Willy Guhl was a pioneering Swiss furniture designer and one of the first industrial designers in Switzerland. Known for his Loop Chair, he worked with a mixture of cement and asbestos called Eternit, then bent the chair into its distinctive wedge-shaped loop. “At the center of my efforts, I put people and their living requirements,” said Guhl. “I want to improve their immediate environment…My products must be useful to people.” He was born on July 6, 1915 in Stein am Rhein, Switzerland, and attended the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zürich before becoming a part of the neo-functional design scene in Europe during the mid-20th century. He died on October 4, 2004 in Hemishofen, Switzerland.