Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 40
Occupation: Designer.
Instagram: @marco_campardo
Hometown: Jesolo, Italy (near Venice).
Studio location: London.
Describe what you make: I’m a London-based product and furniture designer focusing on production, research, and teaching. I have a particular interest in making and material experimentation as a form of critical practice, using it to explore wider narratives about culture, materiality, identity, and authenticity. I make functional objects for everyday use, ranging from furniture to tableware.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: The Butter Stool, which was originally commissioned by Luca Lo Pinto, the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome in 2020 as a flexible seating system for the museum. It has since evolved into a bigger project called Jello, including different pieces, from chairs and tables to bookshelves.
Describe the problem your work solves: My process is very speculative and most of the time it doesn’t have a specific problem to solve. The research is driven by the curiosity for a certain material or forming process. Having said that, my work does question established systems of production, considering how we may produce things that are less industrialized and more focused on low-fi, local processes of manufacturing and consumption.
Describe the project you are working on now: Expanding the Jello collection presented during Salone del Mobile at Riviera Space in Milan. I’m trying to make larger pieces in order to better understand the limit of the rotational molding process. For Jello, I adapted this industrial process for hand-made production, so I’m currently pushing this system to include larger pieces, questioning how this system of mass production can be adapted for one-off objects.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: A seating collection for AMO, a new platform by Ambra Medda and Veronica Sommaruga. It will be presented at Fuorisalone during the Salone del Mobile in April.
What you absolutely must have in your studio: What’s really missing at the studio is music. Ridiculously, I’m not allowed to listen to music unless I use my headphones. So sad!
What you do when you’re not working: I really like to fish and I use it as a form of meditation, especially while I’m in Croatia with my family for the holidays.
Sources of creative envy: Scott Burton and Enzo Mari.
The distraction you want to eliminate: Social networks. They’re an essential tool, but also a burden in my work and daily life.
Concrete or marble? Neither.
High-rise or townhouse? Townhouse.
Remember or forget? Remember.
Aliens or ghosts? Aliens.
Dark or light? Both.
