Jasper Morrison: Lifetime Acheivement Winner

Born in London in 1959, Jasper Morrison studied design first at Kingston Polytechnic and then at the Royal College of Art. In 1986 just a year after his final graduation, Jasper set up his own Office for Design in London. Over the years he has kept his design team deliberately small and focused, but now he also has an office in Paris.
Influenced by modernism from an early age, Jasper counts the simple furnishings of his grandfather’s study as an early inspiration and then the work of such modernist pioneers as Eileen Gray, Le Corbusier and others. From the outset Jasper had no wish to be a designer-maker (like many of his contemporaries) but concentrated on designing for industry and volume production.
Jasper has designed a wide range of products from bus stop shelters, a tram system, trainers, watches and a telephone to a goodly number of chairs. Many of his designs are already modern classics. For example, the indoor/outdoor stacking chair for Magis (2000), which pioneered a new way of making plastics using gas-assisted injection moulding, is available in bright colours that do not fade. The range now includes folding Air-Chairs and Air-Tables. The Glo-ball lamps for Flos (1999) with hand-blown opal glass come as ceiling, table and floor lamps. For Alessi, Jasper has designed stainless-steel pans and also a range of simple white china, which he called PlateBowlCup, because that’s all you need.
Jasper’s work - and his design theories — have greatly influenced a new generation of young designers. Ideally, designs should be quiet and understated and made in good materials that last, as exemplified by his range of ceramic bathroom products for Ideal Standard in which simple square and rectangular shapes are rounded off with curved edges.
Jasper’s latest work includes Lightwood, an ultra-slim chair with a birchwood frame and plastic mesh seat, produced by Maruni of Japan. And eschewing a plethora of unnecessary features, his Punkt phone is admirably simple and easy to use.

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