Gispen - Industrieel ontwerper W.H. Gispen (1890-1981): Een moderne eclecticus

In 1953 Gispen was forced to turn his back on his own factory, due to disagreements with the shareholders. Willem Gispen started a new company with Ru Meijer with the ingenious name KEMBO (which stands for Come First Maar Bij Ons). A period began when he made some of his best designs. In 1954, a year after KEMBO was founded, the jury of the triennial design fair Triennale in Milan decided to award its Triennial 302 chair with a prestigious design prize. The designs that Gispen made for KEMBO at a later age, i.e. after 1953, are seen as his best pieces. In 2016, these chairs are still produced by the Amsterdam office furniture manufacturer Lensvelt.
Gispen stopped designing in 1960.