About Gino Colombini

Italian designer Gino Colombini was born in 1915 and became technical director of Kartell in 1953. As plastic was emerging as a new and exciting material for everyday use, Colombini designed many household items, testing the properties and boundaries of the material and creating bright, colourful products to revolutionize the home. With creations now on display in New York's Museum of Modern Art, Colombini received several Copmassi d'Oro during his time at Kartell and served as technical director until 1960.

Gino Colombini worked from 1943 in the Milan practice of the architect and designer Franco Albini. From 1953 until 1960 Gino Colombini was technical director of Kartell, which was founded by Giulio Castelli to specialize in articles made of plastic. Kartell made utilitarian appliances and objects of plastic that were beautifully designed products, no longer dreary and colorlesss but colorful and modern. Gino Colombini designed many of these household items and, in so doing, revolutionized these small everyday things and made them affordable. Objects designed by Gino Colombini include a carpet beater (1957), a lemon squeezer (1958), plastic wash basins, salad colanders, and lunch boxes, and, in 1959, a long-handled cleaning scoop to be used instead of a dustpan. Particularly well known is Gino Colombini's 1965 round umbrella stand made of ABS plastic, topped with a steel ashtray. Gino Colombini was awarded the Compasso d'Oro for designs he did for Kartell in the years 1955, 1957, 1958, 1959, and 1960. Gino Colombini's designs are referenced in "Design of the twentieth century", Charlotte & Peter Fiell, Taschen, 2011. Some of his design classics include the Gino Colombini umbrella stand and the Gino Colombini Kartell collection.