Background
Antonio Vitali was born in 1909 to middle class Italian & Swiss parents.
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Antonio Vitali
Edit ProfileEducation
He studied under the well-known Swiss sculptor, Otto Münch, and at the Bauhaus-inspired Zurich School of the Applied Arts (Kunstgewerbeschule) in the late-1920s.
Career
In addition to his own workshop in Zurich, Switzerland, he also had a long relationship as toy designer with the United States. toy company, Creative Playthings. After living the Bohemian artist"s life and studying at private art academies in Paris in the 1930s, he moved back to Bern, Switzerland to enter the Swiss army. During this time, he migrated from the life of a sculptor to that of a professional photographer.
lieutenant was only in 1938 that Vitali revisited his dream of living independently as a sculptor.
As a result of a chance encounter with the owner of a workshop in Zurich, "Werkstube Zurich," He was offered a job, and in 1942, Vitali moved with his small family to Zurich. At the Werkstube, he did not earn enough money to support his family and decided to turn his hobby into a job, designing and producing toys.
Anyhow, money was a commodity lacking to a young starving sculptor. I was handy and so I started making my own toys." Although adults found his toys not realistic enough, he observed that children were completely enthralled and fascinated by his creations.
His abstract figures challenged children"s imagination.
In 1944, Vitali opened his workshop and store in the old town of Zurich at Neumarkt 4. He primarily worked with Larch wood from the Engadin area of Switzerland. His first efforts included furniture, pull ducks, wooden trains, barns and doll cradles.
After the end of the war, he formed a business relationship with Switzerlands" most important toy store, Franz Carl Weber (FCW).
The relationship with FCW eventually ended as Vitali realized that his toys sold better in toy stores and crafts stores where customers could be properly advised and were willing to pay a bit more for a high quality, hand-crafted product. As a result, he formed a business relationship with the toy specialist, Pastorini and the Swiss national crafts store, "Heimatwerk".
His strategy proved to be a success and his toys became a critical and financial success. As a result of his toys being highlighted by the Swiss artist and architect Max Bill, in the book "FORM" about contemporary design the American toy producer Creative Playthings discovered him.
The relationship with Creative Playthings opened new mass-production possibilities.
However, Vitali wanted to differentiate the beautiful yet mass-produced wooden toys from his own studio creations and suggested that the toys be called "Playforms" for the United States. market. This was in 1954.
