Italian Design is POP

Colors, more colors plus sinuous and sexy shapes. Pure creativity. GUFRAM has presented its latest collection at the WANTED event, a showcase organized for New York's Design Week. We liked it so much for its joyous and relentless irony.

Italian design winks at American POP culture. This marks the return of a great brand on the American market, a brand that plays an important role in the history of design. Since 1960 GUFRAM has produced icons and creative symbols of the Made in Italy label, thus revolutionizing the traditional domestic environment and playing an important role in the history of design.  


Back in 1972, here in New York, the exhibition “Italy: the new domestic landscape” started it all. It was held at MOMA and it was curated by Emilio Ambasz. It was an important launch and the beginning of a real “romance” between the city and the design firm.

Many of GUFRAM's pieces have become key players in American POP culture: among them we find  the Bocca couch, which was renamed the Marilyn Lips Sofa, the Pratone Grass Chair, the Sassi seating system and the Cactus hall stand. These are all pieces that have been showcased in the most important museums of the world. 

In New York, GUFRAM's industrially reproduced art objects in limited edition are held at the MOMA, at the Metropolitan Art Museum and at the National Design Museum at Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt.


Today, after the 2012 relaunch of the design company, the new face of GUFRAM lands in New York.

In the last months of 2011, the company was purchased by new entrepreneurs who decided to bet on this historical brand name of Italian design, GUFRAM reopened its doors and found its new home in Barolo.


It was a great surprise to find these design icons back in New York. Just a few could resist the desire to give the Pratone grass chair a try. Sitting among its long green stems is like diving  into a colorful and soft piece of art. 


For GUFRAN the name given to each piece is crucial: for every single object, no matter if old or new. So just dive into the PRATONE grass chair, kiss the BOCCA sofa, sit on the SOAP pouf, play with GOD, the newest pagan idol, or with the BOUNCE chair, which is soft and bouncy, as is the DETECMA doughnut shaped pouf. The JOLLY ROGER armchair is shaped like a large skull and THE END is a... unique tombstone.


Everybody should absolutely try the new chair by Karim Rashid BOUNCE; made with foams and flexible materials it's another gem that's consistent with the GUFRAM's spirit. 

So if you want to bring some irony home, make your living room POP and even a bit rock and roll, check them out. GUFRAM is for those who want to make their own life a game, a game for adults but it's still a game. It's for those who love color and want to amaze, those who go against the flow and reject the ordinary... it's for those who want to own a piece created by the likes of Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari.