The French, Modern and Industrial Designs of Jacques Dumond!

There have been a number of designers who made impacts on the world of design in America, who were actually from another country. Too many to list, really. And while all of these designers were extremely important both in America and abroad, there are many designers who were influential in their own country but never quite became a huge hit in America. One of those designers is Jacques Dumond.

Jacques Dumond was certainly not unknown in America, but he never reached the heights of popularity like other designers his contemporary, like Le Corbusier, Jean Prouve and more. He did design in that time period considered by many to be the Post War French Architectural and Modernist movement.

Dumond’s work is simple, yet stylistic. His tables, desks, chairs, shelves and more have very clean, straight lines, and give off an almost industrial-feel, but they always have a detail to them that makes you realize you are using a high-end furniture piece, not just some warehouse castoff. Some of pieces carry materials with quite the high gloss shine, other pieces sport unusual colors and all of them are slick and sleek.

Like many of the designers at that time, he wasn’t just all about aesthetics; he was always quite interested in functionality as well as the philosophy behind creating pieces. He always considered both the big picture and the small picture, and had a background in both architecture and cabinet-making in order to accommodate both those ideals.

Born in Paris in 1906, Jacques Dumond was surrounded by creativity from day one. His entire family was filled with craftsmen and other creative types, so he learned early on to appreciate and aspire to high levels of quality. Studying architecture and cabinetmaking in some of France’s top schools, he started his career early, and never looked back. Though coming across a Dumond piece is fairly rare in the states, it’s always a delight.