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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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