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.