Design process and power with Odo Fioravanti
Odo Fioravanti studied Industrial Design in the Design Department of the Milan Polytechnic, and since 1998 has worked as an industrial designer, also crossing over into graphic and exhibition design as part of his avowedly multi-disciplinary philosophy.
In 2022 he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Presidency of the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano University, and since 2023 he has been Global Design Advisor for LG Electronics. Nexus met the Italian designer and exhibition curator at a Design Institute of Australia talk in Melbourne discussing the Created in Italy Exhibition at the LCI, and we were taken with his subtle wit, dedication to craft and open approach to cross-disciplinary design.
Odo, what role does good design play in enhancing people’s lives?
Design objects should gently blend into people’s lives, bringing some help and some smart solutions. The objects should release day-by-day beauty in small homeopathic doses. During their life with the objects, the users should discover all of the care and gentle gestures that designers have hidden in them. Things are media in which we can hide a gentle gesture or a beautiful thought as a delicate hug to be sent to an anonymous recipient. They are like a message in a bottle.
What is your philosophy when it comes to industrial design, in particular mass market products?
I try to make honest products. Clean shapes that are not connected with taste or a temporary trend. It’s about the intensity of the lines we draw, spending a lot of time with the projects and imbuing them with meaning.
Your range of clients is incredibly diverse. Do you approach each project with the same design process, or does it differ for each one?
I don’t have a real method, but rather a process based on thinking a lot about what I should do. I’m not a “sketching animal” looking for answers – I’m more about understanding the real question behind the need for a product. Most designers use the word “because,” as they are trying to provide answers and demonstrate the quality of their ideas. But most of the times the question is wrong. I just try to stay on the “why?” side and find the right questions. Bruno Munari – a famous Italian designer – used to say that the only possible process is: “First observe for a long time. Then understand deeply. Finally do it in a second.”
You were recently appointed global design advisor for LG Electronics. What does that involve and what is most exciting about the role?
Together with the Korean team of designers from the LG Design Centre, I take part
in the definition of the new product lines, discussing design choices with them very deeply. The most interesting thing is being on the edge of innovation with an incredible company that can make any idea become a mass market product distributed worldwide. It’s incredibly exciting and intense.
You were also recently nominated to be part of the Advisory Board of the Politecnico School of Design in Milan. What are the challenges that design schools will face in the future?
Today it is difficult to decide the balance between training hard skills and soft skills in the new generations of designers. The world’s first concept of a university was born in Italy, in Bologna, and traditionally our idea of a university was to teach how to think instead of how to do. But in recent history we have imported some of the more “hands on” approach from the Anglo Saxon university tradition, in particular the American tradition. Now we find ourselves facing something of an identity crisis as we attempt to fine-tune what is a very delicate balance. Like many others, we are also dealing with how education will respond to the revolution that AI is bringing into the market.
Finally, you took part in Salone del Mobile in April. What did you show?
I presented some new products, including a plastic stool and a new line of outdoor chairs and armchairs expanding a family of products called Dome for Pedrali. I also debuted a new shower for the Alpi Rubinetterie company, which involved embedding a spotlight in a recessed shower.
Learn more fioravanti.eu
Dome plastic chair Pedrali 2016 (Photo by Leo Torri), Voleé tasklight Fontana Arte 2016 (Photo by Emanuele Zamponi), Frida wooden chair Pedrali 2008 (Photo by Leo Torri), Diogene blown glass candle holder Foscarini 2012, Odo Fioravanti (Photo by Ludovico Spataro)