Erik Magnussen

Lifetime

1940–2014

Country

Denmark

Erik Magnussen was born on 31 March 1940 in Charlottenlund. From 1956 to 1960, he studied in the ceramics department of Kunsthåndværkerskolen in Copenhagen, and from 1960 to 1961 at the graphics school of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. At the beginning of the 1960s, he began working for the porcelain manufactory Bing & Grøndahl and opened his own design studio, which he ran until his death.

For Bing & Grøndahl, he designed, among other things, the Form 679 tableware set (1965) and the Hank series (1970), which received the manufactory’s award. In 1967, he received the Lunning Award. From 1976, he worked with Stelton, for which he designed a steel or plastic vacuum jug, produced from 1977 and known as EM77 – his most recognisable design. His designs for Stelton incorporated interchangeable parts so that the objects could be repaired. He also worked with Royal Copenhagen and Georg Jensen and was a member of the 11 Danes design group.

In addition to ceramics, he designed furniture, lighting, cutlery and technical equipment, including the folding Z chair (1968), the Magnus aluminium café chair (1990), the Parken chair for the Idrætsparken stadium in Copenhagen (1993) and the RING lamp for Pandul (2000). In 1983, he received the title of Honorary Royal Designer for Industry, and in 1996 the Thorvald Bindesbøll Medal. He died on 23 May 2014.