Interviews with Giangi Razeto

My company was started by my gran father in 1920, specializing in marine locks and windows for the big liners like REX , Michelangelo , Andrea Doria etc. Now we specialize in in marine locks and doors' accessories and our main markets are the maritime industry and the yachts and super yachts industry.
We design and make marine hardware in Italy and export worldwide

Design is art and and genius at the service of function

I specialize in door handles , sculptural jewelry, brass sculptures made out of recycled brass

The design I am mostly fond of is called Brass Tribe, one off bracelets made out of recycled handles.I personally have carved thousend of items and have ben selling them in markets all over the world.Starting from a common basic shape I have been extracting different shapes ( the tribe of ones among similars)

The first design for my company is called free go, modular multifunctional handles with interchanging grips, featuring illuminated, scented, sculpted personalized handles .I have been using several materials : wood, marble , stones, leather, corian, limnoges porcelain, diamonds, diamond dust, Murano glass, Bohemian crystal and so on ....

Brass and grinding machines are my favorite playgrounds

I feel the most creative when I approach a new challange, when I am kicked out of my comfort zone.

When I start a project I approach it from a multi disciplinar point of view; sometimes I already have he name and the marketing tools ready of an object of which I still have to give a shape.Nevertheless I mainly focus on the function and multifunctionality.

a mix of peace and anxiety

I look at the next one

If it solves problems or improves users' experience then it is a good design

Improving lives ,decreasing footprint

The design community is definitely called to change industry's habits to let people waste less and enjoy more our planet

My last solo exhibition as an artist was in Genova, hosted by Capitoll Hill , in a wonderful Palazzo dei Rolli; while the last exhibition as a designer was in Milan, Compasso d'oro , at the ADI design museum.

I take inspiration from beautiful places and the nature, I feed my curiosity and discuss my designs with common simple people, which are practical and give me the best advise.

My approach to design is functional, multi functionality is what I always try to reach.
Contaminations and multiplicity are my favorite ingredients.

I live in Italy , I have a studio in Rome and the factory in Sori, Ligurian coast.The Italian cultural and artistoic heritage is huge and I absorb it every day when i am in Rome. Sori , my home place , is a little village on the sea, my house is on the beach . The sea is my main source of of relaxation and inspiration.
I try to get the most out of of Rome and Sori , cultural heritage, personal roots and the nature

As a product designer I mainly work for my own company, I take care of the Innovation & Design Lab.I am enjoying working with other designers which I call to remix my own designs.

I have few experiences with other designers as an entrepreneur and the last one was simply magic... A short brief, a sketch and d the product was ddeliveered in 2 months... It was anotyhe antimicrobial illuminated door handle , named Oblò

It always starts with a problem to be solved....Antimicrobial handles were born during the pandemic... door handles are perfect vehicles for pathogens the spread of which were to be stopped.
In this case the choice of the material was crucial..

Artemide Meta Color Lamp; Kartell chairs La Marie; Slide Venus Lamp; my grand parents side table; my father's in Law Chippendale dining table

morning:Wake up, coffee, bring my son to school, work ( email and computer stuff; Crossfit class; very light lunch
afternoon : work either sketching , computer or sculptural.
evening:A glass of whine ( or 2) cooking for my family listening to music , dining .

Study , learn the way , forget it and design your way

Positive : flow of creativity
Negative: if the design does not generate sales

Solve problems

creativity, multidisciplinarity, curiosity

Sketch book , grinding machines.：

I always try to work on sketches and phisical models during the day.... My imagination and brain works full time , a lot during the night....

It's a totally different story every time....
I mainly design door handles for my company , sometimes I have tio design what the market asks, sometimes I try to anticipate a need or a trend....this take longer.

Do you have door handles at home? (lol)

Working for The University as a Social researcher, studying the club cultures and being a DJ 's car driver ( Roby J )

mainly my company whose clients are shipyards ( Cruise ships, Boatds, Yachts and Super Yachts)

In this moment I am the creative director of a start up ; my task is to design a platform to put together community whose variables are time and senses.I am enjoying it quite a bit as this time my creative flow has nothing to do a specific product

Being a full time artist, a sculptor.

I always need someone to make a fair copy of my design.I have a team I have been working with for the last 22 years to which I owe a lot.

In this moment I am designing and making functional jewels for a record label.It is about one off pendants made in limited edition, with a tribal flavor. The will be gifted to estimated artists.

Linked in or Instagram @giangirazeto

No , all was covered

Traffic lights are worldwide used to indicate free access or not...Fire doors are the most useful tools when it comes to compartmentalize fire zones and avoid fire and smoke invade the rest of the environment.Green equals go; Red equals stop, Easy?No! Researches have demonstrated that the human brain does not work this way; in case of fire/ panic and in front of a decision to be taken (one door or another) your brain will tell you: go back! No matter the color of the traffic light, and 99 times on 100 you will die…The same way cruise ship passengers will not follow the color suggestion (green or red) and will go back to the fire zones ... The good news is: human brain recognizes authority in case of panic. An even untrained person in a uniform will be definitely trusted and help passengers save their lives during a fire by indicating a green door handle as a safe way out or a red one as a bad one.As we learnt, the uniform would be the key to let people remark the color of light, no matter who wears it.

The engineering of the power and data transfer system took a lot of efforts and tests due to the need to ensure strong connections in critical conditions. We divided the design process in different steps-Engineering of the power and data transfer system from the frame to the door throughout the lock.Each system , fire door or cabin door , needed different isolating materials according to the performance over all as far as the fire door was concerned. -Engineering of the power and data transfer throughout the spindle. In this case the study of the isolating part et the edges of the spindle for the fire door lock was crucial in order to guarantee no gas, smoke or fire could be transferred to the other side of the door. -Engineering of the door handles and the technical capsules containing the electronics and LED’s, taking in account that all contacts , isolation materials and electronics could resist to vibrations, heat and all hazard variables. We have tested all components with cyclic tests and cyclic tests of the whole system assembled .As far as the fire door was concerned we have performed fire tests in house and at Rina , Registro Navale italiano.Tests were positive and the the system was certificated. The antimicrobial system was found with laboratory tests at the Universities of Genova, Siena and Modena e Reggio; and was certified at Rina.

I have always been thinking of doorhandles as the perfect vehicles for bacteria, for example on public transports, and in 2008 have designed an illuminated door handle using UV B rays. The system was perfectly working and was tested at the Microbiology Labs of University of Genova. But UV rays were released in the environment and caused risks to skin and retina… For this reason, we decided to quit the project…In December 19, I was just back from Shanghai and have been invited by my ebonist friends in Umbria to check their new technology designed to kill bacteria and keep the smell of new to their furniture.We decided to join forces and I was allowed to use this technology on door handles in order to offer the anti-bacterial ones. Few months later the world was locked down…It’s been like being the right person in the right place in the right moment, what I call luck in a very sad moment.So, we started investigating the antiviral properties of Esi.But all laboratories were over loaded of work and no one could help.I had connections at the Modena and Reggio University, Dipartimento di Ingegneria della Materia e dell’Ambiente, as I had been involved in an old project related to recycled glass materials. I have contacted the team leader which was so smart to understand the great opportunity of the (at that time called) “esi anti-bacterial system “ and has carried on the research in the months to come to discover the antiviral and anti-fungal properties of Esi which became “Esi anti-microbial system”.This of course have generated new studies and tests.

I designed the double lever handle on a stylistic idea of my wife Alessia (she’s the first person I talk with when I start a new project). The idea to grab the handle while crawling on the ground, where oxygen is during a fire- smoke eventuality, was superb.We made the first samples (and all the marketing) to discover that such lever was not working at all, keeping the door closed instead of opening it a disaster. We were lucky enough to find it out in time and change the shape from a sort of reverse C to a half reverse C, led’s strategically placed to be seen from any angles.But our main industry is the Maritime industry and decision makers are quite conservative, they did not like such innovative shape and have “suggested” to change it into a more “traditional” L shaped design. At the end of the day, I have to admit it was a good idea; the new L shaped design is even more functional and now can house many more RGB Led’s on the front of each handle and the light now may be seen from any angles in the smoke.

Different variants come from different applications. As said, our main industries are the maritime - marine ones and cruise ships, work boats, yachts and super yachts are our favorite play grounds.The stand-alone one is the most cost effective and has applications on cruise ships’ cabin doors (or hotels’ room doors). It just needs a cable to the technical room (close to the door). It can give management information, alarm information or be used during power failure.The wired one is the most useful and is designed with special consideration to fire doors. All doors are connected and take information from the fire detection system to address passengers to safe escape routes… Low Location Lights, rarely address to safe escape routes and even directional LLL’s illuminate all the path but the door. Our illuminated handles fill this technical gap.The wi-fi ones were born to simulate the above-mentioned situations, we were using a special application during trade shows to explain the system. Once we had the technology we decided to offer this version, to the superyacht industry in order to have our system be integrated with demotic systems. We have finally found out that onboard vessels the preferred solution remains the cabled system which is still seen as more reliable.

I see great opportunities when it comes to large masses of people (in the so called “luoghi non luoghi”), such as airports, common spaces, or any modern building where large communities are closed together (i.e. cruise ships – resorts) and where the spread of pathogens is to be avoided and safety is to be the priority in the event of a hazard.This technology can certainly help and grow with new technologies; A.I. may be used to add lots of extra applications i.e. to signal the presence of people in certain areas during a fire.Currently many fire men lose their lives looking for someone in the smoke -fire who is probably not even there.

As mentioned, I have always embraced a functional approach to my design; innovation lurks in function. The innovative form of the first releases of the OSSH design have demonstrated to be 2 failures and brought me to design a new handle which was more likely to look like a common door handle. The new design is more linear and more functional.These experiences deeply transformed my future product development, my designs now tend to be less shocking and more practical. Aging helped as well .

Multiple technologies yes, but we learnt to spread them around .The main brain of each door is housed in a junction box (JB), hidden in the ceiling, over the door. All junction boxes are wired together with our proprietary Ossh Bus and interact with all the systems on board through our proprietary OSSH software.From the JB we bring power to each frame of the door with a wire, and thanks to our cable free system to the lock and to the handles where technical capsules and LED’s are housed .This cable free power and data transfer is object of 3 different patents.

My advice is, see how things should be done, then forget it and do it your way.Always discuss your ideas with common people, the simpler the better, and make a treasure of their advice. A lot of mistakes will arise even if you will be sure the system is perfect, take them as a blessing.