The language of clay inside Italian ceramics studio Rometti

Born and raised in Umbertide, a small town “immersed in the Umbrian countryside, among woods, streams and medieval walls,” since 1927 the Italian ceramics studio Rometti has adapted and re-formed artisan practice, shaping ancient clay with bold expressiveness and opening up the studio to visiting artists from around the world.

The many faces of a design icon

The Original Ptolomeo bookshelf is a truly inventive design. Both playful and practical, it is described as a mix between “magic, art and function” and has been awarded the world’s highest accolade for design – the Compasso d’Oro.

A return to craft through the lens of Gebrüder Thonet Vienna

Drawing on the past but not getting lost in it, the Gebrüder Thonet Vienna group has a 160 year history of innovation working with the world's best designers and a palette of materials transformed through pure craftsmanship and ingenuity.

Garcia Cumini on Spokes and Foscarini

The studio of Garcia Cumini is based in Udine, a city in the northeastern corner of Italy that borders Austria and Slovenia and covers the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Like border regions across Europe, it is an area that is a blend of history and culture much like the studio that was established by Vicente Garcia Jiménez and Cinzia Cumini whose backgrounds and experiences are diverse and richly layered.

How architect Brad Swartz is transforming small spaces with big ideas

Architect Brad Swartz has received a prestigious Australian Interior Design Award (AIDA) in the category of Emerging Interior Design Practice and it’s no wonder, in the last two years his Sydney studio has won a string of accolades for inventive apartments that punch way beyond their size.

Piero Lissoni, leading by design in Milan

Italian architect, art director and designer, Piero Lissoni, has studios in Milan and New York and since the mid-1980s has worked on establishing a practice that weaves between the design of buildings, furniture, exhibitions, and graphics.

How the 1960s inspired Gaetano Pesce's famous UP Series

Launched in 1969, the same year as the moon landing, art director Enrico Trabacchi developed a sci-fi campaign for UP using typography, photography and graphics described as “somewhere between Barbarella and the Amazons from outer space”. 

Rubber ducks, shoemaking and the story of Mart

The story behind Mart can be traced back to the 1960s when furniture giant B&B Italia emerged on the scene at a time of huge social, political and technological change. It was post-war Europe and for Piero Ambrogio Busnelli, the founder of B&B Italia, that meant looking for ideas in sometimes unexpected places. A chance encounter with a rubber duck manufacturer in the UK became the catalyst for a new way to make sofas as well as the company’s trailblazing philosophy for innovation through collaboration.

The ephemeral beauty of Meshmatics

Dutch designer Rick Tegelaar is fascinated by materials, especially the ones he describes as ‘undervalued’. His award-winning Meshmatics Chandelier for Moooi takes its form from the simple beauty of chicken wire mesh, developed in a process he designed in his Arnhem studio in The Netherlands. Working with simple and often undervalued materials such as wire mesh and waste wood, Rick Tegelaar re-examines materials looking for new applications and forms, always looking for a new aesthetic and a quality that draws away from the familiar.

Celebrating life: Doshi Levien and Do-Maru

Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien draw inspiration from the cultural richness of the world, working on design projects as diverse as their furniture collections for Italian manufacturer B&B Italia, to transformative design ideas for Finnish technology group Nokia.