Michele De Lucchi started studying architecture at Padua University, switching to Florence University, where he took his diploma in 1975. In 1978 Michele De Lucchi went to Milan to work for Kartell as a designer at Centrokappa, the proprietary Kartell design studio. After meeting the designer Ettore Sottsass, Michele De Lucchi joined the Studio Alchimia designers and from 1980 he belonged to Memphis, the designer group around Sottsass. Working with Giancarlo Fassina, he designed the best-selling Tolomeo range of lamps for Artemide in 1987.