About Grundmann
Designer Portraits

Creating a piece of daily culture
... a great challenge for a fittings producer. Because of this we always invite designers to work with us. Between the 50s and 70s, Ernst Oskwarek, a talented graphic artist, designed the models 2600, Perfekt, and the Favorit model, the fittings range that became the greatest sales success in the history of our company. A clear favorite of the architects was the Kungsholm model, designed by the Swedish designer Sigvard Bernadotte in 1966. This model has once again raised interest due to the revival of the 60s designs.

While the 80s property fittings were mainly based on the international round tubular designs, our commissioned designers in the 90s worked on individual designs. Michael Schaefer, design masterclass graduate at the University for applied art designed many products for us, one of which, the Servus model, was awarded the prestigious iF design prize. The wardrobe system Moritz, designed by the architect Michael Wagner, internationally famous for his Edition W, allowed us to expand from doors into room fittings. The key panel designed by the talented writing and paper artist Veronika Kyral is not designed for hanging coats but keys. In 1998, another two aluminium door fitting ranges were produced by the designer Gottfried Palatin. This co-operation with Palatin resulted in an award of recognition by the Lower Austrian county for artistic design. The youngest design amongst our fittings is the Zinell model, by the industrial designer Stefan Zinell for our Rustic theme.
However, it is not only our co-operation with contemporary designers that is of interest but also our involvement in Austrian design history. We recently adopted a fitting into our range in 1997 which was based on an oeuvre of Carl Auböck I (1900-1957) during a great retrospective of the designer.

Ernst Oskwarek
Oskwarek was born in 1913 in Oberschlesien and studied graphic design at Reichenberg/Böhmen. He worked for Grundmann as a graphic designer and product designer from 1953 until his death in 1978. During these years he designed various prints and many lever handles. The models Perfekt, Favorit and 2600 are still in the production range. Oskwarek also participated in the development of the GEOS product group.

Sigvard Bernadotte
Sigvard Bernadotte, born 1907 in a Swedish royal household, began his career as a background builder in films. He worked in his own country and for Ufa in Berlin and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Hollywood. At the same time, he got the chance as a 23 year old in 1930 to design new silver equipment for the famous Danish silver workshop Georg Jensen. He designed pure geometric pieces, both elegant and modern. In total, Sigvard Bernadotte designed more than 150 objects for Georg Jensen over 15 years. These designs were particularly popular in Great Britain and the US. The United States had a great significance for Sigvard Bernadotte as he made the acquaintance of the American design pioneers Raymond Loewry and Henry Dreyfuss during a trip to the US at the end of the 30s.They impressed him with the ideas of Industrial Design. In 1950, Sigvard Bernadotte founded the company Bernadotte & Björn in Copenhagen, together with the architect Acton Björn. In 1958, a branch was opened in Stockholm. Bernadotte & Björn became internationally famous, and young designers from around the world spent important practical training years in their offices. In addition, Bernadotte became the president of the international design association ICSID and promoted the position of Swedish design. As a designer, Sigvard Bernadotte offered a wide range of works. His range encompassed internal architecture using furnishing components such as carpets, glass, cutlery (including the SAS aeroplane cutlery), household products, clothing, typewriters, radios and capital goods designs.

Michael Schaefer
Schaefer did his Industrial Design study at the University for applied art. He has been a freelance designer in Vienna since 1984 with Schaefer Design and has worked with various companies in the areas of product and corporate design. His exhibitions include: Product in Form 1993, Design Center Linz 1994, European Designer Maastricht 1996, iF-award for good design, 1994 Pocket Memo, Philips Speech Processing, 1996 Door fitting "Servus", Wilh. Grundmann . His designs for Grundmann incude: Servus, Arcus, Wing, Sinus, Calix, City, GEOS doorstop, anti-burglary plate 5600, GEOS products 2000.

Michael Wagner
Michael Wagner studied Architecture at the Technical University in Aachen and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts Paris. He has practiced in the Vienna Office of Groh + Wagner, Architects since 1997. He won the 1998 State prize for design in Korea. Michael Wagner has focused on the use and function of building accessories. He worked on design projects commissioned by Bene and Thonet. Wagner designs can be found on display at the Museum of Modern Art in Louisiana (DK), the Museum of Modern Art-MAK (Vienna), the Museum for Work Safety (Dortmund) and the Art Institute of Chicago. Michael Wagner has been recognized in numerous national and international exhibitions and publications, including the book "Lichtung - Bauten und Produkte", works by Michael Wagner and August Samitz, pub: Akademie der Bildenden Künste Vienna, 1997, ISBN 3-9500755-o-X.

Veronika Kyral
Born in 1960 in Vienna, Kyral studied at the University for applied art, masterclass for writing and book design and has freelanced since then.
She has exhibited in many gallery shows and received two recognition prizes for Designed handicrafts in 1992.

Gottfried Palatin
Palatin was born 1959 in Burgenland. Following completion of specialist plastic design training, he spent long periods of study abroad. Since 1988, he has been involved in glass and design development for industrial production. He worked with Mercantile on many design products in various materials, including the Vario vase, which was awarded the "Red point" for high design quality by the design center Nordrhein-Westfalen and the "Design-Plus" at the Frankfurt fair. He has done other design work for: 21-Alfi, Grundmann, and Authentics. Further awards include Prize of recognition 1998 for artistic design by the county NÖ for the design of the lever handles PalatinEins and PalatinZwei made for Grundmann.

Stefan Zinell
Zinell was born in 1963, at Spittal an der Drau. He did Industry design study at the University for Applied Art in Vienna and has been active since 1987 as designer in the areas of product, furniture and interior design. Since 1994, he has been an assistant at the University for Applied Art in Vienna and a guest Tutor at the Royal College of Art (Design for the Industry) and at the Istituto Universitario di Achitettura di Venezia. He has done projects for: ECCE Gmbh (Design, exhibition stands), Büro X (Internal architecture), EDS Wien (Product and graphic design), Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (Exhibition designs and graphics), Ambiente Textil (Showroom designs), Murauer Werkstätten (furniture designs), Workshops and Culture house, Vienna (Gallery design), Generali AG (Design of an exhibition stand (Project), Novomatic AG (Consultancy), Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Angelegenheiten (Product design), Focus Management Consulting (Corporate design), Mader, Fellmann & Co, Treuhand GmbH (Corporate design) Exhibitions and prizes: Prag-Wien (Prague and Vienna, Catalog), Querdurch (Vienna), Offline (Vienna) Galerie Slavik (Vienna), Austria Avantgarde (Cologne), Möbel für sich (Vienna), Murauer Workshops (Vienna and Murau), Prototypes (in Vienna), Casa Europea (Antwerp) Galerie K.I.S. (Amsterdam), Palmers-competition, Logo - Hochschule für angewandte Kunst, Querdurch (Vienna), supported by the BM. f. Unterricht und Kunst.

Carl Auböck
Carl Auböck completed his training in bronze work and engraving at his parents' company, then attended the Academy of Creative Arts in Vienna. He followed his famous teacher, Johannes Itten, for several years to the Bauhaus in Weimar. Aubock took over his father's workshop in Vienna at Bernardgasse 23. His first artistic works initially swung between public commissions and avant-garde designs of the international style. Carl Aubock developed a personal style for quality housing blending form and function. At the Milan triennial, Carl Auböck won four gold medals for his fine work as a designer

©2008 Grundmann/America