Ron Arad

Ron Arad (1951-) is a British artist and designer of Israeli origins, protagonist of the successful London underground design season of the 1980s and later became a world-renowned designer. Born in Tel Aviv, after studying art in Jerusalem he moved to England at the age of twenty-two and continued his studies under the guidance of avant-garde architect Peter Cook. In 1981 he opened the One Off studio and began the production of unusual furniture-sculptures in a limited series: these are seats and objects in welded metal with a post-industrial aesthetic in which the idea of recycling predominates. His first experiences with series design came with the Swiss company Vitra in 1987, for which he created his famous Well Tempered Chair. He therefore attracts the attention of some enlightened entrepreneurs of Italian design, who give him the opportunity to measure himself with large-scale production: from Kartell, which convinces him to abandon metal and compete with a more accessible material such as plastic, up to brands known for their research activities such as Moroso, Magis, Driade and Venini. He headed the product design department of the Royal College of Art in London from 1997 to 2009.