| 1928 |
Born
in Berlin, father comes from Madulain near St. Moritz in Switzerland |
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| 1946 |
Study
of sculpture at the Akademie der Künste Berlin |
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| 1948 |
Study
of aerodynamics at the Sorbonne in Paris |
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| 1953 |
Head
of New Materials project group at McDonell-Douglas in California |
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| 1954 |
Golden
Rose, Geneva, for special Fiat bodywork, originator of Fiat designs for
the coming years |
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| 1957 |
Colani
Alfa is the first sportscar to drive round the Nürburgring and clocked
a lap in under 10 minutes; can now be seen in the Martini Rosso Museum |
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| 1958 |
Racing catamaran success in Hawaii |
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| 1959 |
World`s
first monocoque sportscar: BMW 700 |
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| 1960 |
World`s
first kit car in series: 1700 cars, Colani GT |
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| 1965 |
World-wide
success with furniture design: Asko, Fritz-Hansen, Cor, Kusch+Co. |
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| 1966 |
Sports
coupé, IAA Frankfurt |
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| 1970 |
Headquarters
with major design team at Harkotten Castle near Sassenberg, Germany. Enourmous
success, work and exhibitions world-wide for nearly all companies of major
repute |
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| 1972 |
First
contacts with Japanese companies |
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| 1973 |
First Far East study trip; Japan recognizes Colani`s potential. Invitation
by five companies to establish a Colani Design Center Japan. Rosenthal`s
Teapot Drop designed by Colani in Cooper-Hewitt Museum in N.Y. |
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| 1976 |
Construction
of first plastic sports airplane with Wankel-engine: Fanliner |
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| 1978 |
Revolutionary
trucks, aircraft, car and ship studies at exhibitions world-wide |
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| 1981 |
Economy
world record Colani 2CV, 1.7 litres for 100km |
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| 1982 |
Relocation to Japan |
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| 1983 |
Professor
in Japan/Tokyo |
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| 1984 |
No.
1 industrial designer in Japan; Otaru exhibition, 60m large shell |
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| 1985 |
World:
Colani Robot Theatre number 1 at the Tokyo Tsukuba Expo |
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| 1986 |
Golden
Camera Award for the Canon T-90. Colani motorcycle world record in Italy.
Foundation of the Colani Design Bern, Switzerland |
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| 1987 |
Colani
exhibition at Centre Pompidou, Paris. Car design for Mazda, Japan. Pen design
for Pelikan, Germany |
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|
| 1988 |
Toulouse
and Bremen branch offices. Professor h.c. of the Hochschule für Gestaltung,
Bremen.Preparation on a wide-scale basis for record speed on land, water
and air and economy world records in Utah, USA |
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| 1989 |
SONY
headphones by Colani in Museum of Modern Art, New York. Formation of the
company Colani Trading AG in Zürich, Switzerland |
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| 1990 |
Exhibition
in Car Museum of Paris; Presentation of the new SWISSAIR uniforms designed
by Colani |
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| 1991 |
Creation
of optical frames and jewellery collection; world record with Colani Ferrari
on the Salt Lake in Utah, USA |
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| 1992 |
Computer
mouse design for Sicos; creation of the Colani cosmetics range; Colani signs
a contract with Europe`s biggest computer chain VOBIS, Germany |
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| 1993 |
Presentation
of the Colani field glasses; Shopping center exposition through Switzerland |
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|
| 1994 |
Colani
Vobis Highscreen computer gets award for the Computer of the Year 1994.
Cooperation with Carl Zeiss Jena |
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|
| 1995 |
Cologne,
Germany opens new head office of Colani`s design works. Designs for major
companies in the construction and building industry. China`s ambassador
invited Colani for future projects to Shanghai, China, and he gets a professor
title of the most famous University of Shanghai, Tongji |
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| 1996 |
Office furniture designs for Grahl, Michigan USA. Architecture project presentation
for Shanghai, China, called Bio-City |
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| 1997 |
Creation
of the new piano for SCHIMMEL, famous piano constructor. Start of the DESIGN-show
through more than 30 shopping centers in Germany |
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| 1998 |
Start
of a bank-terminal design project with one of the world´s leading
computer manufacturers. Design for a new microscope and photo camera at
the Colani Shanghai office. Water-bottle design for CAROLINEN-Brunnen-Germany. |
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|
| 1999 |
Presentation
of a new "shower" (bathroom-combination)-generation for the German
company DUSAR. Furniture project with Kusch + Co., Germany. A world leader
of porcelain, ROSENTHAL, Germany , plans to promote a special edition of
the famous teapot "Drop" designed by Colani |
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|
| 2000 |
"Human-City"
architecture model by MW Energie AG-Mannheim-Germany. COLANI-optical-frames
presentation at optical-shows in Milano, Paris and Las Vegas. |
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| 2001 |
Design for a new microscope and photo camera (for Seagull) at the Colani
Shanghai office.
6 exhibitions through shopping-malls (ECE-group) throughout Germany. COLANI-Calendar
for Castrol-Germany. |
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|
| 2002 |
Leading
Swiss mineral-water company VALSER (aquired by Coca-Cola in 2002) presents
new bottle-design by Colani.
Start of another exhibtion-tour through over 25 shopping-malls (until 2004)
by ECE-Group.
Opening of a world-leading Design-museum, Pinakothek , in Munich-Germany
(including serveral COLANI-designs).
Spitzer-Silo presents new COLANI-truck at IAA-Hannover-Germany. |
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|
| 2003 |
uniforms
designed for the police Hamburg/Germany.
For hp-aircraft.de : design of the tt-62-plane - over 40 units of this business-jet
sold already!
Futuristic car design : Speedster shark (see "Visions") |
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| 2004 |
Guest
Speaker and Presenter at World Economic Forum WEF in Davos/Switzerland.
Porcelain giftware creations (Cappuccino,Espresso mugs).
"Life on Board" project for VOLVO cars
House design for Hanse-Haus/Germany |
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|
| 2005 |
Design study for a passenger airplane with 1,000 seats
Study for a robot shaped like a baby
Completion of a series of 140 sculptures of athletes for the Olymic Games
in Beijing
Participation in the "Germany in Japan 2005-6" event in the form
of the "Colani Back in Japan" exhibition in the Museum for Kunst
and Design attached to the Kyoto Institute of Technology |
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|
| 2006 |
Completion of a Colani Supertruck with extreme streamlining Colani lecture at Nancyhalle/Karlsruhe with Karim Rashid Tokyo Designers Week speech in Tokyo
|
2007
|
Award "Grand Prix du Design" by Festival Automobil International Grand Palais Paris
Winner of the FX Lifetime Contribution Award London
Translating Nature" - exhibition at the Design Museum London
|
| 2008 |
Design Studio opening in Beihai, southern China. Beihai is predicted to be the world's
fastest growing city from now 2006 to 2020 |
