Karl Springer was a German-American designer and manufacturer of luxury furniture and accessories.
His furniture had simple shapes inspired by the Art Deco style and was made of exotic and luxurious materials. He found inspiration from interior designers Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann and Jean-Michel Frank . Other influences in his work ranged from German Bauhaus to African Ashanti art . In the 1970s and 1980s, he resurrected in his furniture the materials shagreen (Asian sharkskin) and chevreau leather (goatskin), which were last popular in the 1920s and 1930s. He also used lacquered parchment, inlaid veneers, rare woods, metals and granite. Craftsmen implemented his designs all over the world. Springer traveled extensively to supervise workshops and was always looking for new ideas, forms and materials.