Magazine Brand

The new Kartell catalogue told by Ferruccio Laviani

21 March 2023

Colors inspired by nature, icons that change their look and novelties

Focus on the object, new colors in harmony with nature and the freedom to furnish the home beyond trends: these are the three values pursued by Kartell in the new edition of its catalogue, curated by Ferruccio Laviani, Kartell Art Director and designer. The designer has an ancient and strong relationship with the company, for which he has signed many of its most iconic products over the years. Which we find in the catalogue alongside the novelties, including the Tea lamp, an expression of a conscious use of plastic and the desire to reconnect with the earth through a chromatic choice inspired by it.

What is the common thread running through the new Kartell catalogue?

We wanted to propose a vision of Kartell dedicated to the single product. The company has certainly grown a lot and has a very different offer compared to that of the past, which was proposed in previous catalogues as a set of products divided into groups dedicated to the day area, living area, dining area and so on. We wanted people not to lose focus on the fact that Kartell is a company of iconic products that have a preponderant strength and that this strength can give character to specific areas. Almost everything was rephotographed paying less attention to the various interior locations because we really wanted people to see the object detached from a context to imagine it at home.

The recurring colors are very natural and discreet, where does this choice come from?

We change over time: even when we were 18 we dressed differently. If in the 80s the colors were brighter and more shrill, today, as we are culturally speaking, we have a different attitude in relating to nature which leads us to have more natural color palettes which also refer to materials such as terracotta, earth, clays whose colors are very different from the past. Maybe in ten years we will arrive at much more acidic colors. The color chart in this catalog is linked to the moment we are living in and probably also to taste.

In the catalogue we find the iconic collections of Kartell in a totally new style. Rereading them, did any aspect emerge that had gone unnoticed at the origins?

Above all, some products have become real fixed points not only in the Kartell catalogue but in design in general. We celebrated the 20th anniversary of Louis Ghost and so did Bourgie and Anna Castelli Ferrieri’s modular units have become fixed points in international design. They have evolved, they have changed and depending on people’s lifestyle they take on different connotations, they live in different worlds and have different “dresses” according to people’s tastes. They evolve with society.

What are the values you have chosen to carry forward with this catalogue?

Even the company changes as the needs of society change, in the past we talked about how to create the “Kartell home” using the collections in the various domestic spaces. Today, however, we want to center everything on the strength of the single object and with the My Kartell concept we try to make the product better understood in the world so that people themselves can suggest a way to experience it. A bit like when on Instagram they share images of their homes with my lamps: I like to find out how everyone has interpreted them. So, the idea is to offer a catalogue free from any constraints and from possible stylistic grids to leave people free to interpret the object as they wish in their own home. When I design a product, I give a part of myself to someone else and the fact that someone buys it means that they share my taste and I find this thing very beautiful.

Among the novelties in the catalogue there is also your Tea lamp: how did this project come about and what is it inspired by?

Tea is a lamp I was very fond of, and it was for me today’s vision of what Take had been in the early 2000s, a design table lamp with several features. Tea was born as a table lamp that could be destined for a vast audience. And the research on plastic that had already begun with the Kabuki continues and allows the exploitation of a textured surface using the least amount of material possible to obtain a volume. With a color range that matches today’s taste, without moving away from plastic which for me is an even more contemporary material than it was before.