Tube Chair Designed by Joe Colombo for Flexform, 1969, Italy

He died tragically young, and his career as a designer lasted little more than 10 years. But through the 1960s, Joe Colombo proved himself one of the field’s most provocative and original thinkers, and he produced a remarkably large array of innovative chairs, table lamps and other lighting and furniture as well as product designs. Even today, the creations of Joe Colombo have the power to surprise.

Cesare “Joe” Colombo was born in Milan, the son of an electrical-components manufacturer. He was a creative child — he loved to build huge structures from Meccano pieces — and in college he studied painting and sculpture before switching to architecture.

In the early 1950s, Colombo made and exhibited paintings and sculptures as part of an art movement that responded to the new Nuclear Age, and futuristic thinking would inform his entire career. He took up design not long after his father fell ill in 1958, and he and his brother, Gianni, were called upon to run the family company.

Colombo expanded the business to include the making of plastics — a primary material in almost all his later designs. One of his first, made in collaboration with his brother, was the Acrilica table lamp (1962), composed of a wave-shaped piece of clear acrylic resin that diffused light cast by a bulb concealed in the lamp’s metal base. A year later, Colombo produced his best-known furniture design, the Elda armchair (1963): a modernist wingback chair with a womb-like plastic frame upholstered in thick leather pads. 

Portability and adaptability were keynotes of many Colombo designs, made for a more mobile society in which people would take their living environments with them. One of his most striking pieces is the Tube chair (1969). It comprises four foam-padded plastic cylinders that fit inside one another. The components, which are held together by metal clips, can be configured in a variety of seating shapes (his Additional Living System seating is similarly versatile).

Vintage Tube chairs generally sell for about $9,000 in good condition; Elda chairs for about $7,000. A small Colombo design such as the plastic Boby trolley — an office organizer on wheels, designed in 1970 — is priced in the range of $700.

As Colombo intended, his designs are best suited to a modern decor. If your tastes run to sleek, glossy Space Age looks, the work of Joe Colombo offers you a myriad of choices.

Find vintage Joe Colombo lamps, seating and other furniture for sale on 1stDibs.

Comfort, consistency and high-quality Italian craftsmanship are the values on which furniture manufacturer Flexform has built its global reputation. The third-generation family-run business is based in Brianza, Italy’s premier furniture manufacturing district, and produces sofas, chairs, outdoor seating and other pieces known for their modern aesthetics and functional designs.

The brand dates back to 1959 when the Galimberti brothers — Romeo, Pietro and Agostino — started the Flexform di Galimberti workshop. Flexform prides itself on crafting pieces that are perfectly proportional and versatile enough to adapt to the needs of the user and the space in which they are placed. Always elegant and refined in appearance, Flexform’s furniture is recognizable by its timelessness and use of high-end, sustainably sourced materials like linen, cotton, cashmere and wood including oak, ash, walnut and rosewood. Among the company’s most iconic collections are its take on the sectional sofa, which accounts for how lifestyles have changed: People now read, watch TV, eat and work on sofas. The 2001 Groundpiece collection, designed by Antonio Citterio, is one of its best sellers. The low, deep sofa, with its signature goose-down cushions and padded armrests that provide a flat multipurpose surface, is a casual take on the sectional that focuses on maximum comfort.

The company keeps its designs fresh by collaborating with architects and other designers to bring in new perspectives about people’s wants, needs and interactions with furniture. Designer Citterio, for instance, has been partnering with Flexform for almost 50 years and has been instrumental in creating some of the brand’s most celebrated and successful pieces. Along with the Groundpiece collection, this includes the 1996 metal and leather-upholstered A.B.C. armchair. (Its 2014 update is the award-winning A.B.C.D. chair.) Other partners include some of Italy’s most prominent creative minds: Cini Boeri, Joe Colombo, Paolo Nava, Carlo Colombo and Giulio Manzoni.

With over 20 flagship stores around the world, Flexform’s furniture can be found in spaces as diverse as Middle Eastern hotels, Italian villas and American lofts. By avoiding seasonal trends and focusing on consistent innovations in comfort and style, Flexform has been an exemplary figure of the “Made in Italy” luxury furniture scene.

Find Flexform sofas, lounge chairs and other furniture on 1stDibs.