As Pierre Corneille wrote, “valour does not depend upon age”, a mantra that the organisers of the DesignEuropa Awards had in mind when they introduced a new award category for young designers under 30: the Next Generation Design Award. Many famous designers started unveiling remarkable design pieces in the early years of their careers. Let’s take a “Tour d’horizon” with 5 designers.
Charlotte Perriand
The French designer understood very early that she needed to exhibit her creations. She was only 24 when she presented her “Bar in the Attic” at the Salon d’Automne in Paris, an ensemble of furniture with a built-in bar recreating a part of her own apartment. Her use of aluminum, glass, chrome and leather made a sensation and Charlotte Perriand was shortly after hired by Le Corbusier in his studio.
Verner Panton
The father of the well-known Flower Pot lamp and eponymous chair, both available in bold colours, started his career early. Considered today as one of Denmark’s most influential designers, Verner Panton opened his own design office when he was only 27. Two years later, he presented the public with the S chair, consisting of a unique plastic piece, and the Tivoli chair with its seat and backrest of plastic stringing.
Maria Benktzon
The Swedish designer, awarded by the EUIPO in 2023 for her lifetime achievement, collaborated with Sven-Eric Juhlin to create a set of tableware when she was between 27 and 32 years old. Included in the permanent collections of the MoMA, these design works were the results of investigations into the grip of products such as knives and bread saws. Maria Benktzon’s aim was to make familiar objects more accessible. The kitchenware, cutlery and personal hygiene tools that she designed for people with limited hand strength or movement allowed them to remain independent.
Marcel Breuer
Born in Hungary in 1902, Marcel Breuer was only 23 and 25 when he respectively designed the Wassily and the Cesca chairs, that are still edited by Knoll and regularly shown in many interior design magazines. At that time, Marcel Breuer was leading the cabinet-making workshop of the Bauhaus in Germany, working closely with artists such as Paul Klee or Wassily Kandinsky, for whom he had made a duplicate of his chair for Kandinsky’s personal home.
Carolin Kunert
Carolin Kunert participated in the 2021 edition of the DesignEuropa Awards and was a finalist for the Small and Emerging companies’ category. Since 2020, Carolin has been on the Forbes 30 under 30 Europe list and is one of Europe’s aspiring young business founders. When she was only 22, this German designer created the Knister grill, a sustainable, high-quality and locally produced grill, fully recyclable and easy to transport.
