Franco Clivio

Early in 1992, FSB approached Franco Clivio in Zurich to see whether he would accept the gargantuan task of lending a new lease of life to a standard design range from the Seventies, the tubular stable-door handle.

As FSB recalls, Clivio reacted somewhat unflatteringly, by promptly asking them, the eastern Westphalian "square-heads" how they'd hit upon the idea of finishing off a circle with a triangular hat.

It was quite some time before FSB worked out what the man was trying to tell them with his pointed jibe.One of the last students at the legendary Ulm Design College (from 1965 to 1968), Clivio had been taught by Walter Zeischegg to think the Bauhaus way.

FSB's proposal must have seemed to him like a direct attack on Bauhaus exponents such as Kandinsky ans Itten. FSB was showing a complete ignorance of the theory of correspondence, in which the circle, the square and the triangle were nothing less than the be all and end all and needed to be complemented by three quite specific primary colours. In short, FSB had proved themselves to be utter ignoramuses in Clivio's eyes.

But three months later Franco Clivio was on the phone to anounce a visit to the Weserbergland. His luggage consisted of a single drawing comprising a neat array of squares. Closer inspection revealed these squares to possess an engaging inner existence.

The first enclosed a circle, and, in the squares that followed, the circle slowly began to mutate.

In the final square, it had run to a point in one corner, producing an image of a square encasing a rain drop.

Within one geometrical shape, another had evolved that appeared to have organic properties.

Mathematically speaking, 3/4 Circle + 1/4 Square = Formal Innovation.

Franco Clivio's question was short and to the point: Could FSB contemplate taking this design proposal on with a view to partnering Clivio on the steep and stony route to a new handle range? "Design takes time", he explained.

Now FSB knew what Franco Clivio meant when he said "Design takes time". First he shocked them. Then he ruminated for some months. And finally he came up with a neat little design notion. The question facing FSB was whether they were prepared to take it on from there. They were. For a year and a half they worked hand in hand with Franco Clivio, his model maker in Switzerland, and their own model workshop.

Who is Franco Clivio?

Here's a brief CV: Franco Clivio, born 1942. Studied and performed post graduate work at Ulm Design College, then became an assistant lecturer there. He was product designer for Gardena of Ulm from 1968. He performed further design work for Erco, Siemens, the Emscherpark International Building Fair and others. Since the early 80's, he has been a lecturer in product design at Zurich Design College, a visiting lecturer at colleges in the USA, Finland and Germany, a lecturer and expert speaker at many international events, won several international awards. He now lives and works in Zurich and Ulm.

Single-minded as his life has been, it comes as no surprise that Franco Clivio will often query the finality of things. Wedding a technical notion to a basic organic form redefined, he has patiently fashioned a bijou new range of architectural hardware that can quiety claim to be technically and aesthetically rethinking a classic design range. The "rain drop ridge line" features throughout, casting shadows that add a distinctive visual touch. As the handle is gripped, all humdrum routine is forgotten. The world of the artefact is richer by one design innovation in steel.

Grazie, Signore Clivio.

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