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Knoll Designer Bios

Emanuela Frattini Magnusson

b. Italy, 1959

The daughter of architect, designer, and Knoll collaborator Gianfrano Frattini, Emanuela Frattini Magnusson has had an illustrious design career. After receiving her master's in architecture from Politecnico di Milano, she worked for Charles Pfister’s London office and for former Knoll graphic designer Tibor Kalman in New York. Ultimately, she established her own design and architecture firm, EFM, in New York City. The accomplished firm works in architecture, industrial design, interiors, graphics, and brand identity.

Frattini Magnusson first collaborated with Knoll in 1993 to develop the Cecilia side chair, a light-weight bentwood design. In 1994 she came back to Knoll with an idea for a table system that would bring flexibility, adaptability, and power management to the training table category. Introduced as the Propeller Table System, the product has been a best seller since its introduction and was awarded the prestigious IDEA Award by Business Week.