Alan Heller, Who Made Plastic Housewares Beautiful, Dies at 81

When, in the early ’90s, the puckish French designer Philippe Starck wanted to make a toilet brush, he turned to Mr. Heller to develop the technology for it and to make its special molds. The brush, marketed as Excalibur, for King Arthur’s sword, came in pastel shades, and when unsheathed it looked like a flower from outer space.

A lightweight, molded plastic chair designed in the late ’90s by Mario Bellini, the Italian architect and industrial designer, was another hit for Mr. Heller — and his first piece of furniture. It is an essentialist object, a chair reduced to its purest form, and economical, originally priced at under $100, in keeping with Mr. Heller’s ethos of attainable design.

When the retailer Design Within Reach opened in 1999, the Bellini chair was a featured product in its first catalog, and for years it was among the company’s best sellers. It earned Mr. Bellini a Compasso d’Oro in 2001.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/23/arts/alan-heller-dead.html