Antonio Citterio was born 60 years ago and began working with Vitra 25 years ago. It has been a time of intense collaboration – no less intense today than when our relationship began. I have spent more time with Antonio than with any other designer. We have developed many products together – mostly for the office, but recently also for the home. We have worked on showrooms and installations, come up with strategies and also realised buildings together (Antonio has designed two factories for Vitra).
For office environments, we began with chairs and then went on to develop entire office systems. In 1994, we introduced the Ad Hoc system, which has evolved over the years. The latest desks, units and modules will be presented at the Orgatec Fair in Cologne this coming autumn. It is one of the most influential office systems of the last twenty years.
Our office chairs have also evolved, and we will soon be presenting a large chair "family", which incorporates everything we have learnt about healthy and comfortable seating throughout the years. We also believe that the recently introduced Suita Sofa range for the home will be around for a long time to come.
Working together with Antonio has never been the case of him being the designer who thinks solely of form and Vitra being the manufacturer that thinks only of business and technology. Instead, we have always been able to view things from each other’s perspective, in a multitude of dialectics: sometimes Vitra focuses purely on aesthetics and Antonio thinks about the production costs – or vice versa. Often Antonio’s understanding of the market and its needs has been sharper than ours, and I know of no other designer who is more involved in the analysis of how a product is perceived and how it should be distributed than he is. At the same time Antonio is also a great listener – he is always open to learning from our experience. We all contribute with our knowledge and sensitivity. And this means that all of our products have both a father and a mother, as Antonio often says – but we do not really care whose input it is that ultimately makes a product outstanding.
Over the years our relationship has grown into one of absolute trust. Antonio’s loyalty and integrity allow for a working atmosphere of complete openness.
Most products we have developed together have been a success. Antonio’s sense of appropriateness, his talent, his taste, his interest in problem solving and his identification with Vitra are ingredients that are destined to create products that meet our customers’ needs – in a beautiful way.
I think that we have an exemplary designer-manufacturer relationship. It is also a personally rewarding one. We have not only worked together for 25 years, Antonio and I have also become close friends.
Thank you, Antonio!
Rolf Fehlbaum
