Bruno Rey
Bruno Rey (1935-2019) was an influential Swiss industrial designer who made an international name for himself, primarily, via the eponymous Rey chair.
Born in 1935 in Brugg in the canton of Aargau Bruno Rey initially completed an apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker before in 1957 he began studying interior design at the Zurich School of Applied Arts (now the Zurich University of the Arts) in the class of Willy Guhl, a pioneer of Swiss furniture design.
After graduating in 1960 Rey gained practical experience in various architectural firms in Switzerland and abroad, including one responsible for the interior design of the InterContinental Hotel in Geneva. He completed a formative internship with interior designer Paul Sumi in Biel who deepened his interest in chair design.
In 1966 Rey co-founded the Swiss Association for Industrial Design (SID) together with Willy Guhl, Andreas Christen, Eugen Gomringer and Kurt Thut.

Swiss Designer Bruno Rey
In 1968 Bruno Rey opened his own studio for architecture and industrial design in Baden and from where he began developing furniture made of plastic and wood, particularly chair designs consisting of a few, functionally designed moulded parts. In 1971 Rey designed the legendary Rey Chair for the Dietiker company, originally known as the Model 3300. It featured an innovative, screwless connection of wood and aluminium and became the best-selling Swiss chair of all time. It was used worldwide, primarily in public spaces, and sold millions of units.
From 1970 to 1979 Rey also designed for the German furniture manufacturer Kusch+Co. From 1977 onward, he worked closely with designer Charles Polin with whom he developed, among other objects, the Quadro W chair which was introduced in 1980 and launched by Dietiker in 1989. In 1987 Rey moved his studio to Gebenstorf where he worked with Polin in a converted farmhouse. Together they developed numerous award-winning pieces of furniture for companies such as Hiller Objektmöbel, Kusch+Co, Plank GmbH, or Dietiker for whom they designed the Quadro W chair, the Patron restaurant chair, and in 1995, the XY table.
In addition to industrial design Bruno Rey also worked in architecture and interior design, designing, for example, the control room of the Mühleberg nuclear power plant. For Eternit AG he designed gardens and planters made of fibre cement.
In 2022 the Rey Collection was reissued in collaboration with Hay and Dietiker. In addition to the famous Rey chair the collection includes the Rey stool, the Rey bar stool, the Rey table and the Rey coffee table. The new edition retains the characteristic design but has been expanded to include new colours and sizes to meet today's demands.