For an individual who has achieved a significant credibility through his furniture, ceramic, architecture, and industrial designs, as well as through his photography and writing, this is a humble declaration of the extent and purpose of designers. Ettore’s modest desire for communication can be accredited to a lifetime of philosophical independence. His need for political freedom emanates from a long-standing skepticism toward power structures, which potentially bias opinions.* He hesitates to submit to conformable ideologies, “I am generally dubious when a society presents its reasoning as the logical Truth, as the definitive and unquestionable Right, as reasoning reinforced by divine destiny.”4 Distancing himself from restrictive frameworks, Ettore has formulated his own perspectives on ethical design. Never compromising his beliefs of what design can be, he uses creativity as a plow to unearth truths of human existence. Consequently, his creativity is fertilized by the bittersweet nostalgia of people, places, and objects encountered throughout a lifetime.

* Since 1917, when he was born in Innsbruck, Ettore has defied institutional influence. This avoidance of authority might be attributed to the Fascist design restrictions placed on architects, such as his father Ettore Sottsass, Sr., during the Inter-War years or to an unpleasant encounter in 1939 with the car industry which he described as “ignorant, authoritarian, and arrogant.”3