His career as a product and furniture designer began in 1963, and from 1963 to 1991 he was chief design consultant for Olivetti. For many years he designed furnishing products and systems for B&B Italia and Cassina, TV sets for Brionvega, and hi-fi systems, headphones and electric organs for Yamaha.
For five years he worked as an automobile design consultant with Renault.
In 1972 he was commissioned to design and build the prototype of the Kar-a-Sutra mobile environment for the exhibition “Italy: the New Domestic Landscape” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
He has also designed for Fiat and Lancia (notably the interior of the 1980 Lancia Trevi), lamps for Artemide, Erco and Flos, and office furniture for Vitra.
Other firms for whom he has designed and/or continues to design products include (in Italy) Acerbis, Bras, Driade, Candy, Castilia, Flou, Kartell, Marcatrè, Meritalia, Natuzzi and Poltrona Frau; (in Belgium) Ideal Standard; (in Germany) Lamy and Rosenthal; (in Japan) Fuji and Zojirushi; and (in the USA) Heller.
His early international success grew rapidly during the first two decades, especially in the design sector, and reached its peak in 1987 with a personal retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art of New York. At the time the museum already included 25 of his works in its Permanent Collection, including a remarkable set of Olivetti machines as well as the furniture for B&B and Cassina – such as the famous “Cab” chair – and the innovative office chairs designed for Vitra.
Furthermore, he designed for B&B Italia the Camaleonda System, one of the first examples of a modular sofa. This sofa can be assembled in the best way to fit a room.[4]
MBA’s headquarters of 1,500 square metres in Milan were designed by Mario Bellini himself in the early 1990s, and today an average of 30 to 35 architects.
In 1999, MBA obtained ISO 9001 quality certification.
