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Sean Dix
SCMP Contributor
Sean Dix is a Hong Kong- and Milan-based interior architect designing spaces, furniture and objects. He is inspired by and writes about vintage designs, and has been collecting rare and often overlooked objects and stories for more than four decades across four continents.
From precast concrete structures to marble furniture, Italian architect Angelo Mangiarotti’s designs stretched the boundaries of sculpture.
The Shure Unidyne 55 microphone has been a favourite of musicians and public speakers since 1939 – from Elvis Presley to Metallica, and from John F. Kennedy to Martin Luther King.
Few office devices can be as desirable as the Divisumma 18, designed in 1972 by Mario Bellini for Olivetti.
Numerous myths surround the maneki neko, but one thing is certain: these wealth-magnet felines are of Japanese origin, not Chinese.
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Before Disney’s Toy Story films, the Hasbro product was the first toy advertised on television, and also the first marketed directly to kids – Baby Boomers, to be precise.
The American artist and designer believed his deceptively minimalist works would allow viewers to enjoy them in their purest form
Ercole Marelli founded the Italian company that manufactured numerous electric appliances, including the ubiquitous fan; but as Fascism took hold in Italy, he found ways to care for his employees
It could be an objet d’art now, but in the 1940s, the designers created this very functional device for the American Navy in the midst of World War II
Long the war correspondent’s trusty ally – meet the tough and portable Hermes Baby typewriter
The progressive ergonomic chair was created as an accessory to Ironrite Ironer’s automatic electric ironing machines in 1938 – long before the hand irons we use today
State-of-the-art when it came out in 1937, the Western Electric Model 302 was a ubiquitous piece of indestructible technology for nearly 50 years
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Architecture and design