Ron Arad is an Israeli industrial designer born in 1951 in Tel Aviv. The bulk of his work focuses on experimental forms in the meantime using advanced technologies. He established his name in the 1980s as a designer-maker of sculptural furniture. It is difficult to categorise him, as he is equally acclaimed as a designer and an architect.
He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and later moved to London to study at the Architectural Association from which he graduated in 1979. Two years later he set up his own company, followed by a workshop opening in Covent Garden. His earlier style was focusing on beating steel and producing new forms. Today the experts in his studio constantly seek to innovate and evolve using different materials like heavy metal and extruded plastic. A new stream of work that his studio adopted is rapid prototyping and the process of selective laser sintering. This involves taking physical models of computer drawings which could perfect the design of components when manufactured on a large scale. Along with his commissioned architectural work, such as Yohji Yamamoto’s shop in Tokyo and the Tel Aviv opera house, comes his mass produced work in partnership with mainstream manufacturers. Today he enjoys his professor title and continues to proclaim and promote challenging forms of design, form and material.