Carl Gustav Magnusson is one of the most renowned industrial designers and professors in this field.
He was born in Sweden and dedicated his career to design after earning a degree in architecture. He worked with Ray and Charles Eames in Venice, later opening his own design studio in Rudolf Schindler's house in Hollywood. With Knoll he worked for thirty years as Design Director for Europe and North America.
He designed numerous commercially successful products for Knoll and MoMA (co-designed with his wife, Emanuela Frattini). He also created the pioneering Knoll Design Symposium at Cranbrook Academy of the Arts in Bloomfield Hills and in 1997 co-founded the Knoll Museum in East Greenville, Pennsylvania, which boasts the most comprehensive display of any furniture manufacturer's historical archive.
His New York studio, CGM Design, handles product development and design strategy for major furniture manufacturers and automotive manufacturers. Since 2007, CGM Design has won 23 awards, including Contract magazine's Legend Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2012.
A daughter of art, Manuela Frattini was born under the guide of her father Gianfranco Frattini. After an international background that led her to collaborate, first in London and then in New York, with famous professional studios and Italian magazines including Domus and Casa Vougue, she founded and directed EFM Design, a renowned international multidisciplinary studio operating in the fields of architecture, interior design, product design, product development and graphic design.
She was also founder and lead designer for Articolo, a collection of high-quality European-made furniture distributed exclusively through the company's website, and creative director of Spinneybeck Leather, a manufacturer of accessories and architectural products. The Museum of Modern Art in New York holds the exclusive license to sell and distribute its accessories collection in the United States.
Emanuela Frattini Magnusson has been a visiting faculty member at Parsons School of Design and the School of Architecture at Yale University.