STEFANO GIOVANNONI ― TRANSCRIPT
Design is planning our life, design is communication, design is to succeed to communicate emotion through the object. I think the object are very important because they resume our culture, resume the contents of our life, and they remain.
The most important thing is to understand how our culture creates some signs and some icons, which are related to our way of living.
So I am Stefano Giovannoni, I am an industrial designer. I studied in Florence. I was lucky because starting in Florence, I lived in a very interesting period where designers developed more research about our disciplines. So in Florence there was a very strong radical movement,
and the radical movement has been very important for our culture in the 70s and the 80s because belonging to this movement were very important master of Italian design like Ettore Sottsass or Alessandro Mendini or many other like Andrea Branzi, Archizoom, Superstudio, there was a lot of interesting new ideas and this kind of people try to reinvent our discipline.
We were called by Alessandro Mendini. And he said, "I want you to present, to introduce yourself to Alberto Alessi," and after a few days, Alessi, the company, asked us to fix a meeting with Alberto. Alberto is a person which is very sensitive, so he is, he has a very a good nose,
he understand not only with reason, but also with the feeling that the plastic could add a new possibility to a company which was based on the core business of an elegant and expensive material like steel.
I think that design, it's related to our the historical period where we live. Consider that the 90s, was a period, very joyful in our context.
The approach of Girotondo was towards a more an approach more open to emotional product to figurative culture. So the Girotondo was the first product for this reason is very innovative which put together design and figurative culture.
The approach of Girotondo was very abstract, very conceptual; anyway so the man was, okay, the little man that the child cut on paper. But it remain, very, a little bit abstract and cool. While with plastic, we thought to push more, this emotional approach, more towards a colorful and a more consequent level.
On one side, I have people who appreciate, but on the other side we have a lot of traditional conservative designer, all the minimalist which hate this kind, this kind of approach.
I remember one time, Antonio Citterio who was one of the most successful designer in that period told me, "A lot of people hate you not only because you are successful, but because you enjoy when you work." And it was really, really, really a good compliment.