Meet the Designers behind the Designs

December 2nd, 2014

Above: Michael Schmidt for Falper

This is a company committed to variation in design. Their exclusive partners Fantini, VitrA, Keuco, Falper and Catalano work tirelessly with the world’s most prolific and disruptive designers, creating bathroom products that are not just functional, but on the cutting edge of their time. Here they are.

Franco Sargiani for Fantini

Franco Sargiani is a multi-faceted maverick of contemporary Italian design. He is the hidden face behind some of the most extraordinary consumer creations of the last four decades and for the past two, has worked with Fantini.

A graduate of Milano Polytechnic, Sargiani spent his early years in Scandinavia where he absorbed the lessons of minimalism, rigour and beauty that have so marked his illustrious career. He was later the recipient of the prestigious Compasso d’Oro and during his time with Fantini, has been responsible for such award-winning pieces as Acquatonica, Milano and Mare. Many of his most famous creations are on permanent display in museums across the globe.

His Programma 8 Series for Alessi is regarded as the first ‘designer’ collection of silverware – with Alessandro Mendini describing it “the most evolved system of household objects ever created” – while his early works with Fantini in the 90’s redefined bathroom tapware, producing the very first ‘joystick lever’ mixer in Stilo.

View the Fantini Mare Matte Black Collection

Matteo Thun for VitrA

Despite being one of the most prolific, game-changing architects and product designers of the last few decades, ego is not something you’ll find in Matteo Thun’s work. Inspired by functionality, location and sustainability, every Thun piece is tailored to individual purpose and presence, resulting in an astonishing portfolio that includes watches, coffee cups, mountain resorts, saucepans, restaurants and urinals with the likes of Swatch, Catalano, Porsche and Missoni.

After working with Ettore Sottsass in Milan in 1978, Matteo became one of the key members of the influential Memphis Group, championing flamboyant, colorful and rebellious design as the antithesis to the emotionless products of the Seventies. Thun’s aesthetic has since evolved into what he terms ‘zero design’: simple, functional products that ‘pare everything down to the pure, sincere essence and find the real character of an object’. Among his recognitions, Thun has won the Compasso d’Oro three times, numerous Wallpaper* Design Awards and in 2004 he was inaugurated into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in New York.

For VitrA, Thun explored new frontiers with Water Jewels – an artfully designed washbasin finished with a vibrant metallic PVD coating that draws inspiration from traditional Turkish craftsmanship.

Explore the VitrA Water Jewels Washbasin Collection

Reiner Moll

A quiet achiever of German minimalism, Reiner Moll has been described as one of the most successful industrial designers of the last 40 years. With the philosophy ‘design is never an end in itself’ that can be attributed to his mentor’s Bauhaus roots, Moll’s holistic creations resemble design on one side and free arts on the other.

Among his revered accomplishments is the innovative multi-purpose Binar Chair for Wilkhahn – the first chair with a clamped on base – and the Elegance Bathroom Accessories Collection for Keuco – regarded as the most successful bathroom collection ever conceived.

His creations have been recognised with over 80 international design accolades and alongside the likes of Dieter Rams with Braun and Bill Moggridge with IDEO, Reiner Moll and his partners were awarded “Design Team of the Year” by Red Dot in 1991.

Among his latest collaborations with Keuco, Moll has created an elegant bathroom accessories collection fused with functional detail that bears his signature.

Discover the Keuco Moll Bathroom Accessories

Michael Schmidt

Michael Schmidt is a member of a new generation of emotion-driven German designers cementing their claim on the globalised modern world. Schmidt sees himself as a design author, believing a successful design must tell a story that will inspire first, and only bear a resemblance to function on second glance.
Since graduating in 1989, Schmidt has collaborated with the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Bross and Sattler, and works like the Scoop Bath, bbqube Outdoor Kitchen and Audi logo redesign have garnered him numerous high-profile design accolades. In 2011 he was awarded the Aqua Cultura Prize for his services to bathroom culture.
Collaborating with Falper, Schmidt has created some of the most elegant and seductive collections the modern bathroom has seen, including Scoop, George and Shape.