Interviewe mat Giusi Castaldo

I graduated in "Architecture. Architectural Design" at the Faculty of Architecture in Naples in 2012 and in the same year I became co-founder of the Film & Design Association “Unisono Produzioni”. I’ve started with the Design in 2013 designing, prototyping and realizing products with waste material, in specific wood. From this I’ve created "Lulù" and "Zeno" lamps and "Tquadro" tables, unique pieces made recovering materials from old wooden carpenters and abandoned wooden pieces of boats on Italian coasts, giving life to what is termed "creative recycle".

Lulù, Zeno and TQuadro have been exhibited at international design fairs such as HOMI Fiera Milano_Rho, DESIGN CIRCUS in Milan, BRERA Design District and PAN - Napoli Arts Building.

My last project, "Little Tu", table and applique lamp, made of wood and corian, was born from the will to combine light and nature, life and craft.

A project in which creativity becomes sustainable.

The emotion in thinking of creating a daily object but having its own uniqueness.

I choose to do it every day.

I love designing the relationship between things in space. Draw objects in their spaces and spaces that will be ready to welcome them. Lately, however, I also have a strong sensitivity to the design of light. Light is a very complex, fascinating phenomenon, it is invisible energy that makes things visible, spaces.

They have to love their work, to be constantly inspired, to be up to date, to be aware of what is around them, to be entrusted with the needs around them.

The best projects are the fruit of necessity.

Humility in creating from something bigger than himself.

A good design is valued by his ability to live the moment but also to last and thrill over time.

A good design that lasts longer is an aesthetically pleasing, comprehensible and therefore successful design. If successful it is certainly a good investment.

I would design for people who have a reduced ability to interact with the social environment; for those who are less autonomous in carrying out daily activities and often in disadvantaged situations in participating in social life; for those who, for economic reasons, have limited access to essential and primary goods, vital goods and social services.

The next one!

Simplicity, delicacy, poetry...

Bruno Munari, Charles and Ray Eames, Joe Colombo.

Munari's "Useless Machines". Poetry and magic for both children and adults.

"Lounge Chair" by Charles and Ray Eames. Excellent combination between cinema and design.

The first armchair and pouf, made in 1956, was a birthday present for Billy Wilder, the award-winning director.

Little Tu, because since today it’s the project that more than the others sums up the researches and the aesthetic and ethical trends carried out over these years.

Listening more to your neighbor and his needs.

Jazz singer.

Significa avere uno sguardo attento, provare a risolvere problemi in tutti gli ambiti in cui viene applicato.

“Little Tu” Artistic Director, Film Director and Co-Founder of Unisono Productions, Alessandro Falco.

Inspiration, information, research, listen to the needs of the neighbor, and a good deal of courage.

Meeting difficulties every day. Very often it also affects the place where you live, your difficulties in getting you out or just producing. Then I realized that passion goes far beyond any difficulty and every day I do everything to not lose it.

Every work has to be presented with responsibility, respect and honesty both in ourselves as designers and in regard to who is devoting our time.

A project that responds to the difficulties of social integration.

Design objects taking into account the needs.

Continue my research and experimentation to succeed in designing and designing more and more objects, with common sense, at the service of others.

Professionalism, concreteness and imagination.

At any moment, somewhere in the world, the designer designs and produces an object.

Consequently, objects, infrastructures, homes, cities, waste, and a huge amount of energy are created.

And in part it is the fault of designers and designers.

But at the same time I believe design can help people overcome these difficulties, reduce waste production, reduce energy consumption and resources.

Design, therefore, as a conscious opportunity in solving these problems, is not the cause of them.

I'm working on a new lamp with which to interact as much as possible!

Every project gave me satisfactions. "Little Tu" is the one most representing my idea of approaching to nature.

I would like companies and industries could be more open to young designers. Expectations for both negative and positive responses are too long and sparse.

I hope for a more sustainable city, where technology is only in the service of man.

Future projects should aim to improve the quality of life, without waste or excess.

It depends on the type of project, the results you want to get and how much time you have available.

I begin to give him opportunities for growth and production, trying to put it inside the company to make it part of it, through fairs, events, exhibitions.

Humility, humanity, utility.

Unfortunately, trends affect design.

Today you are completely slaves. But I think it is fundamental in some cases.

I use Sketchup and Adobe Photoshop very often.

They are elements of research and success of a good design. A good color, the right material and the environment in which it can fit, are fundamental data that define the object, giving it confidence and quality. They are an integral part of the project.

Elegance, essence and simplicity.

Why did not I think about it?

My ideal design partner is, in most cases, not a designer.

Indeed, I believe in the collaboration of several professional figures, to have different approaches to the project.

Musicians, directors, photographers and sociologists.

Some texts by Bruno Munari, Thomas Maldonado, John Maeda, Adolf Loos, Alexander Calder, Egon Schiele, Nicola Emery, Carlos Martí Aris ... and many others.

Using the art of "doing to learn" and "learning to do".

Charles and Ray Eames.

I have just started!

Green. Sea. Chips. Winter. Hands. Unisono Produzioni.

Use train tickets when I went to college as a prototype cardboard to create a mini chair for industrial design examination.

I always consumed them before arriving at their destination, risking fines every day.

I feel lucky because every day there are eyes that encourage me.

And every day I commit myself to do the same.

No! But I was hoping!

Design will change shape but will not die.

Behind every little detail in my projects there is a thought. Many times even the fruit of sleepless nights. They are not choices left to chance.

Everything lives in logic, poetics, composition and harmony.

I have always had a strong passion for art in all its forms.

Music, from a small age, helped me to understand what composition was, and during college studies, art and architecture did it. Then cinema and theater ...

With the degree in architecture in 2012 and becoming the same year co-founder of Film and Design Association Unisono Produzioni, I felt free to experiment in the design and art in general.

I don’t know if I always wanted to be a designer. I certainly know I can’t stop and I want to continue to experiment.

Unisono Produzioni is a need of free expressions modelled through more languages, with the the intent to unite and put into communication different forms of art and culture. It starts in 2010 in the suburbs of Naples and cooperates with national and international societies such as the case of the co-production for “La Strada di Raffael” by Alessandro Falco, film that gets numerous recognitions such as the Pardino d’Oro at Locarno Film Festival.

The cinema of Unisono Produzioni bases itself on sensations born from the need of a documentary vision of the reality, ready to embrace a fiction often essential. Architecture and Design of Unisono thinks to the daily and functionality of objects and spaces. In the Music of Unisono the rests have the same value of the notes.

Unisono has the objective to enlarge its own languages of expression and besides the production, it carries out Formation activity aiming to the development of an artistic conscience.

Design for me is awareness.

It means having a careful look, trying to solve problems in all areas where it is applied.

I prefer items where lighting technology is dominant.

Bruno Munari's "Useless Machines" are the most important work with which he has begun in the futuristic Milanese scene of the 1930s.

Munari creates ceiling hanging machines made of lightweight materials (eg balsa wood chopsticks, cardboard sheets painted on both sides, blown glass, elastic steel wires) free to move in space.

Each of them, without any constraints on the other elements of the machine, takes part in its rotating movement, independent of direction and speed, to the final composition that can be experienced as an ever-changing kinetic painting.

Munari used painting, sculpture, collages, lighting installations, paperwork, and technical experiments to push his artistic research beyond the boundaries.

A led lamp with wood waste materials.

With wood I have a strong affinity. But even corian has a good workability.

I feel very creative in carpentry laboratories, or in moments of personal criticality.

Form and ergonomics are the aspects I prefer in the design phase. In the ideative phase, I try to exalt the poetics of the object.

I completely extricate myself.

I'm happy!

Most of the time I move, but at the same time I have a sense of shaking due to the responsibility towards the project.

When it's innovative, useful, aesthetically attractive, comprehensible and durable over time, then it's a very successful design.

Firstly I consider its usefulness. Then its compositional design. Then its honesty.

Design has to contribute to the well-being of humans and the environment. So a good design must be responsible towards society.

New design will surely depend on technological innovations and their applications. But most importantly, design will go through a social renewal:new ways to use and design objects.

I exhibited in February 2015 at the "Design Circus" in Milan.

I hope I can exhibit "Little Tu" in Scandinavian countries, Denmark.

Inspiration comes from what surrounds me or what can be useful at that particular moment. I feed books, movies, music and often travelling.

My style is simple but not trivial. Strong attention is devoted to the compositional and structural details, so as to give elegance and essence to the object. The choice of materials that I think is fundamental to design. I often prefer gaps and not full matter.

The design must first be poetic.

I live in Naples and I am often grateful to this city for having given me a great deal of strength in knowing how to create it from nothingness, difficulties, and social disadvantages. It influences a lot in my choices, in my projects.

But sometimes I miss it. Sometimes you feel lost hope because of the slowness that surrounds you. And then I'm forced to move somewhere else to see my objects made.

Times of Companies often and reluctantly do not respect the designers. But I understand it is a bureaucratic issue.

I would like Companies and Industries could be more open to young designers. Expectations for both negative and positive responses are too long and sparse.

Everything begins with a stage of creation. Then in the artisan laboratory begins the experimentation phase of the material, structural, technical and compositive tests. Until we arrive, after countless prototypes, to the definitive project.

A polaroid. A guitar. My lamp on the bedside table. Another one on my desk. The bulb without lampshade.

Plenty of coffee, mails and news, music!

Computer work not only for drawing objects but also for carrying out the projects in the social I realize with the Unisono association I belong to. Every day I devote some hours to drawings, materials and compositions in my small workshop of carpentry. In the late evening I devote myself to music writing and composing songs.

Good design needs a good deal of courage and confidence.

You have no limitations on imagination, which can also be a bad thing.

Be honest with what I'm designing and above all about who I'm doing.

Know how to use pencil.

Pencil, one meter, small and large squares. Many colors and pens. A good computer, Sketchup, Photoshop, architecture magazines, fiction books, Hindi Zahra, Bon Iver, Miles Davis, Feist...

Organization is an important key in the design phase. You have to give rhythms and deadlines. As if I were the buyer. It is not long to make choices, plans, and organizations with the craft engineers.

The design can take a few seconds. The design and construction of the object can often last months or sometimes years. For "Little You", the whole process lasted almost a year. But sometimes it also depends on the object you want to accomplish.

What do you do in life? Can you live what you think and draw?

Design and draw "Little Tu". I have learned so many things: the relationship with suppliers, the many difficulties with companies. Encounter technical choices for its realization and material choices. Then to get it a definitive, simple, elegant design, I have to say it was very tough and responsible.

Retailers who deal with the production and distribution of my products.

I love designing the relationship between things in space. Draw objects that will relate to their spaces and spaces that will be ready to welcome them. Lately, however, I also have a strong sensitivity to the design of light. Light is a very complex, fascinating phenomenon, it is invisible energy that makes things visible, spaces.

Recently I started a new phase of deepening Lighting Design. I look forward to much study, work and experimentation.

I work alone and in team with my Association Unisono Produzioni.

An illumination!

Through Facebook Unison Produzioni; Mail info@unisonoproduzioni.com and visiting the website www.unisonoproduzioni.com

Behind every little detail there is light.