SELF-PRODUCING  Interview with Gian Franco Coltella We are young, partly we've lived it ourselves; mostly we've been told about it... A few years ago, during the notorious 80s, everything seemed easier for designers, even though very young. All (or nearly all) we needed was going to Salone del Mobile in Milan with a brief-case containing our drawings under the arm and it wasn't difficult to find a firm, even though very small, willing to produce our dreams. Today everything's more difficult: a market which is fuller and fuller, an increasing competition, the cut of goods of wide consumption greatly reduced the chances of young designers. So many of them try the way of auto-producing themselves – the precedent are renowned; among all we can cite as examples Ron Arad, Javier Mariscal, Günter Horntrich of Yellow Design. From here the idea of an interview with Gian Franco Coltella, one of the most popular young Italian designers who based his fortune just on auto-producing. With him we will try to outline some possible working scenarios for designers who are going to take up the difficult ways of the profession. Gian Franco Coltella: some auto-biographic notes... I have the diploma of the School of Art and of the Polytechnic School of Design in Milan (the first design school in Italy, founded in 1954). Two teachers, among all, have strongly influenced me: Bruno Munari and Attilio Marcolli. After that I worked as a designer in Milan for seven years in some professional offices like Gregotti Associati; De Pas, D'Urbino, Lomazzi; Olivetti; King & Miranda. For seven years I taught the subjects Basic Design and Colour (see Munari and Marcolli) in the European Institute of Design of Turin. I started the auto-production of Le Meduse, lamps or single pieces in recycled glass. The main problem for designers who choose the way of auto-producing is certainly to find markets for their work. What strategies did you choose? Markets aren't easy to find but, luckily, in my case, since I produce a high or medium high level product, the market becomes wider and wider. My product doesn't follow marketing rules but sets itself the only aim of being unique and this is probably its power. What's the importance of the ecologicall aspect for the trading of your products? The fact that the product is improving from the environment point of view doesn't interest much the consumer who buys instinctively. It has greater hold on the mass media which are happy to publish objects linked to this ecologicall tendency, creating in this way a positive return of image and selling. What advice will you give to the designers who choose the way of auto-producing? I suggest to do what I do, that is planning and carrying out simple things, trying to blend art with design, but also with technology and science, and, why not, with philosophy and religions... The material for me today is the glass, but it could be another one. To make concepts simpler in order to get to a synthesis, that's important. And blend, not mix - that's what I've always tried to do. Le Meduse Via Mortara 26 - 12037 - Saluzzo - Cuneo - Italia Tel. e Fax +39/0175249236 lemeduse@tin.it

Text by: Giuseppe Lotti I. II. III. IV. V. VI. In cooperation with: M.Angeles Fernández Alvarez Elena Granchi Sonia Morini TOP