Arad's education includes attending the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design (1971-1973) and the Architectural Association in London (1974-1979) which has contributed greatly to the already impressive design outlook that Arad has.
Ron Arad's career as a designer was kick-started with the design of The Rover Chair, a piece he made from two already produced items; a rover 2000 seat from a scrap yard and Kee-Klamp scaffolding. This chair brought Arad new found acknowledgement and has appeared on BBC Television's Top Gear. The chair of this design, the leather seat from a Rover P6(also known as a Rover 2000) cost around £5-£15 from scrapyards around the country, and the finished designs were sold for £99 each in 1981. The original Rover chair's made by Arad's One Off company have been auctioned by Christies, Bonhams, Bonhams & Butterfield and Goteborgs Auktionsverk. The chairs were produced by Arad's One Off until 1989. They were then produced by Vitra in 2088, in two models. I really like the idea of recycling a car chair into a chair that can be used in indoor spaces such as a living room. The whole aspect of recycling is very unique, as hardly any 'famous' designers would do such a thing due to it looking 'cheap' and 'unprofessional' however think that this design shows that, that isn't the case. Although I like the idea of recycling, and I think this chair design looks really good, I wouldn't actually buy or use this chair myself, purely to the fact of, is it clean? As the seats were found in scrapyards, there could be things wrong with the stability of the chair itself that wouldn't be easily seen.
After well known product from Ron Arad are the chandeliers that he designed for the Swarovski crystal company in 2005.
Ron Arad founded his first business- Arad Associates, with friend Caroline Thorman in 1989. This wasn't the only successful partnership in Arad's career, he has also paired with KENZO in 2008-2009 to create a perfume bottle and Bruno Asa in the designing of the Design Museum Holon in 2010.
Arad has also spent part of his career teaching, he was the head of Design Products Department at the Royal College of Art from 1997-2009, he was also elected a Royal Academician in 2013. During his brief teaching career, Arad formed Ron Arad Architects which worked alongside Arad Associates to concentrate on larger architectural commissions in 2008. Other important career milestones that Ron Arad accomplished was being awarded the Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) in 2002, followed by designing the Bauhaus Museum in Tel Aviv (2008).
Ron Arad's works are very distinctive as the are very often worked into biomorphic shapes and are usually made from steel - Arad's material of choice.
Justin McGuirk from theguardian.com thinks "we have outgrown Ron Arad" due to a London show feeling "too over-polished and out of touch". Although I agree with McGuirk's point of the show lacking imagination for Arad's usual work, I don't agree with the statement he made about Arad being "outgrown". I feel this way because whatever Arad designs, he will continue to add his own mark onto it. All successful designers must work with the current society, if they want the Rover Char made fully from steel, give them that, not the totally opposite. I feel that being a successful designer requires you to listen to what people want and I believe that that is exactly what Arad has done for this show. I also disagree with Justin McGuirk as Ron Arad's work will always be unique, he has shown this in every piece of his work thus far, and I am sure that the future will be no different.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/mar/10/designer-ron-arad
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/mar/10/designer-ron-arad
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