Silhouette’s Legendary Eyewear Designer Gerhard Fuchs

Austrian Designer Gerhard Fuchs has legendary status amongst eyewear designers. It was he who designed Silhouette’s multi-million selling Titan Minimal Art model - first launched in 1999 and now celebrating its tenth anniversary.

Titan Minimal Art is acknowledged as one of the most significant eyewear design advances in decades and has several international design awards to prove it including the Red Dot Design Award. Its groundbreaking minimal, unobtrusive design places emphasis on the wearer’s face rather than on the eyewear itself and his design created a new style of popular ';eyewear without compromise’.

The original design has been updated over the decade and new features added to a wide range of lenses and finishes – but in essence Titan Minimal Art is the same design icon it has always been and Gerhard Fuchs continues to perfect his ';baby’.


On the occasion of the anniversary of Titan Minimal Art, Gerhard Fuchs shares his story of its development…

"In the nineties, whilst working for Silhouette, I was commissioned to create a minimalist, reduced pair of glasses. I wanted to eliminate all superfluous elements without compromising the design and wearer comfort", Gerhard’s response to the commission was to eliminate the rim, the hinges, the screws, and most of the weight, thus paving the way to the best-selling rimless eyewear of all time.

According to Gerhard, the design work was completed in a relatively short time; the first prototypes were manufactured as early as 1995. The implementation was made possible by a new titanium alloy developed by the Silhouette Research & Development department. "I forged the first spring zones of the prototypes myself with a hammer. I absolutely wanted the hingeless frame to be highly elastic and at the same time dimensionally stable. The spring zone is not only much more attractive than a hinge but also maintenance-free and more comfortable to wear".

From those first steps to this day, Gerhard’s indispensible development partners are Silhouette’s engineers, R&D, and the engineering departments. "At Silhouette, each pair of glasses – including Titan Minimal Art – is created by a team. This is the secret behind our success," says Arnold Schmied, CEO and co-owner of Silhouette.

It goes without saying that Gerhard Fuchs, who has four pairs of Titan Minimal Art glasses himself has a very special relationship with this eyewear: "To some extent, Titan Minimal Art is my child; what I really enjoy is seeing it develop into a classic, and having it getting old together with me – without ever looking old!"