Interview with Vincenzo Carrara

Very seldom kids know what they will do once they become adults. This was the case also for me. My parents, then, motivated me exploring many different things. Thanks to them I discovered that I enjoy leveraging both my left and right brain. For pragmatic reason I did study chemistry and engineering (right brain prevailed) but during my spare time I always fueled my creative side. Over time I started investigating how to leverage both sides for a living and this is one of the reasons why I established Todd & Marlon. As owner and designer I can leverage the two sides of my being.

Design for me is about the receiver. It all starts with the person I'm designing for. I do not design for the world and I (generally) do not design for myself. I have a specific group of people in mind and I try to understand them in depth before starting the design process. This is my first priority. I then try to understand how I can offer them something unique that can delight my target group of people. My design will most likely be loved only by them and hated by many others - I never go for a democratic compromise. Finally my design should be functional otherwise there is no reason for being - it would just be art. Summarizing: people, uniqueness, functionality. All the above process is generally done on a piece of paper and written with a simple pencil. Once I do my sketches then I pass the ball to the digital and technical experts who do proper rendering and physical models prior moving to production.

It all start with excitement for the new idea. The idea that keeps you awake at night and never leave you during the day. It becomes and obsession to the point that you really need to start jotting it down. The excitement over time leave space to the lack of patience and even a bit of frustration if the the work does not proceed as fast as I wish. Finally there is a feeling a liberation and emptiness. I feel totally empty once I complete the work as all my ideas and thoughts are finally out of my mind and just in front of me. Almost exhausting.

I believe the balance between my left and right brain is what shaped me as a designer. Without a proper balance creativity leads to pure art, but design needs also some rationality to make it functional. On the other hand, too much rationality instead make the work arid and aseptic. Having had the opportunity to study engineering while nurturing creativity in other fields is what shaped me as a designer.

My path is not defined and it will not be defined. I like to evolve naturally and nurture my passions as they come. So far I did "professionally" designed only watches despite being very active from a creative perspective in other fields. In the future I might start leveraging my design skills in other fields while still working as designer for Todd & Marlon boutique watch company. I have a couple of ideas in mind and a project might start soon but it is still confidential.

Being a designer and living with it has never been easy and nowadays it is even more challenging. There are lots of designers to compete with in our flat world. A designer needs to be prepared and capable to work for long time before being able to live with his/her own work. If this is what they want then get prepared financially and psychologically for the long journey. Identify as early as possible your "unique signature" and make it loud and consistent across all your works. Broadcast as much as you can (leverage Social Media) and be very prolific. Design for a specific tribe of people and nurture them consistently over time. It will take long but if your work is good then you'll get noticed.

There is only one thing I would mention. Never make the time a "constant" of your work. Time needs to be a variable. In this kind of work we often tend to make compromises due to time deadlines. Never do that. Never make agreements based on time neither with others nor with yourself. Be free to create, destroy your creation and start again from scratch. If you get a time constraints then abandon the project - it is not worth your name on it.

I'm not a professional designer so my day is made of many other things. In generally I wake up between 5am and 6am, if I can I do some exercise or swim, then quick breakfast and by 7am / 7:30am I start working. Early moring I do the work that requires quality time for thinking and creativity because is when nobody will disturb me. Then I do work that requires interaction with others. I have no lunch break but several changes of type of work and some breaks in between. By 6pm I stop working to dedicate time to my family. Boring but effective day.

Trends are visible across multiple touch points and mediums. The more we interact with the world the more we can notice and draw the red line that brings everything together. Those design trends are important indeed but till a certain extent. Each designer needs to identify and nurture his / her unique signature. The design trend should not interfere with or compromise it.

There is no good design in general. Design is for a specific group of people. I might be the target or not. It is a bit like art. Everyone has his / her own preferences. The only difference is that design needs to be functional - hence this might be the one criteria to define a good design. If it is functional then is good then the rest is up to the target group of people to judge.

In my case it is very simple. I let my design grow in my mind till it is ready to be put on a piece of paper. Once it is on paper I sleep over it and if the morning after my mind is empty then the design is ready. This is the feeling I have once the design is ready - emptiness.

My "biggest" design work is my first one. It is the Todd & Marlon 24-hour watch design. We grow up and get used to watches based on a 12-hour system in which the hour hand makes two turns every day. This method of measuring time is not natural - the day is made of 24-hours. In fact the first watches were based on a 24-hour or 2x12-hour model and they have been abandoned over time. Only a couple of manufacturers still produce 24-hour watches. I wanted to fuel this trend and introduce something special. The Todd & Marlon in fact is a so called Double-XII watch and it is the only one readily available in commerce. I wanted this watch to clearly show the 12 daily and night hours while still being easy to read and pleasing to the eye. Combining all the above was not easy aesthetically especially considering the movement and space constraints. I'm very satisfied with the result and with the fact that this will remain in history as the Double-XII watch of the XXI century.

I'm inspired by the work of Starck, Calatrava and Alexander McQueen. The order I mention them is meant to indicate a specific evolution. I let you explore those designers so to better understand them and identify what put them together in an evolution.

The scope of the work done by Todd & Marlon is mainly philanthropic. In the website there is a specific section dedicated to it. The bulk of the revenues coming from the sales of the watches goes to companies like Emergency USA and Spark MicroGrants on a regular basis but they are also used to help with sudden catastrophes such as Mexico Earthquake (Sep 2017) or hurricanes Harvey and Irma in US (Sep 2017). We will continue with our philanthropic effort and add more donations in the future.

In fall 2015 one of my sons asked for a watch for Christmas. I took my first watch, fixed and proudly gave him as a gift. My son looked at it and told me "dad. this is your watch. I want my own watch". For this reason I established Todd & Marlon as a new luxury watch brand. In fact, Todd and Marlon are the names of my two sons who are very passionate about watches and highly involved with the development despite their young age (6 y.o. and 2 y.o. respectively).

Design is a multi-sensorial experience. It is what sets apart an object capable of bringing people into new worlds from an object that just does the job.

I'm not a professional designer, but my passion resides into the jewelry world.

Alexander McQueen designs are among my most favorite. He has been uniquely able to combine natural elements and shapes with modern, sometimes cold and for some disturbing vanguard lines.

My first design was a very functional "lock & key" element capable of letting fluid go through.

Natural and malleable materials are my favorites

I'm an early bird often awake at 4:30 and in the office around 7:00. Most of my ideas come to life during my early commute to the office.

The design needs to look familiar and recognizable yet should have some "disturbing" elements to make it unique.

It is like a waterfall getting through you. Those are the ideas that flow from your brain through your heart down to the piece of paper.

Knowing that people might touch and feel my ideas makes me feel more in touch with society

Design is the ultimate results of the fight between "thesis" and "anti-thesis". Only if the designer is capable of combining them into "synthesis" than you have a successful design.

One needs to look the design for a fraction of sec, close the eyes and analyze emotions. If there are no emotions the design is bad.

A designer as the same responsibilities as every common person. We need to preserve the environment for future generations and we need to support society.

Design is becoming over-thought. In the past people were making great design without calling it design. Nowadays people deign in order to call an object a piece of design. We are loosing the authenticity and even more with the evolution of computers, apps and similar.

I'm not a professional designer and never exhibited the work I did.

Ideas comes when you expect them the less. One just need some quality time for self. When short in creativity I need to see water. It could be a lake, a river, the sea. I need to listen to the water and I need to feel it. Then ideas will come naturally.

I love simple things and I love authentic things. I'm a down to heart and humble person. I don't have a style - I'm in search of a style.

I currently live in NYC but I come from Sicily (Italy) and my heritage affects my design without any sort of doubt. The colors of my first collection of watches are inspired by Sicily: the red of the lava from Etna, the blue of the Mediterranean, the rose of the pink of the flowers of the almond trees and the black of the volcanic landscapes like Pantelleria.

I work for myself

If you want a designer to do serious design then don't give him/her a paper brief. Just tell him/her which kind of emotions you want to generate

There is not really a process. Design comes naturally and no one has a say on it.

Work for others just the team to learn the job and then set yourself free.

Not sure as I'm not a professional designer.

create a conflict and then synthesize

do not listen to others but just to your soul

All my designs are done with a very simple tool - not really professional but very powerful for the creative people. The design #YOURTIME watches has been entirely done on powerpoint. Would you believe that?

Discipline is instrumental for time management immediately followed by the ability to say "NO". every time you say "yes" to something you are also saying "no" to something else. Understand what's most important to you and then make sure to say "yes" to that.

Design is an idea a very fast conflict. It happens in seconds. What takes time is to put it on paper and visualize it. Make it so clear that the people who will manufacture can understand and bring to life the exact idea - this is the time consuming part.

I'm not a designer so no one ask me design questions.

All designs are done by myself with hints from my sons and wife.

We have just released our first collection of watches and I'm already working on the next one but too early to reveal anything about it. I'm also working on some other categories but also this one is confidential.

info@toddandmarlon.com