Richard Sapper was born in 1932 in Munich. In the early 1960s, he began to collaborate with the Italian architect Marco Zanuso, together they acted as design consultants for Brionvega for which they developed a series of televisions and radios. His clients include Alessi. Throughout his career, Sapper has remained keenly involved in academia, teaching at many universities. He has received numerous awards for his products, and his designs are represented in the permanent collections of many museums internationally. In 2012, Sapper received the Merit Cross of the Order of Merit from the President of the Federal Republic of Germany. He died on 31 December 2015.