Joe Colombo (designer)

Italian industrial designer (1930–1971)
the American Mafia boss

Cesare Colombo (30 July 1930 – 30 July 1971), known as Joe Colombo, was an Italian industrial designer.

Cesare "Joe" Colombo was until 1949 educated at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, the academy of fine arts, in Milano as a painter and studied afterwards until 1954 Architecture at Politecnico di Milano University. In 1951 he joined the Movimento Nucleare, founded by Sergio Dangelo and Enrico Baj. The following four years Colombo was active as a painter and sculptor of the abstract Expressionism and exhibited his works with other members in Milano, Torino, Verviers, Venice and Brussels. In 1955 Colombo joined the Art Concret group, but gave up his painting to promote his Design Career. Before he cooperated at an exhibition for the tenth Triennale of 1954 and documented the Ceramic Designs of an international meeting in Albisola. For his presentation Colombo created for example three exterior seatings which were combined with a "shrinelike" presentation of TVs. In 1959, Colombo had to take over the family company, which produced electric appliances, and started to experiment with new construction and production technologies. In 1962 Colombo opened his own interior design and architecture projects, mostly for lodges and skiing. Colombo designed products for Oluce, Kartell, Bieffe, Alessi, Flexform, Stilnovo, and Boffi. Colombo died in 1971 on his 41st birthday.

His work has been exhibited at museums, among them the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In 1964 Colombo received the IN Arch prize for his room conception of a hotel in Sardinia (1962–1964). In 1967 and 1968, he was awarded ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale) prize. In 1970 he received the Compasso d'Oro award.