Born in 1917, Italian architect and designer Ettore Sottsass is today best known as the founder in the early 1980s of Memphis, the Milan-based design collaborative. As a harbinger of Postmodern design, Memphis - and soon Sottsass himself - became the subject of widespread public attention. As this book demonstrates, however, Sottsass has been a pioneer of worldwide significance in all major fields of design - furniture, ceramics, glass, jewellery, architecture and industrial design - throughout his sixty-five-year career, during which he has collaborated with many of the world's best-known manufacturers, Alessi, Olivetti and Sèvres among them. The first major study of the work of Sottsass for over a decade Published to coincide with Sottsass's first solo exhibition at a major American museum Explores and illustrates all the key themes of Sottsass's career to date, confirming the diversity of his work and his relentlessly innovative contributions to architecture and design Essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary design