George Sowden

George J. Sowden (born 1942 in Leeds, UK) is a designer and product developer. He studied architecture at Gloucestershire College of Art in the 1960s. He moved to Milano in 1970 where he started working with Ettore Sottsass and Olivetti. In 1981, he was one of the co-founders of the Memphis Group, the design movement that had a significant impact on design aesthetics in the eighties.

The same year he founded his design studio, SowdenDesign, and has since collaborated with numerous world-famous companies, such as Olivetti, Alessi, Bodum, Guzzini, Lorenz, Rancilio, Steelcase, Swatch, Segis, Memphis, IPM, Moulinex, Telecom Italia, Tefal and Pyrex.

George Sowden has received numerous awards including, in 1991, the prestigious ADI Compasso d'Oro Award for design excellence Olivetti, Fax OFX420.

In 2010, Sowden developed the SoftBrew coffee brewing device now distributed and sold throughout the world.