Konstantin Grcic

Konstantin Grcic (*1965) trained as a cabinet maker at the John Makepeace School (Dorset, England) and studied Design at the Royal College of Art in London. Since setting up his own practice Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design (KGID) in Munich in 1991 he has developed furniture, products and lighting for some of the world´s leading design companies in the design field. Amongst his renowned clients are BD Ediciones, Cassina, ClassiCon, Driade, Flos, Flötotto, Laufen, Magis, Mattiazzi, Muji, Nespresso, Plank, Rado, Serafino Zani and Vitra. For Galerie kreo in Paris, he has created a number of limited edition pieces since 2004. Many of his products have received international design awards such as the prestigious Compasso d’Oro for his Mayday lamp (Flos) in 2001, the Myto chair (Plank) in 2011 and the OK lamp (Flos) in 2016. Designs by Konstantin Grcic form part of the permanent collections of the most important design museums (a.o. MoMA-New York, Centre Georges Pompidou-Paris). Konstantin Grcic has curated a number of significant design exhibitions such as "Design Real" for The Serpentine Gallery, London (2009), "Comfort" for the St.Etienne Design Biennale (2010) and "Black2" for the Istituto Svizzero, Rome (2010). In 2012 he was responsible for the exhibition design of the German Pavilion at the 13th Architecture Biennale in Venice. Solo exhibitions of his work have been shown at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam, 2006), Haus der Kunst (Munich, 2006) and The Art Institute of Chicago (2009), at the Vitra Design Museum (Weil am Rhein, Germany, 2014) and at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld (Bielefeld, Germany, 2016). The Royal Society for the Arts appointed Konstantin Grcic "Royal Designer for Industry" in 2009, in 2010 he was fellow at Villa Massimo in Rome. In 2016 Konstantin Grcic was awarded the Personality distinction for his achievements by the German Design Council. The exhibition catalogue of the Vitra Design Museum (2014) comprises a catalogue raisonné of Grcic’s work as well as essays by different authors.

Konstantin Grcic defines function in human terms, combining formal strictness with considerable mental acuity and humour. Each of his products is characterized by a careful research into the history of design and architecture and his passion for technology and materials. Known for pared-down pieces, Grcic is often called a minimalist but the designer himself prefers to speak of simplicity.