Michael Young

Michael Young was born in 1966,in England. He studied furniture and product design at Kingston University from 1989 to 1992 and then worked for four years in Space, a design studio run by Tom Dixon.

In 1994 Young opened his own studio in London and a second space in the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik. He has since developed products and furniture for such manufacturers as Cappellini, Magis and Rosenthal as well as interior projects for the Astro Bar nightclub in Reykjavik and the Mandarina Duck store in Berlin as well as completing an architectural project in Taipei.

He has more recently worked from studios in Brussels and Reykjavik and has now relocated to Hong Kong. Michael creates technically rigorous,and sometimes humorous products and furniture.

When Young, was invited by Magis, the Italian plastic products manufacturer, to design outdoor furniture with a 'smile on its face', he responded with the engagingly cartoonish Yogi sofa, chair and table. At first glance Yogi looks like children’s furniture, not least because the pieces are so low on the ground. Yet this was a deliberate ploy by Young to ensure that, while children can slip on comfortably, adults will feel incongruous. "Yogi places you in a vaguely humorous predicament and forces you to relax", he says. "You can’t take yourself too seriously".

Almost all Michael Young’s designs are intended to be lighthearted yet practical. Curvily contoured and brightly coloured, his work is invariably imbued with comic book humour.