Richard Sapper

Richard Sapper (1932-2015) began his design career at Daimler Benz before moving to Milan, where he collaborated with architect Gio Ponti and worked at La Rinascente. In 1959, he started freelancing, creating radios for Telefunken and clocks for Lorenz. His partnership with architect Marco Zanuso in the early 1960s led to iconic electronics for Brionvega and projects for FIAT and Pirelli. From 1980, Sapper was chief industrial design consultant for IBM and Lenovo, designing the first ThinkPad laptop in 1992. His portfolio includes the Tizio lamp for Artemide and the 9090 espresso maker for Alessi, both still in production. Sapper also taught at prestigious institutions worldwide.