Italian designer Enzo Mari was born in Novara, Italy, in 1932. Toys, office objects, furniture, and prints made Mari famous, the favorite designer of Birgit Lohmann, CEO of the Designboom website, recently interviewed by Hardecor. Winner of the Compasso d’Oro in 1967, 1979, 1987, and 2001, among others, Mari works with the psychology and perception of color and space as his main themes. He was a professor at Politecnico di Milano, at the Visual Communication Center in Parma, the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara, and at Umanitaria di Milano. In 1974, he launched Autoprogettazione, a book that teaches laypeople how to assemble furniture pieces using simple materials, such as wooden boards and nails. “Design is an instinct inherent to man, like the survival instinct, like hunger and sex,” says Enzo Mari. An advocate of simple yet sophisticated lines, Mari is an authentic modernist.

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