George Sowden

1942 Leeds



The British designer and architect George Sowden studied architecture at the Gloucester College of Art (Gloscat) from 1960 until 1968. In 1970 George Sowden moved to Milan, where he worked as a design consultant for Olivetti for many years. At Olivetti Sowden worked with the designer Ettore Sottsass. With his wife, the designer Nathalie du Pasquier, George Sowden founded "SowdenDesign" in Milan in 1980.
In 1981 Sowden was a founding member of "Memphis", designing numerous Postmodern objects with the patterned laminate coating typical of Memphis. In 1981 George Sowden "D'Antibes", a piece of storage furniture with exaggeratedly long legs. In 1982 Sowden created "Luxor", another piece of storage furniture, and, in 1983, "Palace", a colorful chair.
In collaboration with Nathalie du Pasquier George Sowden also designed textiles for Memphis, including "Quadro" and "Triangolo" in 1983. From 1988 George Sowden designed wallpaper for Rasch and ceramic objects for Swid Powell. George Sowden designed several metal objects for Alessi and the "Dauphine" pocket calculator (1997) for Alessi.
In the 1990s George Sowden specialized mainly in designing electrical appliances and consumer electronics.