Jasper Morrison
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Jasper Morrison (born 1959) is an
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
product and
furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...
designer. He is know for the refinement and apparent simplicity of his designs. In a rare interview with the designer, he is quoted as saying: "Objects should never shout".


Early life and education

Morrison was born in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. He was educated at
Bryanston School Bryanston School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) located next to the village of Bryanston, and near the town of Blandford Forum, in Dorset in South West England. It was founded in 1928. ...
in
Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...
, England. He received a Bachelor of Design degree from
Kingston Polytechnic , mottoeng = "Through Learning We Progress" , established = – gained University Status – Kingston Technical Institute , type = Public , endowment = £2.3 m (2015) , ...
Design School in 1982 and a master's degree in Design from the
Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...
, London, in 1985. He also studied at the
Berlin University of the Arts The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...
, formerly the Hochschule für Bildende Künste. He has spoken about his childhood memories of the Braun SK 4 "Snow White's Coffin" radiogram (designed by
Hans Gugelot Hans Gugelot (1 April 1920 – 10 September 1965) was an Indonesian-born, German engineer and industrial designer known for his modernist consumer products. Life and work Johan Gugelot was born on 1 April 1920 in Makassar, Dutch East Indies t ...
and
Dieter Rams Dieter Rams (born 20 May 1932) is a German industrial designer and retired academic who is closely associated with the consumer products company Braun, the furniture company Vitsœ, and the functionalist school of industrial design. His unobtr ...
in 1956), which he first saw in the "Scandinavian style study" of his grandfather's house, and how "The room and the record player both had a very important influence on ischoice in becoming a designer."


Work and career

He has designed products and furniture for many manufacturers and brands such as Alessi, Alias, Cappellini,
Emeco Emeco (styled "emeco®") is a privately held company based in Hanover, Pennsylvania. The Emeco 1006, known as the Navy Chair, has been in continuous production since the 1940s. Today, Emeco manufactures furniture designed by notable designers and ...
, , ,
Hermès Hermès International S.A., or simply Hermès ( , ), is a French luxury design house established in 1837. It specializes in leather goods, lifestyle accessories, home furnishings, perfumery, jewelry, watches and ready-to-wear. Its logo, since ...
,
Ideal Standard Ideal Standard is a privately held multinational plumbing fixture company headquartered in Belgium. It operates primarily in Europe and Latin America. The brand dates back to 1949, when it was used to brand fixtures of the foreign operations of t ...
,
Issey Miyake was a Japanese fashion designer. He was known for his technology-driven clothing designs, exhibitions and fragrances, such as '' L'eau d'Issey'', which became his best-known product. Life and career Miyake was born on 22 April 1938 in Hiroshi ...
, Magis,
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 part of ...
,
Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
,
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
, Rosenthal, SCP,
Üstra üstra Hannoversche Verkehrsbetriebe AG is the operator of public transport in the city of Hanover, Germany. The company is a member of the Großraum-Verkehr Hannover (GVH) transport association. From 2003 to 2006, it had outsourced its operat ...
, and Vitra. Morrison is the lead designer at boutique Swiss consumer technology company Punkt., known for its minimalist MP01 and MP02 mobile phones. He has also collaborated with the
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese retail company
MUJI (), or is a Japanese retail company which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Muji's design philosophy is minimalist, and it places an emphasis on recycling, reducing production and packaging waste, and a no-logo or "no-bran ...
on a variety of products ranging from houseware to housing. Morrison curated the ''Super Normal'' exhibition with Japanese designer
Naoto Fukasawa Naoto Fukasawa (; born 1956) is a Japanese designer, author, and educator, working in the fields of product and furniture design. He is known for his product design work with the Japanese retail company Muji, as well as collaborations with compa ...
in 2006, which presented 200 ordinary or anonymously designed products that were devoid of gimmicks and branding. In a review of Morrison's 2015 exhibition ''Thingness'' at Le Grand-Hornu, the design critic Alice Rawsthorn writes: "Mr. Morrison, 55, is one of the most influential product designers of our time." More recently, a 2020 article about the designer in ''
la Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...
'' described him as "the anti-
Philippe Starck Philippe Starck (; born 18 January 1949) is a French industrial architect and designer known for his wide range of designs, including interior design, architecture, household objects, furniture, boats and other vehicles. Life Starck was born on ...
par excellence" whose "projects are often the result of a long gestation to achieve simplicity, elegance and discretion." His work has been widely exhibited and is held in the permanent collections of institutions such as the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, Victoria and Albert (V&A), and Design Museum in London, the
Vitra Design Museum The Vitra Design Museum is a privately owned museum for design in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Former Vitra CEO, and son of Vitra founders Willi and Erika Fehlbaum, Rolf Fehlbaum founded the museum in 1989 as an independent private foundation. The ...
in Germany, as well as the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
(MoMA) in New York. Morrison's designs have received many awards including the Compasso d'Oro,
Good Design Award In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...
, and 12 iF Product Design Awards. In March 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Design from
Kingston University , mottoeng = "Through Learning We Progress" , established = – gained University Status – Kingston Technical Institute , type = Public , endowment = £2.3 m (2015) , ...
. Morrison received the
Isamu Noguchi was an American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and severa ...
Award in 2015, and in 2020 he was named both "Designer of the Year" by the Elle Decoration British Design Awards, as well as the
German Design Award The Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the official design award for Germany presented by the German Ministry for Economics and Technology. The award was given for the first time ...
"Personality of the Year". In the same year, he also received the Compasso d'Oro "Career Award" from the in Milan. Morrison was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(CBE) in the UK
2020 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours for 2020 are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded ...
for services to design.


Selected works

File:APC designed by Jasper Morrison.jpg, APC chair designed for Vitra (2016) File:Handlebar Table designed by Jasper Morrison.jpg, Handlebar Table (1982) File:Glo-ball designed by Jasper Morrison.jpg, Glo-ball pendant light designed for
Flos ''Flos'' is a genus of butterflies in the family Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-w ...
(1998) File:Door handle designed by Jasper Morrison.jpg, Door handle model 1144 designed for FSB (1991) File:Air chair-edit-1-2018.jpg, Air chair designed for
Magis ''Magis'' (pronounced "màh-gis") is a Latin word that means "more" or "greater". It is related to '' ad majorem Dei gloriam'', a Latin phrase meaning "for the greater glory of God", the motto of the Society of Jesus. Magis refers to the philos ...
(1999)


Selected exhibitions

* 2006 ''Super Normal'', Axis Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (curated by Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa) * 2011 ''Jasper Morrison: Danish Design: I Like It!'', Danish Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen, Denmark * 2015 ''Thingness,''
Grand-Hornu Grand-Hornu is an old industrial coal mining complex and company town (''cité ouvrière'') in Hornu (Boussu), near Mons, in Belgium. It was built by Henri De Gorge between 1810 and 1830. It is a unique example of functional town-planning. Tod ...
, Boussu, Belgium * 2022 ''Early Work'', Jasper Morrison shop, London, England


Publications

* * Morrison, Jasper (1992). ''A World Without Words''. Tony Arefin. * * * * * * * * * * * * *


References


External links

*
Jasper Morrison on designing from personal experience
Design Indaba Design Indaba is a trademark and brand founded and run by Interactive Africa in 1995 with a focus on design and under the slogan "A better world through creativity". Consisting of an online publication and a series of events and creative projects, ...
, Cape Town {{DEFAULTSORT:Morrison, Jasper 1959 births Living people Designers from London People educated at Bryanston School Alumni of Kingston University Alumni of the Royal College of Art Berlin University of the Arts alumni English industrial designers English furniture designers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Compasso d'Oro Award recipients Royal Designers for Industry