designers

Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens

Edwin Lutyens (1869 - 1944), eminent English architect, began his career studying at South Kensington School of Art (later to become the Royal College Of Art) and, after receiving modest commissions, set up his own practice in 1889 designing small houses in Surrey. He later completed a series of large country establishments, many of them including furniture and gardens.

He developed a style that was based on traditional English design and craftsmanship but which, at the same time, was highly individual. His most noteworthy public achievement was the planning of the city of New Delhi, India, including the Viceroy’s Palace but his most well known works are arguably, the Cenotaph in London, Hampton Court bridge and the British Embassy in Washington DC. He was knighted in 1918.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was one of the most celebrated architects and designers of his generation. Today he is celebrated around the world as one of the most significant talents to emerge in the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1890 Charles, who studied at the Glasgow School of Art, won the coveted ‘Alexander Thomson Travelling Studentship’ for Public Design. With his prize of £60 he decided to travel throughout Europe, a trip that changed his life and provided much of his inspiration.

Charles was responsible for the design of a number of highly respected and influential buildings including The Glasgow School of Art, Hill House and The Willow Tea Rooms a series of art based tearooms that allowed him to develop his love of interiors, furnishings and textiles for which he is known the world over for today.

His designs have formed the inspiration of much of the Lister traditional range.

Robin Day

Robin Day, best known for his injection moulded polypropylene stacking chairs that were the ubiquitous icons of 1960’s British style and one of the first pieces of furniture to use the mass-manufacturing opportunities that injection moulding created, graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1938.

He has won a number of design prizes including the ‘International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design’ held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and a Gold Medal at the Milan Triennale for his design of his ‘Homes and Gardens’ pavilion at the Festival of Britain.

Robin was commissioned by Hills International to design modern furniture for the 1949 ‘British Industry Fair’ and in 1950 he created Hills’ corporate identity and became the company’s chief designer.

From 1962 to 1963 Robin worked on the polypropylene chair, which to present day has sold over 14 million chairs in twenty three countries and been described as one of the most democratic modern designs of the 20th century.

More recently Robin has worked with Lister to the develop the Broadway range, a modern interpretation of his classic café set that first appeared at the Royal Festival Hall when it opened in 1951.

Arne Jacobsen

Danish born Arne Jacobsen is one of the world’s most famous furniture designers, renowned for ‘The Ant’ and ‘The Number Seven’ chairs.

Arne initially trained as a mason before studying architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts, Copenhagen, graduating in 1927. He established his own design office in 1930, which he headed until his death in 1971 and worked independently as an architect, interior, furniture, textile and ceramics designer.

The ‘Ant’ 1952 became the starting point of his world fame as a furniture designer and became the first of a number of lightweight chairs with the seat and back in one piece of moulded wood. Model ‘3107’, often called "The Number Seven Chair” was launched in a variety of colours and has become the most important success in Danish furniture history - with more than 5 million copies manufactured.

The Royal Hotel in Copenhagen is one of Arne’s masterpieces for which he designed several pieces of furniture, lamps and fabrics as well as cutlery, glasses, and door handles. As significant counterpoints to the stiffly upright, monumental building his easy chair, the ‘Swan’ and the ‘Egg’, stand out as organic sculptures.

Today Arne’s designs continue to be highly influential in shaping the design of today’s modern furniture. So ahead of their time many of his designs continue to be faithfully replicated by numerous companies including Lister.

Mads Odgard

One of Lister’s prominent designers is Danish born Mads Odgard who has a philosophy of creating designs that are simple, practical and affordable that have won him several international awards.

He has worked with a wide range of organisations including SAAB Automobile Sweden, Bang & Olufsen Denmark, Brabantia Netherlands and Royal Scandinavia Denmark, to name but a few.

Mads sees design as being essential in enhancing the well being of the individual, combining aesthetic appeal with high functionality.

He has been responsible for many of Lister’s contemporary ranges, being amongst the first to introduce stainless steel and modern fabrics, pushing forward the boundaries of modern leisure furniture design.

Wilfried Hendriks and Steven Stals

Garden designer Wilfried Hendriks has worked with Lister for over two decades. As well as being involved with sales for Lister in Benelux, Wilfried, in partnership with Steven Stals has been responsible for developing the KAAT range, an exciting blend of architecture for the garden. Wilfred and Steven have combined their talents to produce furniture of simple strength and power that simultaneously offers comfort with style.

Wilfried a qualified garden and landscape architect studied at the Horticultural Institute in Vilvoorde, Belgium and participated in workshops at Ecole des Beaux Arts, Fountainebleau in France by René.

As well as Lister, Wilfried works with a number of other organisations providing garden architectural services, helping to shape the modern day garden.

Belgium based interior architect Steven Stals has played a key part in helping to change the direction of Lister.

Steven studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and the National Institute for Architecture and Town Planning, in Antwerp and UiaH, University for industrial arts Helsinki, Finland.

Today, as well as working in partnership with Garden designer Wilfried Hendriks to create a number of cutting edge leisure furniture designs including the KAAT range. Steven is a senior lecturer at the Higher Institute of Architectural Sciences Henry van de Velde in Antwerp.

Frans Schrofer

Since his graduation in 1983 from the Eindhoven Academy of Industrial Design and the formation of Studio Schrofer in The Hague in 1988, Frans Schrofer has gained a reputation as one of the Netherlands most innovative furniture designers.

The Studio’s designs have attracted the attention of an international clientele covering Europe, America, South Africa and the Far East and Schrofer’s back-to-nature based design concepts imaginatively combine materials, comfort and ergonomics with versatility and commercial viability.

Frans has created both classic and contemporary ranges for Lister.

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