furniture and product designer, born 1959, office in Hamburg

 

Immediately after the Leverkusen native completed his studies at the University of Wuppertal and had his diploma in industrial design in hand, he felt drawn to the design Mecca of Milan. In this wellspring of modern furniture, he proceeded to do asecond degree at the Domus Academy before becoming assistant to Antonio Citterio. It was the mid-1980s and only initiates already knew that Citterio, whose partner Löw soon became, would rise in the ensuing years to become one of themost in-demand designers. At Citterio & Partners, the big names in the industry crossed paths, among them Bieffe, Flos, Iittala, Kartell and Vitra. Löw’s picture-book career also added several chapters there. The Rhineland native was soon working formultinationals such as Hackman of Finland and Steelcase in the USA, for whose chair Think he developed a patented sitting-andleaning technology. Finally, he began to work on polishing the image of prominent corporations: The branch concept forCommerzbank (1996) and the interior design of the Smart car dealerships began on his drawing board. In the year 2000 he was appointed professor of industrial design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg, where he also established a studio to dowork for companies such as Steelcase and Thonet. Among his best-known pieces are the practical Battista folding table, the TChair office chair (1990) and the Mobilcontainer trolley (1992, for Kartell), which set off a worldwide trend for translucent plastic. Löw, like his longstanding partner, stands for an urbane, very cool, neo-modern direction in furnishings. He by no means shies away from confronting the German design tradition head-on. This is demonstrated for example by his S 60 easychair (2001, for Thonet), an up-to-date variation on the recurring theme of the cantilevered chair, which has in the meantime progressed through the series S 70, S 80 and S 90.