Marcel Wanders was born in Boxtel, the Netherlands in 1963. He studied in Maastricht and Hasselt in Belgium and graduated from the School of the Arts Arnhem in 1988 with a cum laude certificate.
Wanders developped his experience in design field first in the sphere of Droog Design, than with Wanders Wonders brand, nowadays with Moooi.
He is now an independent industrial product designer operating out of Amsterdam where he has his own studio, Marcel Wanders studio.
He collaborates with the biggest European contemporary design manufacturers like Authentics, Flos, Magis, Moroso, Mandarina Duck, Salviati.
Impetuous and always enthusiastic, he creates delicate and light objects, quite as the used technology was a second nature for human race. Marcel Wanders believes it is important to learn about materials, to know what they can do, how they are produced and how they are processed: in this way he creates his project, a synthesis of handcraft and industrial technology.
During Art Basel Miami Beach, 2006, Marcel Wanders presented the Crochet Chair and his design for the Mondrian South Beach; the new Hotel-Residence of Morgans Hotel Group. In 2007 a new Villa Moda store for which he designed the interior was opened in Bahrain.
Marcel Wanders was the editor of the International Design Yearbook 2005. In the same year, together with chef Peter Lute, he established the extraordinary LUTE SUITES hospitality-concept. He also designed the interior of "Blits", a restaurant in Rotterdam and the interior of restaurant "Thor" at the Hotel on Rivington in New York. Wanders is the first and among the most important designer of Droog design.
Designs of Marcel Wanders have been selected for the most important design collections and exhibitions in the world, like the Museum of Modern Art in New York and San Francisco, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and various Droog Design exhibitions.
He was a juror for various prizes like the Rotterdam Design Prize (for which his own products were nominated several times).
Marcel Wanders has won various prizes and international awards such as:
• Awarded "Designer of the Year 2006" by Italian magazine Gioia Casa
• Awarded "Best interior professional" for Moooi, Dutch Woonawards 2006
• Winner of the Elle Decoration International Design Awards 2005 for "Carbon chair", (for Moooi)