The Italian designer Carlo Nason was born in 1935 in Murano, into a family of expert glassmakers. His father, Vincenzo Nason, ran the famous glass company NasonMoretti and opened a second glass company under the name Vincenzo Nason & C in 1941. From an early age, the young Nason was trained in the art of glassblowing, learning both the properties of the material and the craft techniques used in glass moulding and decoration.
The first objects designed by Nason date from 1959 and are part of a collection of blow-moulded vases produced by V Nason & C. Today, they are housed in the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York.
Driven by his passion for design, particularly for cleanliness and geometry of form, he decided in the 1960s to distance himself from the family business, which mainly specialised in highly traditional and ornate decorative objects. Nason shifted his focus to the design of glass lighting in a modernist language.
Nason intended to produce his first models himself in small series, but soon his spirit of experimentation and innovation attracted the attention of Murano glass manufacturer A. V. Mazzega, and the company invited him to collaborate on new collections. The partnership lasted from 1965 until the 1980s and resulted in a range of iconic lighting designs still in demand today. Alongside the collaboration with A. V. Mazzega, Nason also created designs for other leading Murano glassworks, such as De Majo, i-tre, Murano Due, Vistosi, and Firme di Vetro.
He continued to create designs in the 1980s and 1990s, and also worked as a consultant for Casinos Austria, and later as a photographer. His work has been exhibited over the decades in numerous museums and art and design galleries in Paris, Milan and New York. He lives and works in Murano.