Michael Young
United Kingdom
Michael Young has been amongst the most successful and influential designers of his generation from the outset of his career. In 1992 his early Woven steel works were immediately acquired by public institutions such as Centre Pompidou and the Louvre Museum. His “Mid Nineties,” collection of furnishings for E&Y Tokyo was purchased by Die Neue Sammlung Museum Germany and the Design Museum London. The collection was said to have created a new formal language in design. Max Borka director of the Kortrijk Design Biennale was quoted as saying “it is almost now impossible to pin point its dramatic influence so copied was his work of this period” In 1994 he received a Crafts Council Bursary and commenced on a series of one-man shows in Paris, Germany and Tokyo and Kyoto with prestigious galleries such as Gallery Mougin and Neotu. He started selling in a series of auctions for Phillips in New York as well being collected by artists such as Mariko Mori In 1995 he created MY- 022 Ltd design office in London. where he focused on a series of projects for Cappellini, Sawaya & Moroni and Magis and was given his own monthly page in Japanese publication Casa Brutus. His clients since have included Galley Kreo, Danese, Artemide, Rosenthal and Swedese and Astro bar , a nighclub design in Iceland. These works embodied classics items such as the Eurolounge Sticklight and the Magis Dog House. Terence Conran selected Young in 1997 as his most inspiring British designer recorded by David Bailey for the Sunday Times Magazine. In 2002 he followed a line of guests which in the past has included Philip Starck ,Gio Ponti and Vener Panton to be Guest of Honour at the Kortrijk Design Biennle where he created a 2000 SQ M installation. These last years have seen projects including the Interior for cosmetic surgery in Taipei an MP3 player for Kuro Music, a bicycle for Giant and new concepts for Kymco Scooters. More recently Michael become a creative consultant for Radio Shack and is presently based in Hong Kong.He recently presented new works for British company Established and Sons in Milan along side luminaries such Zaha Hadid and Future Systems. Later this year arrives a new range of Sex toys for hip new New York Fashion brand KIKIDM .2007 will be a busy year from the outset seeing the launch of a new collection of home furnishsing in Japan for established Japanese furniture company MK Maeda at the Shizuoka City Arts festival. Young has completed a series of new designs for French fashion brand Lacoste due to launch shortly in fashion week in Paris. To accompany Youngs first MY branded products, the Iconic PXR-5 and USB bracelet, a new range of barware will go on international release distributed by Innermost.
