Valentine Notebook

Ettore Sottsass (14 September 1917 – 31 December 2007) was an Italian architect and designer of the late 20th century. His body of designs included furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting and office machine design.
He was educated at the Politecnico di Torino in Turin and graduated in 1939 with a degree in architecture. Sottsass was best known as the founder of the early 1980s Memphis Group collective. He also designed electronic products for Olivetti, as well as glass and ceramic work.
Sottsass was born September 14, 1917, in Innsbruck, Austria, and grew up in Milan, where his father was an architect. He served in the Italian military and spent much of World War II in a concentration camp in Yugoslavia. After returning home in 1947, he set up his own architectural and industrial design studio in Milan.