Dreamworks

The traditional variation of DREAMSCAPE by Michael Graves. The formal concept with crossed handles. Like small propellers, they wait for the anchor to be raised – and invite you on a journey through your day.

Designer

Michael Graves, born 1934, studied architecture at Cincinnati and Harvard Universities, and in 1960 he was awarded a two-year scholarship for the American Academy in Rome. Graves is a professor of architecture at the University of Princeton, where he has held a teaching post since 1962.
Michael Graves’ work has had a direct influence on the shift in town planning away from abstract “Modern Architecture” and towards more traditional styles which take due account of the local environment. Graves is renowned for design which skilfully combines the mode of use for a building with its setting. Cases in point here include the Humana Building in Louisville, the Portland Building in Oregon, the Clos Pegase Winery in Napa Valley and the buildings for Walt Disney.

The name Michael Graves also stands for high-quality product design. For classical forms, rounded off by humorous details. The broad scope of objects bearing his hallmark range from salt cellars and pepper mills through buttons for dinner jackets to desktop clocks. Classics include the kitchen service in glass and steel for Alessi and the many-facetted glass eggcups for Leonardo.
His understanding of form has its origins in modern architecture. In the 1960s his perspective shifted towards the architecture of the 1920s and 1930s as a member of the “New York Five”. Then came his conversion to post-modern classicism, whereby he has always retained a keen understanding of the categories into which buildings fall and their relationship with the local environments in which they are set: “Michael Graves champions a distinctly personal vision of classicism which can even acquire ironic undertones at times”, is how his colleague, the architect Robert Stern saw it. But he was not content to leave it at this. And despite the inevitable contradictions which are part and parcel of such a successful and pioneering creative talent, he remains as full of ideas as ever, marked by humour and a continual striving for development.