Richard Sapper.

Trained as an engineer, Sapper is a German who has adopted the Italian design capital of Milan as his home. Blending German precision and Italian sensuality, Sapper designs products that people keep for years and companies sell for decades, such as the IBM (now Lenovo) ThinkPad laptop, Artemide Tizio Lamps, or the now-iconic line of Richard Sapper espresso makers by Richard Sapper for Alessi Design.

Rather than working in collaboration with others, Sapper prefers to work alone, using his own taste, technological skills and innovations to push the boundaries of design. "I think that I have proved through my work that you do not need big teams to create innovation. As a matter of fact, big teams often act as brakes to innovation," Sapper contends. Teamwork comes later, he says, "to translate innovative ideas into mass-produced products."

Sapper's design career began in the 1950s when working in the Mercedes-Benz design department. Feeling creatively stifled working within such a bureaucracy, Sapper moved to Milan and partnered for many years with famed Italian designer Marco Zanuso before venturing out on his own. Over the years, his design work has embraced the full range of industrial products, from digital watches and business equipment to cars and bicycles, and from lighting and audio-visual equipment to furniture and kitchenware. All of them are singular and distinct, just like Sapper himself.

Lumens carries Richard Sapper designs for the Alessi and Artemide brands. If you don't see the Richard Sapper product you want, please Contact Us or call us at 877.445.4486.