Massimo Morozzi

Massimo Morozzi (1941-2014) was an important Italian designer, remembered both as a great protagonist of the radical design season, thanks to his youthful experience in the Archizoom Associati studio, and as an appreciated professional with several prestigious collaborations, including the art direction of the Tuscan brand Edra, which has become, thanks to him, one of the undisputed protagonists of the international design system. Massimo Morozzi took his first steps in his native Florence as a founding member of the Archizoom Associati studio together with Andrea Branzi, Paolo Deganello and Gilberto Corretti, together with whom he distinguished himself for his fervent intellectual activity aimed at contesting the predominance of modernist functionalism, which at the time was considered an inviolable dogma by designers. Tireless animators of exhibitions, conferences and other activities, the “terrible boys” of Archizoom planted a seed destined to be collected by many established professionals and which would change the course of the history of Italian design. Their works in the furniture field were produced in those years by the Poltronova brand. Having separated from his companions in 1972, Morozzi moved to Milan and took over the management of the Centro Design Montefibre, dealing with fabrics within the perimeter of the large Montedison group. This experience, which ended in 1977, left a legacy in 1979 of a Compasso d’Oro for the application of the “Fibermatching 25” color system. Having then become a partner in the CDM studio (Consulenti Design Milano), he moved on to deal mainly with graphic design and coordinated image for large groups. In the 1980s he returned to product design, collaborating with large companies such as Cassina, Alessi, Fiam, Driade and Giorgetti: all of his numerous creations, strongly linked to the style of those years, have now however left the collection. Even more fruitful is the collaboration with the Mazzei family, Tuscan artisans who appointed him art director of the new Edra brand in 1987. For Edra he will take care of image, communication and the projects of many sofas, infused by him with the creative and iconoclastic spirit inherited from Radical Design, but also of the award-winning Paesaggio Italiano container system with the versatile function of wardrobe, partition and bookcase. His wife Cristina Morozzi was also, in another role, one of the great protagonists of Italian design: a famous journalist, she directed the magazine “Modo” for a long time and was a leading signature for magazines such as “AD” and “Interni”.