Zdeněk Kovář (26 January 1917, in

Vsetín Vsetín () is a town in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 25,000 inhabitants. Originally a small town, Vsetín has become an important centre of industrial, economic, cultural and sports life during the 20th century. Administ ...

– 21 June 2004, in

Zlín Zlín (in 1949–1989 Gottwaldov; ; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 75,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Zlín Region and it lies on the Dřevnice River. It is known as an industrial centre. The development of the modern city ...

) was a renowned Czech industrial designer.

Life

Kovář trained as a shoemaker in Baťa's factory in

, then as locksmith and later as engineer. He studied under prominent Czech sculptor Vincenc Makovský at Zlín's Art School from 1939 where he became interested in industrial design. He graduated there in 1943. He continued to work at Zlín for Baťa creating body designs for vertical drilling machines. In 1947 he founded an industrial design studio in the Zlín Technical College. From 1959 he taught at the Institute of Arts & Crafts in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. Kovář was also a sculptor. His industrial designs involved projects for scissor and tool handles, lever door handles, sewing machines, lathes, typewriters, film projectors, record players. His most well-known proposals are for the Tatra truck bodies for types T137 and T138 (1956–1958) and studies for the passenger car

Tatra T603 The Tatra 603 is a large rear-engined luxury car which was produced by the Czechoslovak company Tatra from 1956 to 1975. It was a continuation of the series of Tatra streamlined sedans which began with the Tatra 77. In Socialist Czechoslovakia, ...

(1954). His design for scissors handles in 1952 anticipated similar product designed products produced in the West, such as Olaf Backstrom's excellent scissors (1960), produced by

Fiskars Fiskars Corporation (natively Fiskars Oyj Abp; formerly Fiskars Oy Ab until 1998) is a Finnish consumer goods company founded in 1649 in Fiskars, Finland, Fiskars, a locality in the town of Raseborg, Finland, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) wes ...

in 1967.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kovar, Zdenek 1917 births 2004 deaths People from Vsetín Czech industrial designers