Roxanne armchair by Michael Young - Gufram
Designer: Michael Young
Brand: Gufram
Colors: Yellow, Pink, Blue, Gray, Green, Orange
Material: Polyurethane foam and wooden structure
Dimensions: L 120 x H 70 x D 90 cm
Availability: within 2 weeks
Learn more about the designer
British-born designer Michaël Young graduated from Kingston University in 1992. Early in his career, he worked with designer Tom Dixon in London. In 1994 he started his own studio and operated in England, Iceland and Taiwan before settling in Hong Kong in 2006. Sir Terrance Conran chose Young as the most inspiring British designer (1997).
Young designs a wide variety of objects such as headphones, glassware, watches, bicycles, furniture, lighting and bags. He is interested in combining design with the technical capabilities of local industry and often works directly with Chinese manufacturers and industrialists. Throughout his career he has worked with clients such as Coca-Cola, Bacardi, Cappellini, Cathay Pacific, Giant Bicycles, Magis and George Jensen and Trussardi.
Young served as creative director for 100% Design Shanghai (2010, 2011, 2012). Before that he was creative director for 100% Design Tokyo (2008) and creative director of the Asian Aerospace show (2009). His work has been exhibited at the Pompidou Museum and the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Design Museum in London and in solo exhibitions in Kyoto, Miami, Hong Kong, Milan, Paris and Belgium. In 2016, some of Young's work created with aluminum was featured in an exhibition at the Grand Hornu in Belgium.
Learn more about the brand
Gufram is an Italian furniture manufacturer based in Barolo (Piedmont region). Founded in 1966 by the Gugliermetto brothers, Gufram, acronym for "Gugliermetto Fratelli Arredamenti Moderni", takes the form of a creative laboratory: they combine their knowledge of local craftsmanship with emerging architects and artists of the time. Their sculptured art objects revolutionized the aesthetics of 1960s furniture. From 1965, Gufram followed the artistic direction of designer Giuseppe Raimondi, who associated the company with emerging artists and architects of the time.
They study new choices of materials and mainly choose polyurethane foam to pad and structure their sculptural creations. Polyurethane will become their trademark. In addition to mastering the processing of flexible polyurethane, Gufram has developed and patented a special finish: Guflac®, the true essence of the company's artisanal spirit: this special and unique paint job makes surfaces more uniform, consistent and elastic . Soft, elegant shapes are thus created, innovative shapes that would otherwise be impossible to cover.
Gufram icons, regardless of the collection they are part of, are made by sculpting flexible polyurethane foam which is then finished or decorated by hand with the Guflac® backing.
Their creations, in the wake of pop art, are anchored in the avant-garde movement of the 1960s.
In 1968, Gufram presented its products under the name Multipli: industrially reproduced art objects in limited edition. Gufram then enjoyed considerable success with the public and the international press. Among their most remarkable creations: the Bocca sofa, originally designed by Salvador Dali, the Cactus coat rack, the majestic Pratone seat or even more recently the grotesque stools in the shape of a tombstone The End from the Toiletpaper collection, or the Broken Mirror imagined by Snarkitecture.
These “domestic sculptures” now appear in the most beautiful homes and the most renowned museums in the world.
The Gufram company was bought in 2012 by entrepreneur Sandra Vezza and her son Charley as artistic director. They were able to breathe new life into the company, notably on the occasion of the company's 50th anniversary celebrations in 2016 but also with new collaborations such as that with Moschino “Moschino kissed Gufram”.
