What if you tried to imagine a man that blended the sensitivity of an artist with the practicality of a technician? Like, one that knows the secret behind that broken lightbulb in the bathroom but also knows what’s the best RAL color for your new sofa’s upholstery? Sounds like too daring a dream?
Here is the good news: these men exist, and they are among us. Working as designers and gifted with this incredible mixture of talents, they seem to be able enough to make us fall like dominos.
We suggest you keep an eye on them – and the other eye, of course, on what they do.
1. Federico Peri
So elegant and at the same time so masculine, his designs include collaborations with NilufarGallery, Baxter and FontanaArte, and beam us to a rigorous art-decoish world populated by sensual floor lamps and lavish chaise longues. Federico Peri embodies formal perfection. If you know what I mean.
2. Antonio Aricò
Serving real Mediterranean vibes with Antonio Aricò, tanned by the hot sun of Southern Italy, raised on pasta and caciocavallo. Everything in his works speaks of getting lost in a maritime forest and living the bucolic life we all have, at least once, dreamed of. And in that dream life, he is cooking for you the juiciest plate of spaghetti al pomodoro while you are sunbathing on one of his fancy chiavarina chairs.
When the God of design created Carlo Massoud, he added to a certain exotic charm a little pinch of political and social commitment, just enough to make him irresistible. This Beirut-based guy is one of the more promising names in the Lebanese scene, specialized in one-offs and collectibles.
4. Roberto Sironi
Behold ladies, because behind this rough carpenter’s look lies the most refined intellectual. Roberto Sironi has been said to be the “philosopher-designer”. His deeply poetic work is rooted in anthropology and collective memory, in rituals and gestures that date back to the origin of humankind.
5. Erez Nevi Pana
This man is 100% cruelty-free; no animals were ever harmed to produce any of his designs. Erez Nevi Pana is experimenting at the frontiers of veganism and environmental activism. His salt stools grow like living organisms in the shallows of the Dead Sea, his banana fiber series organically wraps one’s body like mother earth’s own womb, reminiscing of our native bond with Nature. In one word: WILD.
What’s the most delicate, ephemeral, and poignantly beautiful matter on earth? If you answered“red wine”, you missed the point (but gained our sympathy). The answer is flowers, that is the main element in this guy’s household objects. Floating in transparent resin and reminding us that there is beauty even in decay.
Text by: Sara Bologna
