furniture designer and graphic artist, born 1932

 

Actually, he wanted to be jazz player. But Klaus Franck thought it would be better to try something “sensible” and took up architecture, studying for a few terms at Brunswick in the 1950s. After switching to the newly founded Ulm Academy of Design, he never looked back. Those years of intensive study were i n t e rrupted by a one-year scholarship in Rio de Janeiro, where he got to know the architect Oskar Niemeyer, and found himself playing gigs with Brazilian musicians. In 1959 the freshlygraduated designer wrote a book on exhibitions and began exploring new creative dimensions. His unusual carrier took a new turn from 1962. As the lead interior designer for Lufthansa, Franck’s task for seven years was to shape the airline’s offices and aircraft interiors. Those years of constant travelling obviously gave him valuable international experience. 1971 then saw him move – after an interlude at Vitra – to Wilkhahn, a company that had repeatedly reinvented itself and was now looking for some “Ulm” inspiration. Franck, now approaching forty, took charge of the design department, founded just two years earlier. He was given a broad and open-ended brief as an art director in the manner of an Otl Aicher. Franck developed a colour scheme, created a new font called Frutiger, and advocated the principle that product design should start with an analysis rather than a desired look. A crucial factor behind the success of this all- rounder was his close relationship with the entrepreneur and design enthusiast Fritz Hahne. Franck also re t u rned to university from time to time – as a guest lecturer at various design schools, including the Bauhaus (then still in the GDR). In the early years at Wilkhahn he acted as a mediator between the company and the external designers, almost of all of whom came from the Ulm school. At the end of the 1970s, his inspirational collaborationwith colleague Werner Sauer produced what is probably one of the most important Wilkhahn products, the FS swivel chair. Other collaborative designs followed, including Basis, Cubis, Tubis, Thema and Modus, all becoming familiar names in theindustry and all winning prizes. Klaus Franck, who later became head of the Wiege studio in 1985 before going solo in the 1990s, is a major protagonist of West German Modernism whose unorthodox career belies all the clichés about designers. Today, well beyond retirement age, he still works on his own projects and again finds time for music – as a percussionist in a steel band.