After two years gaining invaluable experience he went to work for Gio Ponti in Milan, the epi-centre of European design. His roster of clients expanded to include Alessi, Artemide, B & B Italia, Kartell and Magis furniture.

In 1960 he won the prestigious Compasso d’Oro for his Tizio Lamp. Excited by the new developments in electronics he designed tv sets and the famous Grillo phone, and by 1980 he was Principal Design Consultant at IBM – where he designed some of the world’s first computers.

Sapper has fifteen permanent exhibits in the MoMA in New York. He teaches at Yale University and The Royal College of Art in London. In 2009 the German Design Council honoured him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Close.