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 ...

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) ...

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". Thinking Mans Chair designed by Jasper Morrison

Thinking Mans Chair designed by Jasper Morrison

Early life and education

Morrison was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

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 ...

. He was educated at Bryanston School 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. Covering an area of , ...

, 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 ...

, 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 universit ...

, 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 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 unobtru ...

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 Cappellini and Capellini are Italian surnames, possibly derivatives of ''Capelli'' or ''Capello''. It is also used as a Spanish surname. Notable people with those surnames include: * Ada Itúrrez de Cappellini, Argentine Justicialist Party politi ...

, Emeco, , ,

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, sinc ...

, Ideal Standard, Issey Miyake, 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 par ...

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 oper ...

, and Vitra. Morrison is the lead designer at boutique Swiss consumer technology company Punkt., known for its minimalist MP01 and MP02

mobile phones A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while ...

. 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 n ...

ese retail company MUJI 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 Alice Rawsthorn OBE (born 1958 in Manchester) is a British design critic and author. Her books include ''Design as an Attitude'' (2018) and ''Hello World: Where Design Meets Life'' (2013). She is chair of the board of trustees at the Chisenhale ...

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 Arno ...

'' described him as "the anti- Philippe Starck 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 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 t ...

(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. Morrison received the Isamu Noguchi 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 "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 ...

(CBE) in the UK 2020 Birthday Honours 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. The species of this genus are commonly known as plushblues and are found in the Indomalayan realm. Species *''Flos diardi'' (Hewitson, 1862) - shining plushblue, bifid plushblue *'' ...

(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 (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 Boussu (; pcd, Boussu-dlé-Mont) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. As of January 1, 2006, Bou ...

, 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, 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