George James Sowden (born 1942) is a British designer and product developer based in Milan.

Life and career

George Sowden was born in Leeds, England, in 1942. He studied architecture at Gloucestershire College of Art in the 1960s. In 1970, he moved to Milan, where he started working with Ettore Sottsass and Olivetti. In parallel to the industrial design work on early Olivetti computers, he was involved during the 1970s in experimental "radical" design projects which enabled him to become, in 1981, one of the co-founders of the Memphis Group, the design movement that had a significant impact on design in the eighties. In the same year, 1981, he founded his design studio, SowdenDesign, collaborating with companies such as Olivetti, Alessi, Bodum, Guzzini, Lorenz, Rancilio, Steelcase, Swatch, Segis, Memphis, IPM, Moulinex, Telecom Italia, Tefal and Pyrex. In 1991, Sowden received the Compasso d'Oro Award for design excellence for Olivetti, Fax OFX420. Works by Sowden are held by museums such as the Metropolitan Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and Cooper Hewitt in New York, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Notable works

In 2010, Sowden developed the SoftBrew coffee brewing device, which is distributed and sold throughout the world, notably in collaboration with the Danish design company HAY.