Wim Rietveld

The youngest son of architect and designer Gerrit Rietveld, Wim Rietveld (1924-1985) is considered to be one of the pioneers of Dutch Industrial design ( together with Kho Liang Ie and Friso Kramer)
After accomplishing the School for Crafts, Wim Rietveld was trained to become an instrument maker. In 1950 he started an evening course in Industrial Design at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. He combined his study with a job in his fathers’ workshop.
Being impressed by the high quality of his graduation work, Willem H. Gispen offered him a job in his company Gispen. In 1949, Wim Rietveld joined Gispen as a designer, taking over the job of W.H. Gispen, who retired from the company that year.
He introduced ‘furniture for simple interiors’, in line with the thoughts of “Good Living”. At Gispen, Rietveld mainly designed office furniture but he also sidestepped to living room lights.
From 1960-1975, Rietveld was a teacher at the Royal Academy of Arts in the Hague en from 1970-1979 at the Technical University in Delft.