Examining these three elements (people, places, and objects) in relation to Ettore Sottsass’s work can further expose his ethical and moral understanding of design as a means for emotive communication.*

People
While accrediting a single influence to Ettore’s work proves fruitless, his aesthetic predisposition may be attributed to the coniferous family, that which yields prickly, beautiful containers of seeds. These ambivalent packages of ideas are cultivated with axioms of the Cubists, the Purists, the Expressionists, the Dadaists, and the Futurists, among others. Evidence of combined inspirational references is detected in many of his Memphis pieces of the late 1970’s. For example, the bookshelf/cabinet/coat-rack Beverly (4) characterizes philosophies and techniques of various stylistic tendencies. Fabricated in the Constructivist style of Naum Gabo (6), Beverly combines print laminate, poplar root, and metal in the awkward juxtaposition of a Bauhaus prototype. Its strict geometry, referencing the Golden Section of isosceles and equilateral triangles (5)5, is as deliberate as the Zig-Zag Sidechair (7).

* It might be noted that the psychological functionality of Ettore’s product designs is more successful than their ergonomic functionality. Thus, the designs satisfy their greater intention.