The Italian design visionary Dino Gavina was the initial force behind Flos.
Founding the company with Cesare Cassina in 1962 as part of his grand vision for a post war Italy that would lead the world in interior design. Gavina already had a reputation for producing innovative pieces of furniture designed by Italian architects such as Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni and Tobia Scarpa.
The catalyst for his foray into lighting was his encounter with the Italian inventor Arturo Eisenkeil, who was trying out new uses for a spray resin technology imported from the US called Cocoon.
Cassina saw the potential of Cocoon for use in lighting and joined forces with Gavina to see how it could be used in lighting, also enrolling the |Castiglionis and Scarpa.
The ground breaking product range that Flows created paved the way for the company to collaborate with noted designers and use experimental processes to produce new residential and office lighting. This resulted in lights by Marc Newson (Australia), Philippe Starck (France), and Konstantin Gracic (Germany).
All the company needed was a business brain to take the products global. Entrepreneur Sergio Gandini, who owned an influential furniture store in Brescia with his wife Piera Gandini, became the third partner in the business.
He made the company commercially successful and, most significantly, launched it in the US.
Flos
The Italian design visionary Dino Gavina was the initial force behind Flos.
Founding the company with Cesare Cassina in 1962 as part of his grand vision for a post war Italy that would lead the world in interior design. Gavina already had a reputation for producing innovative pieces of furniture designed by Italian architects such as Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni and Tobia Scarpa.
The catalyst for his foray into lighting was his encounter with the Italian inventor Arturo Eisenkeil, who was trying out new uses for a spray resin technology imported from the US called Cocoon.
Cassina saw the potential of Cocoon for use in lighting and joined forces with Gavina to see how it could be used in lighting, also enrolling the |Castiglionis and Scarpa.
The ground breaking product range that Flows created paved the way for the company to collaborate with noted designers and use experimental processes to produce new residential and office lighting. This resulted in lights by Marc Newson (Australia), Philippe Starck (France), and Konstantin Gracic (Germany).
All the company needed was a business brain to take the products global. Entrepreneur Sergio Gandini, who owned an influential furniture store in Brescia with his wife Piera Gandini, became the third partner in the business.
He made the company commercially successful and, most significantly, launched it in the US.
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