Born
in Athens-Greece Alexis Georgacopoulos lives and works in Lausanne,
where he practices in his own design studio and heads in the Master
studies in industrial design at the ECAL. He has recently been appointed
by the State of Vaud as the new ECAL director and will take office
starting from July 2011.
From September
2000 until December 2008 he was the head of the industrial design
department at ECAL. He initiated the participation of the department
in important international fairs (Milan 2001 to 2007, Cologne 2004
to 2006) and set up international exhibitions (Milking Stool, Conductor’s
Baton, The Festive Kitchen). He also fostered the collaboration
with major producers such as B&B Italia, Serralunga, Ligne Roset,
Team by Wellis, Boffi, Christofle, Swarovski or Nestlé. During this
period, the industrial design Department of the ECAL became one
of the most acclaimed and influential in design education worldwide.
In his own practice,
Alexis Georgacopoulos’ designs are both functional and minimal,
usualy with humor as the counterweight to technology. He works in
the fields of product design, furniture and exhibition design and
products like his « Blow » glass bowls for french company ENO or
his aclaimed exhibition design for the Swiss Federal Design Awards
in 2009 have contributed in defining his own distinctive approach.
He keeps his works conceptually “light” and goes to the essential
while keeping the balance between function and emotion.
His projects
edited or in prototype have been exhibited in major cities, design
fairs or museums such as the Milan Furniture Fair, the London Design
Museum and the Shanghai MOCA and have been published in various
exhibition catalogues and books such as the “&FORK” book edited
by Phaidon Press in 2007.
In 2006, he received
the prestigious Leenaards Foundation Cultural Grant and in early
2008 he spent 4 months in Hong Kong and has been developing new
projects in product and interior design for various international
clients.
‘Pleasure, play
and classicism’: this could be Alexis Georgacopoulos’s credo that
combines conceptual lightness with simple functions and straight
to the point effectiveness.
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