Konstantin Grcic was born in Munich in 1965. He studied industrial design at the RCA in London and worked at Jasper Morrison in London in 1990-91. In 1991 he founded his design firm, Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design, in Munich. KGID is active in several areas of design, from furniture to architecture projects. Konstantin Grcic designs industrial products that are often described as essential, simple and minimalistic. He prefers the term simplicity. His definition of function is tailored to people and is achieved with a mix of formal rigour, intellectual ingenuity and a certain irony. The sources of his creativity stem from dialogue with the industry, the challenges of production and the function of objects. New technologies and ecological compatibility play a role in his designs just as much as historical design references.
Konstantin Grcic has received numerous awards, including most recently the Honorary Royal Designer for Industry from the RSA in the UK (2009), Furniture Designer of the Year from Wallpaper (UK) and Premio AD, Spain (2010). His products have won important prizes such as Compasso d’Oro for his Mayday lamp (Flos) in 2001, the Myto chair (Plank) in 2011 and the OK lamp (Flos) in 2016 and are represented in major design collections around the world (MoMA-New York, Centre Georges Pompidou-Paris).