Magis Round Table
Height 28"
Width 42.1"
Top Diameter 51.2"
Stefano Giovannoni
Stefano Giovannoni, born in La Spezia in 1954, graduated in Architecture in Florence in 1978, he lives and works in Milan. Since 1979 he has taught and done research at the Florence Faculty of Architecture; he is master-professor at Domus Academy in Milan and at the Università del Progetto in Reggio Emilia. He has been invited for workshops at the Royal College of Art in London, at the Academy O. Kochoska in Wien, at the Hochschule der Bildenden Kunst in Saarbrücken and at the Design Quest in Osaka. He works as an industrial and interior designer and architect. He has worked with companies like Alessi, Flos, Magis, Seiko, Pulsar, Cappellini, Kankyo, Saab, etc. In 1991 he designed the Italian Pavillon at the exhibition “Les Capitales Europeennes du nouveau design” at the Centre Georges Pompidou.
He has participated in national and international competitions including:
"Shinchenchiku Residential Design Competition", Tokyo, 1980 (1st prize)
"Competition for a square at Santa Croce sull'Arno", Florence, 1980 (1st prize)
"P.A. Conceptual Furniture Competition", Chicago, 1983 (mentioned project)
"Shinchenchiku Residential Design Competiton", 1985 (2nd prize)
"Competition for the restructuring of the historical centre at Casteldisangro-Aquila", 1989 (with Andrea Branzi and Remo Buti - 1st prize).
Some of his projects have received the "Design Plus" award at the Frankfurt Fair- Ambiente in 1994 and 1996, the "Forum Design Hannover" award in 1999 and have been selected at "Compasso d'oro" in 1996 and 1998.
His works are part of the permanent archive of Centre Georges Pompidou.
Magis History
Magis is the brand that has given a novel twist to domestic design, building its identity on incorporating leading edge technology into mass production. Founded in 1976 in the bustling north eastern corner of Italy by a newcomer to the furniture business, Eugenio Perazza, Magis is today a giant international design laboratory that constantly puts itself to the test, seeking technological sophistication and employing a highly diversified workforce.
Magis seizes the day. It embraces the creativity of leading global designers (Richard Sapper, Jasper Morrison, Stefano Giovannoni, Marc Newson, James Irvine, Konstantin Grcic, Ron Arad, the Bouroullecs and many others) and channels it towards objects perched on the cutting edge. The company even earned kudos from the trendsetter's bible, Wallpaper, which placed Perazza on top of its list of "Ten who will change the way we live".
Magis is 30 years old. Until a short while ago Magis was one of the few companies that manufactured objects in plastic. Today the number has increased considerably. Still, Magis uses the most advanced molding technologies and techniques; it was the first company in the world to apply air molding to aesthetical goods.
Plastic will remain Magis' reference material, although it is now experimenting with others such as die-cast aluminum, aluminum metal sheet and wood.
Magis is a company in perfect health because it has good projects to develop as well as good intellectual capital, which is the distinguishing feature of the company. Excellent designers, a good design team and an extraordinary supply chain. Magis is characterized by the multiplicity of its expressive languages, its search for a deep meaning of the project, and its ethics instead of aesthetics.
Magis takes three/four years to turn the idea of a project into a finished product. Magis faces projects, both difficult and complex, taking high risks. Projects are completed as long as they are supported by a high spirit of experimentation and elevated technical cleverness.
Magis works with very well-known designers, but it has always been open to work with young designers, even at the outset of their careers. Jean-Marie Massaud and Jerszy Seymour made their debut on the design scene thanks to the opportunities Magis gave them. Now Magis discovers new passions and punctually chases former design glories, adding them to the mix. There was the interlude with Charlotte Perriand, and new design chapters are being written with Robin Day, a genius of English design, Eero Aarnio, a genius of Finnish design and Pierre Paulin, a genius of French design.
It is the price to pay for success. To reduce the possibility to be copied the entrance barrier needs to be elevated greatly. One will have to do complex projects with inventive loftiness and considerable engineering investments, and make moulds and equipment with high technical performance (technique is the ability of a company to make technology work). A qualitative distribution should too play an important role against copies selecting design-oriented companies and keeping me-too-oriented ones out.
