David Kelley was graduated out of Carnegie Mellon University with an electrical engineering degree. After six months spent at Boeing designing the circuitry for the “Lavatory Occupied” sign on the 747 he decided that this was not for him, and migrated toward the Valley just as the digital revolution was confronting designers with an endless wave ofunprecedented challenges.
First he formed the Intergalactic Destruction Company; then Hovey-Kelley Design; then David Kelley Design, and finally IDEO.
No stranger to design himself, Kelley’s company created many notable tech gadgetry like the first mouse for Apple, the first Palm Treo, and the thumbs up/thumbs down button on Tivo’s remote control.
The result of Sottsass design in his house in the Silicon Valley is both original and very specific.
Sottsass created a home comprised of six pavilions with terraces, connected by a glass atrium.Each pavilion is "completely different," says Kelley. "A different shape, a different material, and a different attitude." For example, one features a barrel-vaulted home office, while a combined kitchen-living-dining room is broken up with an array of human-sized cabinets.