 1938) is a Florence-born Italian architect and designer. He currently lives and works in Milan and was a professor and chairman of the School of Interior Design at the Polytechnic University of Milan until 2009. ...

, ''The hot house: Italian new wave design'' (Thames and Hudson, London, 1984) *

Penny Sparke Penelope Anne "Penny" Sparke (born 6 November 1948) is a British writer and academic specialising in the history of design. She has been Professor of Design History at Kingston University, London, since 1999, where she is also Director of the M ...

, ''Design in Italy: 1870 to the present'' (Abbeville Press, New York, 1988) * M. Collins, A. Papadakēs, ''Post-modern design'' (Rizzoli, New York, 1989) * British Design & Art Direction in collaboration with RotoVision, ''The product book'' (Crans-près-Céligny, Switzerland, 1999) * Fiell, C., Fiell, P., Haag, C., & Safavi, P., ''Designing the 21st century.'' (

Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Taschen Comics, ...

, Koln, 2001) *

Peter Zec Peter Zec (born 1956) is a German design consultant as well as author and publisher. Furthermore, he is president (2005–2007) of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid), the global organisation that promotes better d ...

, ''Who's who in design. Vol. 2. '' (AVedition, Stuttgart, 2003) *

Terence Conran Sir Terence Orby Conran (4 October 1931 – 12 September 2020) was an English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer. He founded the Design Museum in Shad Thames, London in 1989 The British designer Thomas Heatherwick said that Conran ...

, Max Fraser, ''Designers on design'' (Conran Octopus, London, 2004) * Fiell, Charlotte, and Peter Fiell., ''1000 Lights. Vol. 2'' (Taschen, Koln, 2005)

External links

Sowden SoftBrew official siteBiography from 'Art and Culture'

Biography on 'Ketterer Kunst Gallery'
1942 births Living people British industrial designers English expatriates in Italy Compasso d'Oro Award recipients {{UK-artist-stub Olivetti people