Michael Anastassiades

Michael Anastassiades

Designer Michael Anastassiades

Michael Anastassiades is one of the most important contemporary designers and is known for his poetic, clearly reduced designs that relate light, material and space in a special way. Born in Cyprus, the London-based designer initially studied civil engineering at Imperial College before completing his master's degree in industrial design at the Royal College of Art and setting up his own studio in 1994.

Anastassiades' work - lighting, furniture and objects - is characterised by precise proportions, a high sensitivity to materials and a restrained elegance that is never decorative but always essential. This is also particularly evident in his furniture designs for Fritz Hansen including the After table and the After armchair, which epitomise his characteristic formal calm, clear lines and careful choice of materials. The designer condenses complex ideas into simple, timeless forms and deliberately allows the materials to age, which is why many of his objects remain untreated and develop a natural patina over the years.

Anastassiades' designs are produced by leading manufacturers such as FLOS, B&B Italia, Herman Miller, Cassina, Mutina and Bang & Olufsen and are represented in the collections of international museums, including the MoMA in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. For Anastassiades, the central question is always how an object invites people in, what emotions it triggers and what effect it has in the room - an approach that makes his works timeless companions that are equally functional, sculptural and characterised by a special calm.