SOTTSASS ASSOCIATES by Ettore Sottsass

Rizzoli, 1988, First edition, 263 pp., 9 1/2" X 12", Hardcover

Very good

As the Memphis movement in the 1980s attracted attention worldwide for its energy and flamboyance, Ettore Sottsass began assembling a major design consultancy, which he named Sottsass Associati. Sottsass Associati was established in 1980 and gave the possibility to build architecture on a substantial scale as well as to design for large international industries. Besides Ettore Sottsass, the other founding members were Aldo Cibic,  Marco Marabelli, Matteo Thun and Marco Zanini. Later, Johanna Gawunder, Marco Susani, James Irvine and Mike Ryan would also join the firm. In 1985, Sottsass left the Memphis Group to focus on the Associati.

Sottsass Associati, primarily an architectural practice, also designed elaborate stores and showrooms for Esprit, identities for Alessi, exhibitions, interiors, consumer electronics in Japan, and furniture of all kinds. The studio was based on the cultural guidance of Ettore Sottsass and the work conducted by its many young associates, who quite often left to open their own studios.