Award-Winning and Unique - the Lighting Design of German Designer Ingo Maurer
Ingo Maurer is a multiple award-winning German designer who specialises on lamps and lighting design. His eponymous company Ingo Maurer produces experimental and unusual lamps that can be found in design museums throughout the world In addition to designing lamps, Ingo Maurer also develops lighting solutions for public rooms and light installations.
Ingo Maurer was born on the island of Reichenau on Lake Constance in 1932. Initially, he studied to become a typographer in Germany and Switzerland, but he later studied graphic design in Munich from 1954 to 1958.
In 1960, Ingo Maurer emigrated to the USA where he worked and lived as a freelance designer in New York and San Francisco. In 1963, Ingo Maurer returned to Europe. In 1966, he founded "Design M" in Munich. In the following years, Ingo Maurer designed his first lamp "Bulb".
This led him to win several design awards and some of his lamps became part of different museum collections. For instance, the design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York currently includes the products Bulb, Gulp, Light Structure, Little Black Nathing, YaYaHo, Los Minimalos Dos, Lucellino Wall, Wo bist du, Edison…?, Zettel'z and Porca Miseria!.
Apart from product design, Ingo Maurer became interested in the topic of lighting installations early on. In 1985, he designed a YaYaHo installation in Paris in the Centre Georges Pompidou for the "Lumières Je pense à vous" exhibition. In 1986, the exhibition "Ingo Maurer Lumière aha SoSo" took place in Paris and Ingo Maurer developed a special light production for the "Design à la Villa Medici" exhibition in Rome. In the same year, Ingo Maurer was awarded "Chevalier des arts et des letters" medal by the French Ministry of Culture.
In 1989, Ingo Maurer for the first time displayed non-commercial lighting work at the Fondation Cartier pour L'art contemporain in Jouy-en-Josas in Paris. In the 1990s, Ingo Maurer participated in many exhibitions. In 1998, he was not only named designer of the year 1997 by the magazine "Architektur & Wohnen", but he also participated in the "Projects 66" exhibition in the New York MoMa.
In 1999, Ingo Maurer worked in cooperation with Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake, developing an installation with special effects for Miyake's fashion show in La Villete. Moreover, he was honoured with the designer prize of the capital of Munich. In the first years of the new millennium, Ingo Maurer continued to participate in many exhibitions and received many awards. In November 2005, he was named "Royal Designer of Industry" by the Royal Society of Arts in London. In 2006, he became an honorary doctor of the Royal College of Arts in London and also received other awards.
Website by Designer Ingo Maurer
Ingo Maurer