Matteo Ragni. The man, the designer and the design
Posted on September 1, 2010 by paola in All News, Top Stories
A unique designer known all over the World.
His works are also exhibited at MoMa New York, while most of his special – new – Campari glasses became a “totem object” appreciated by young art fans and gourmet of Triennale, Milano, and design.
It’s a real pleasure fot Italynewsweek to introduce you Matteo Ragni.
Your works are famous all over the world. Some of them are also exhibited at MOMA of NY. Where does a “good idea of design” come from?
An idea, a good idea, comes from a mix betweeen capability to creativity and scientific research. I’m not talking about calculation or maths: I believe that a good designer is a good investigator, a curious person who wants to go deep not only into tecniques and materials – that are very important, too - but he is able to live, observe and analyze small clues coming from ordinary life. For example, I belive that’s important observing a person pushing his supermarket trolley, or discovering or thinking about needs or desires of people. All these skills belong to a creative sensibility. This going-on-obsessive investigation leads to design ideas that often turn into products, while this everyday-life-observation leads you to a sort of creative short circuit.
A creative short circuit?
A good designer must be open to contaminate himself, creatively. Some people believe “flash engineering ” happens while you are making love or you are having a shower: they are tales! Or, it’s not good for me, yet.
Why do you think your design works can be called “good idea of design”? I mean, Boccondivino for Food Art, or Camparitivo for Triennale.
I think these are good products because are good for the situation and the business they were created for. For example: Boccondivino. It ‘s a plate made with Corian, a thermoformable and aseptic-looking translucent material. It’s an object that takes shape from a concept rather than by a formal idea. This means that its aesthetics followed a purpose that’s its function. The curl at one end of the plate, in fact, not only represents the wave of taste which arises from the table and that culminates in Divine Mouthful (the best one, the one each of us leaves last), but it helps the waiter to take away the plate, easily. But it’s also a great door sticks.
And Camparitivo?
Camparitivo was born for a specific environment, Park of the Triennale. Its game of mirrors reflects natural surroundings and multiplies relationships among people in a game of references between Real life and optical illusions. Even the chairs were born according to a relational principle rather than an aesthetic sign. The seats are humpbacked and prefer lateral forces helping socializing with guests sitting on your side. All these small issues are not shouted, but they creep: they all transform a project in a living experience, an experience I hope it has to be remembered.
Esthetics or style?
I don’t mind about style. Style is a concept that it shoudn’t belong to an ordinary product (someone could call it “design product”). I believe more in an “ethic esthetic”, in a “nice product because it’s good”, pleasant in its dimension an in its look, naturally functional but also a teller of a history, a narrative object, and, by this reason, also emotional. A perfect example is Starck’s squeezer: It’s a totem beyond its use and its lack of features such as juicer. This object is nowadays a symbol that conveys emotion, although it can be considered just an aluminum sculpture.
Coming back to your design ideas?
Moscardino for example, was right and forward: it’s a right disposable object thought for an aperitif. We noticed that one of the problems during catering’s appetizers was that some guests did not return their forks, especially silver ones. With this plastic solution the product could be used with dignity and then quietly “removed” as a souvenir of the evening. More, we could create a game of “roles” between spoon and fork into a single object, a fun and useful subject.
Do you think a “made in Italy design” exist? And, how is different?
In the relationship with companies. It’s hard to find a so strong concentration of companies and designers, especially in my area between Milan and Brianza, but also in other districts, like Triveneto or Marche.
Design is made in two, like when you make love. Magistretti was right, even if today there is a third lover: marketing. True “in-two”-design is a project and a product that stems from two people. It is a way of questioning, and that is why a designer has to let things contaminate himself, honestly, learning to be more involved, listening to those who know more, from marketing manager to workers of a warehouse, too. Studying isn’t enough: being a designer is like being an alchemists. Cooking is the same : many people can try a recipe to recreate a dish, but only few people are able too know how to draw something good and unique. So the design: the best one comes from the people and the professionalism. Design is a humanistic lesson. This is the reason why the greatest Postwar Italian architects / designers had a liberal arts education. So not only numbers and science, but a project that gave birth by a humanities’s union.
Who are the most promising characters in Italian design?
These people are those “with the call inside” and not the person aspiring to a vision made of magazines, successand money. This is not an easy job by money, but it works if you have a high ideal. The ambitious are promising, not the cocky ones.
Finally, which Italian design object do you think best represent perfection, or it’s nearby ?
Without any doubt I say the Bialetti Moka. Since over 80 years, It goes on making the best coffee in the world. It’s always fashionable even if it doesn’t follow fashion. This is the secret – Bruno Munari said: “There is nothing that goes out of fashion as fashion.” And good design never goes out of fashion!
Paola Perfetti
